Etymology

geest

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Today it means: A type of slightly raised landscape, with sandy and gravelly soils, that occurs in the plains of Northern Germany, the Northern Netherlands and Denmark. Full definition →

German Geest ← Low German güst ← Middle Low German gēst
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*gais-“infertile”
  2. Middle Low German · derived fromgēst“dry, elevated”
  3. Low German · derived fromgüst“dry, infertile”
  4. German · borrowed fromGeest
  5. English todaygeest

Borrowed from German Geest (from Low German güst (“dry, infertile”, adjective), from Middle Low German gēst (“dry, elevated”, literally “cracking, gaping, yawning”)) or Dutch geest (from Middle Dutch geest, from Old Dutch *gēst (“dry, infertile”)), in either case a substantivization of what was initially an adjective, Proto-Germanic *gais- (“infertile”), ultimately probably from *gīnan. See also German gähnen.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.