Etymology

wasteland

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Today it means: A place with no remaining resources; a desert. Full definition →

Middle English wast lond ← Old English weste land
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromweste land“wasteland”
  2. Middle English · inherited fromwast lond
  3. English todaywasteland

Inherited from Middle English wast lond, modification of earlier weste lond, from Old English weste land (“wasteland”); equivalent to waste + land.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.