Other forms: orchards
An orchard is a field of fruit trees planted in rows. An apple orchard, walk through the orchard, an old orchard.
Traditional ones with big widely spaced trees are among the richest habitats in farmland, and most were grubbed out in the twentieth century for higher-yielding dwarf trees. The word is Old English and the second half is the same as yard.
1nounorchardA field of fruit trees planted in rows.
“In autumn, we picked apples in my grandfather's orchard.”
orchard is a field.
Old English ortgeard is a compound whose second half is geard, a yard or enclosure.
Proto-Germanic
*urtiz
Old English
orċeard
Middle English
orchard
English, today
orchard
From Middle English orchard, orcherd, from Old English orċeard, ortġeard, a compound of ort (probably from Proto-Germanic urtiz, a dissimilated variant of Proto-Germanic wurt- (“wort (plant)”), later incorrectly associated with unrelated hortus) + ġeard (see hortyard and yard, which ironically is etymologically linked with hortus). Cognate with Swedish örtagård (“herb garden”), Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐍂𐍄𐌹𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃 (“orchard”), Old High German orzōn (“to cultivate a field”). Equivalent to wort + yard. More at root.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA