Etymograph

English

holt

Holt comes from Middle English holt ‘a small piece of woodland’, from Old English holt ‘forest, wood, grove, thicket’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kald-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kald-reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hultą‘wood’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*holt‘woods, forest’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150holt‘forest, wood, grove, thicket’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘a small piece of woodland’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1612same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kald-reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hultą‘wood’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*holt‘woods, forest’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150holt‘forest, wood, grove, thicket’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘a small piece of woodland’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1612same form

Earliest quotation: 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion: “As over Holt and Heath, as thorough Frith and…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂- ‘to beat’

clerk, coup, clergy, cleric, calamity, holly, gladiator, calamitous, clematis, clade, gladiolus, 30 more

Today it means

noun A small piece of woodland or a woody hill; a copse.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *kald- / holt

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