Q: German Forst 'forest'

[Larry Trask]

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This is an etymological question.

English 'forest' is, of course, borrowed from Old French,
where it goes back to Late Latin <forestis (silva)> 'outer forest',
with the first element possibly from <foris> 'outside'.

I had always assumed that German <Forst> 'forest' had the same
origin.  But, on checking, I find that things are more complicated.

Some sources agree that the German word is of the same origin
as the English one.  But other authorities, including Kluge,
give a quite different etymology.  They derive <Forst> from an
unrecorded *<forhist>, a derivative of Old High German <foraha>
'fir tree' (modern <Föhre>), with a semantic shift 'fir forest' >
'conifer forest' > 'forest'.  Davis, in his English edition of Kluge,
observes that opinion is divided on this etymology.

Just to complicate things, Middle High German had a word <forest>
'forest', which even the proponents of Kluge's etymology seem to
agree is derived from Latin and unrelated to modern <Forst>.

So, my question is this.  Is there now general agreement on the
etymology of <Forst>?  Or is the question still up in the air?

I ask because, if the Germanic etymology of <Forst> is confirmed,
then 'forest' and <Forst> constitute one of the most wonderful
chance resemblances I have ever seen -- right up there with
English 'much' and Spanish <mucho> 'much', and English 'bad' and
Persian <bad> 'bad'.


Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk

Tel: 01273-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
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