geld

Etymology 1

From Middle English geld and reinforced by Medieval Latin geldum, both from Old English geld, ġield (“payment, tribute”), from Proto-West Germanic *geld, from Proto-Germanic *geldą (“reward, gift, money”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeldʰ- (“to pay”). Probably reinforced by gelt (which see), see Norwegian Bokmål gjeld (“debt”). Geld is also written gelt or gild, and as such found in wergild, Danegeld, etc. Cognates Cognate with North Frisian jild (“money”), Saterland Frisian Jield, Jäild (“money”), Dutch geld (“money”), German Geld (“money”), Old Norse gjald (“payment”), Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌳 (gild, “tribute”). Also related to English yield.

noun

1. (chiefly archaic, dialectal or historical) Money.
   1. (Northern England) A payment.
   2. (historical) In particular, (money paid as) a medieval form of land tax.

verb

1. (historical) To tax geld.

Etymology 2

From Middle English gelden, from Old Norse gelda (“to geld, castrate”), from geldr (“yielding no milk, dry”), cognate with Old High German galt, Proto-Germanic *galdjan (“to castrate”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel- (“to cut”). Cognate with Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌸𐌰 (gilþa, “sickle”). Compare the archaic German Gelze (“castrated swine”) and gelzen (“castrate”), Danish galt (“castrated boar”) (from Old Norse gǫltr (“boar, hog”), cognate with English gilt) and gilde (“to geld”). "gelding" derives from Old Norse geldingr.

verb

1. (transitive) To castrate a male (usually an animal).
   "Poor old Topaz," said Mrs Flanders, as he stretched himself out in the sun, and she smiled, thinking how she had had him gelded, and how she did not like red hair in men. 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room, Vintage Classics, paperback edition, pages 16–17
2. (transitive, figurative) To deprive of anything essential; to weaken.

noun

1. A female animal, such as a ewe or cow, that is not pregnant.