It plays a significant role in language acquisition, helping us comprehend how certain words fit within our larger vocabulary.
Generally, etymologies should be included when possible for all main entries and any lemmas that have not already been explained. Otherwise, use the origin unknown template when there is no known etymology.
Origin
The word wold derives from Old English wald, meaning wooded upland or forest. It is commonly used for hilly land in English place names like the Cotswolds and Yorkshire Wolds.
The word wold can also be used to refer to an unforested plain, grassland or moor. However, it is more frequently associated with the past tense and past participle of would.
Etymology is the study of how words come to be. This field is little-known but full of fascinating information. You can learn about etymology through reading books and online resources, or visiting your local library for a variety of dictionaries, studies, and other etymology-related materials.
Meaning
Wold etymology refers to the historical development of a term and any additional details, such as cognates in other languages or glosses.
For words which are not considered distinct lemmas, such as plural forms, inflected verb forms and case forms, an etymology is typically not provided. This applies particularly to words formed through regular rules like affixes or back-formation.
Compound words are composed of two or more smaller words but used together (such as in a website or science fiction story). Their etymologies can simply be given by definition: compound.
Alternatively, it may be beneficial to include a brief etymology for each component with its own wikilink in the headline of the entry. This will make it easier to distinguish between them and also prevent needlessly lengthy explanations that must be discussed within the entry itself.
For inherited terms, it is preferable to list their modern form in the ancestor language (if attested) and any cognate words that were also attested. For borrowed words, a list of both the original word followed by its modern inherited form in the daughter language is acceptable.
Forms
This field draws upon comparative-historical linguistics to trace back word roots from their original language back to their parent languages.
A word created from a base word by adding an affix or other rule is known as a derived word. The etymology of the derived form typically provides more insight than that of its parent word’s lemma, and should be referenced in your inflection line template for reference.
Conversely, a word formed by stripping away apparent affixes is known as being back-formed. For instance, the English word computer is an example of this; it was created by adding an “-ing” to the original word “computer.”
In addition to ancestor and borrowed forms of words, it is also possible to list cognate words in related languages – particularly inherited ones – which illustrate how an original form has evolved over time in different daughter languages. For instance, the English word they, which comes from Old Norse it, has cognates in Icelandic their, Swedish de, Danish de, Norwegian Bokmal de and Norwegian Nynorsk dei.
Usage
Initially, it sought to understand how meanings change over time, but its focus has since broadened to encompass new combinations and words created from scratch.
If your students are studying grammar or you’re searching for fun activities to do with the class, etymology is an ideal topic to teach them about word origins. Not only does this develop important problem-solving and memory skills, but it will also help them expand their vocabularies.
The word wold derives from Middle English wiht (wight), which is a doublet of Old English whit (person, creature or being). It has several related forms in Scots Wicht, Dutch Wicht, German Low German wicht and German worwolf as well as Norwegian Bokmal vette, Swedish Vaettur and Finnish vironsusi.
