Etymology

field

F4I1E1L1D2

Today it means: A land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; an area of open country. Full definition →

Middle English feld ← Old English feld ← Proto-West Germanic *felþu
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Germanic*felþuz
  2. Proto-West Germanic*felþu
  3. Old Englishfeld
  4. Middle Englishfeld
  5. English todayfield

From Middle English feld, feeld (“field”), from Old English feld (“field”), from Proto-West Germanic *felþu (“field”), from Proto-Germanic *felþuz (“field”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“field, plain”) or *pleth₂- (“flat”) (with schwebeablaut). Cognates Cognate with Scots feld, feild (“field”), North Frisian fial, fälj (“field”), Saterland Frisian Fäild (“field”), West Frisian fjild (“field”), Dutch veld (“field”), German and Luxembourgish Feld (“field”), Vilamovian fald (“field”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk felt (“field”), Swedish fält (“field”), Finnish pelto (“field”), Asturian and Leonese platu (“plate”), Aragonese and Spanish plato (“plate”), Catalan plat (“plate”), French plat (“dish”), Galician, Mirandese, and Portuguese prato (“plate”), Italian piatto (“plate”), Latin *plattus (“flattened”), Greek πλατύς (platýs, “wide, broad”). Doublet of plate. Related also to Middle English flat (“flat”), Old English folde (“earth, land, territory”), Old English folm (“palm of the hand”). More at flat, fold. Not related to English felt.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishfeld all →

SheffieldFeltonFelthamBelfieldMakerfieldCuckfieldMorvilleBousfieldGwernaffield

Proto-Germanic*felþuz all →

veld

Proto-Indo-European*pleh₂- all →

floorpalmflagPolandplanararchipelagoflakeFlaggveldpurdahaquaplaneplanularpolynya

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.