Orchard

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɔː.tʃəd/

Definitions

1. A piece of land planted with fruit trees that are cultivated for their produce
2. An area specifically designed for the growth of fruit-bearing trees intended for harvesting and consumption
3. A cultivated space where various types of fruit trees are grown primarily for the purpose of producing edible fruit

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "orchard" is that its first part has nothing to do with the Latin word for garden, despite a later mistaken link. Old English "orceard" was built from "ort", an early form of "wort" (a plant or herb), joined to "geard", meaning enclosure or yard. The result was an enclosed space for growing plants, and the word's older sense was closer to a herb garden than a field of fruit trees. Its relatives in other Germanic languages preserve this meaning, such as Swedish "örtagård", which still means herb garden. The Latin link is a case of folk etymology. Speakers, noticing the resemblance to "hortus" (garden), reshaped the word's spelling and sense in its early history, and English "yard" is itself the same root as "hortus", which makes the mix-up partly ironic. The root "ort" is thought to derive from a Proto-Germanic form "urtiz", which shows a dissimilated variant of the word for plant that also gave "wort".

Synonyms: grove, plantation, garden, farm, agriculture

Antonyms: desert, barren land, wasteland, fallow, vacant land