holt
nouncommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//hɒlt//
- United Kingdom//həʊlt//
- United States//hoʊlt//
A small piece of woodland or a woody hill; a copse.
noun
- 1
A small piece of woodland or a woody hill; a copse.
As over Holt and Heath, as thorough Frith and Fell;
[the gale] 'Twould blow like this through holt and hanger.
Once, at our cottage at Dodford, a tiny thatched village under a steep holt full of foxgloves...
- 2
The lair of an animal, especially of an otter.
Etymology
From Middle English holt, from Old English holt (“forest, wood, grove, thicket; wood, timber”), from Proto-West Germanic *holt, from Proto-Germanic *hultą (“wood”), from Proto-Indo-European *kald-, *klād- (“timber, log”), perhaps corresponding to a root noun *kél(h₂)d ~ *kól(h₂)d ~ *kl̥(h₂)d- (literally “chopped (wood)”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂-, *kleh₂- (“to beat, hew, break, destroy, kill”). Cognate with Scots holt (“a wood, copse, thicket”), North Frisian holt (“wood, timber”), West Frisian hout (“timber, wood”), Dutch hout (“wood, timber”), German Holz (“wood”), Icelandic holt (“woodland, hillock”), Old Irish caill (“forest, wood, woodland”), Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos, “branch, shoot, twig”), Slovene kol (“stake”), Albanian shul (“door latch”). Doublet of hout. See also clade and cladus, possible doublets via Proto-Indo-European.
Forms
- plural
- holts
holt · A small piece of woodland or a woody hill; a copse.
Holt · A surname An English and north-west European topographic…holy · Dedicated to a religious purpose or a god.homage · A demonstration of respect, as towards a person after his or…