Wold

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

Debi wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/39625>:

<< 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. >>

<http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=wold> says:

<< wold 
    O.E. wald (Anglian), weald (W.Saxon) "forest, wooded upland," from P.Gmc. *walthuz (cf. O.S., O.Fris. wald, M.Du. wold, Du. woud, O.H.G. wald, Ger. Wald "forest," Swed. vall "pasture," O.N. völlr "soil, field, meadow"); perhaps connected to wild. 

The sense development from "forested upland" to "rolling open country" (c.1205) perhaps is from Scand. infl., or a testimony to the historical deforestation of Britain. >>

That is, the word changed from meaning a wooded place to meaning an unwooded place when the trees were chopped down.

Carol wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/39663>:

<< "The Wold" is a real place but not a river! I guess it means
"Stow-on-the-Hill" since it's in the Cotswolds. Should have looked more carefully before I posted. >>

Goddlefrood said the Wold is a river in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/39622>.