geld Synonyms & Antonyms

Word Forms & Grammar

geld (countable and uncountable, plural gelds)

geld (third-person singular simple present gelds, present participle gelding, simple past and past participle gelded)

geld (third-person singular simple present gelds, present participle gelding, simple past and past participle gelded or gelt)

geld (plural gelds)

Origin of Geld

Origin 1: From Middle English geld (and reinforced by Medieval Latin geldum), both from Old English ġeld, ġield (“payment, tribute”) (which regularly yield yield), from Proto-West Germanic *geld, from Proto-Germanic *geldą (“reward, gift, money”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeldʰ- (“to pay”). Probably reinforced by gelt (which see), see Norwegian Bokmål gjeld (“debt”), Danish gæld (“debt”) (whence apparently the otherwise irregular hard g in Middle English geld and perhaps also in Medieval Latin geldum, as opposed to the regular continuation yield from Old English). Geld is also written gelt or gild, and as such found in wergild, Danegeld, etc. Doublet of yield.

Origin 2: From Middle English gelden, from Old Norse gelda (“to geld, castrate”), from Proto-Germanic *galdijaną (“to castrate”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel- (“to cut”).[1][2]

Origin 3: Cognate with Old Norse geldr (“yielding no milk, dry”), German galt, gelt (“not giving milk, barren”), Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌸𐌰 (gilþa, “sickle”).[3] Compare the archaic German Gelze (“castrated swine”) and gelzen (“to castrate”), Danish galt (“castrated boar”) (from Old Norse gǫltr (“boar, hog”), cognate with English gilt and gilde (“to geld”). "gelding" derives from Old Norse geldingr.[2]