Notes & Queries Archive
QUERY1850

Derivation of Orchard

By H. A. B.

What is the derivation of *orchard*? Is the last syllable "yard," as in vineyard, rickyard? If so, what is "orch?" By the way, is the provincial word "hag-gard" hay-yard? [Orchard is from the Anglo-Saxon *ort geard*, or *wyrt geard*; the final syllable *gard* or *yard*, in the words cited by our correspondent, being the modern form of *the A.-S. geard*.]

Topics: Etymology, Linguistics