Etymology

forest

for·est
F4O1R1E1S1T1

Today it means: A dense uncultivated tract of trees and undergrowth, larger than woods. Full definition →

Middle English forest ← Old French forest ← Early Medieval Latin forestis
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forest · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*furhisti“forest, fir-grove, wooded land”
  2. Early Medieval Latin · derived fromforestis
  3. Old French · derived fromforest
  4. Middle English · inherited fromforest
  5. English todayforest

Inherited from Middle English forest, from Old French forest, from Early Medieval Latin forestis. The Latin could be: * from foris (“outside”), as in forestis (silva) "(wood) outside," * or from Frankish or Proto-West Germanic *furhisti (“forest, fir-grove, wooded land”), equivalent to fir + hurst. In which case, related to Old English fyrhþe (“forested land”), Old High German forst, forsti (“forest”), Old Norse fýri (“pine forest”). Doublet of frith. Cognate with Dutch vorst (“copse, grove, woodland”), German Forst (“forest”). In this sense, mostly displaced the native Middle English wode, from Old English wudu (modern English wood) and Middle English wald, wold, wæld, from Old English wald, weald (modern English wald, weald, wold).

Forest · proper noun2

  1. Old French · derived fromforest“forest”
  2. English todayForest

French surname, from Old French forest (“forest”). Compare Laforest and Deforest. Also an English and Scottish surname, variant of Forrest and related to the above.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.