770: forest in Germanic Languages Jan 16, 2017

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Just because two or more languages belong to the same language family does not mean that they necessarily have entirely related vocabulary, just as how two languages of different families can have shared vocabulary. The English word 'forest' is related to the French, 'forêt' which is from Latin, but not the Latin word for forest, 'silva'. Instead, the word comes from the phrase, 'forestis (silva)' which meant, ‘(wood) outside’ and is related to 'foreign'. The German word for 'forest', 'Wald' is similar to that of a few other Germanic languages like West Frisian—which is generally more similar to English—and Faroese, which is generally more similar to Old Norse. This word is perhaps related to other Indo-European words for 'hair', but also 'wood' and 'field'. Moreover, the Swedish word, 'skog' is related to the that Icelandic version, and Old Norse. Lastly, another Germanic language, Dutch (and Afrikaans) has yet another word for 'forest', 'bos' which is related to 'bush' but is more closely related to the Spanish and Portuguese word, 'bosque' ultimately of Germanic origin.

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