Forest, Grove, Hanger, Holt: Origins, Forms, Histories of Words Meaning Woodland

The natural features of a region are its topography (Greek topos, "place"). One important type of topographic feature is woodland.

Woods of various kinds and sizes, as well as related natural and human-made features, have many different names. In the current alphabetic series of such terms, here are the origins, forms, and histories of forest, grove, hanger, and holt.

Forest
Modern English forest comes from Middle English forest (13th century), from Old French forest, from Late Latin forestis in the phrase forestis silva ("unenclosed woodland"), from Latin foris ("outside").

An extensive tract of land densely covered with trees and underbrush in all stages of growth and decay is a forest (13th century). The term forest also applies to the trees and shrubs themselves collectively.

In England the word forest has, in addition to the above general definitions, another, more specialized, meaning: a tract of wooded land formerly owned by the sovereign, reserved primarily for keeping and hunting game, often including inhabited areas, and having its own laws and officers (13th century).

Grove
Modern English grove comes from Middle English grove (12th century), from Old English graf (before 12th century).

A grove is a small wooded area, especially one without underbrush, either natural or planted for a purpose (9th century). The word is now used most commonly for a planting of fruit trees or nut trees.

Hanger
In England a small woods on steeply sloping land, such as a hillside, is called a hanger because it overhangs the area beneath it.

The word has an unusual history. During the Old English period, it was recorded as hangra (10th century), from the verb hangian ("to hang"). After hundreds of years of apparent disuse, the word reemerged in the 18th century as hanger, identified with hanger meaning one who, or something that, hangs.

Holt
Holt goes back to the Old English period (before 12th century). The word is akin to Old High German holz ("wood") and Greek klados ("twig").

Holt denotes a small woods (c. 1000). The word is basically synonymous with the more familiar term copse.

Today holt is used mainly as a dialectal word in England, or in poetic or historical-archaic contexts.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica Ready Reference 2004. CD-ROM. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2006.

Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2007.

The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1989.