Other forms: gelding, gelded
To geld is to remove the reproductive organs of a male animal. Geld the colt, a gelded horse, gelding the stock.
A gelded horse is a gelding, and most male horses are gelded because stallions are difficult to keep and to handle. The word is used of horses above all, where castrate is the general term. It is old and Germanic.
1verbgeldTo remove the reproductive organs of a male animal.
“The farmer decided to geld the young colt so he would be calmer to ride.”
geld is an operation.
From Old Norse gelda, to castrate, related to a Germanic root meaning barren. The noun gelding comes from the same verb.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰeldʰ- — to pay
Proto-Germanic
*geldą — reward, gift, money
Proto-West Germanic
*geld
Old English
ġeld
Middle English
geld
English, today
geld
Built from
From Middle English geld (and reinforced by Medieval Latin geldum), both from Old English ġeld, ġield (“payment, tribute”) (which regularly yield yield), 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”), Danish gæld (“debt”) (whence apparently the otherwise irregular hard g in Middle English geld and perhaps also in Medieval Latin geldum, as opposed to the regular continuation yield from Old English). Geld is also written gelt or gild, and as such found in wergild, Danegeld, etc. a doublet of yield. 2 Cognate with frr jild (“money”), stq Jield, Jäild (“money”), Dutch geld (“money”), German Geld (“money”), Old Norse gjald (“payment”), Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌳 (“tribute”). Also related to English yield.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA