Where does “battlefield” come from?
Battlefield comes from English battle and English field, with battle from Old English batell, Old French -ier, Latin -are, and Latin -arius, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European bʰew-.
battlefield (English): The area where a land battle is or was fought,...
Definitions
- The area where a land battle is or was fought,...
Ancestry of “battlefield”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | field | A land area free of woodland, cities, and towns;... |
| 2 | Middle English | feeld | A field; The countryside; empty land that... |
| 3 | Old English | feld | field |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | felþu | field |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | felþuz | — |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | pelh₂- | to approach |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | pel- | to cover, to wrap; skin, hide, cloth; to fold |