Mould-on-the-Wold

[Debi]

Zanooda:
<snip>
> | > Can anyone tell me what "Mould-on-the-Wold" means (mostly "Mould" 
> | > :-))?


It's probably a bit of a pun on English village names - there are some strange ones out there - because "Mould" and "Wold" rhyme (at least in my southern English accent they do).

Incidentally the term "wold" means hills (Wikipedia) though according to Wikitionary is does come from the Old English word for "forest". Don't ask me why it's now come to stand for places WITHOUT a forest...God Bless English, she seems designed specifically to confuse.

It is related to the German "wald" but as Wikitionary describes it, it's a 'false friend' because "wald" still means forest and "wold" no longer does.

Many of the places - including Stow - with the name "wold" in them seem to be in ranges of hills. Stow is in the Cotswolds.