Weald

A weald once meant a dense forest, especially the famous great wood once stretching far beyond the ancient counties of Sussex and Kent, England, where this country of smaller woods is still called "the Weald". Now that most English forests have been cut down, the word may refer to open countryside or to the special clays found in the Weald. Weald descends via Anglo-Saxon weald = "forest" from an ancient Indo-European root meaning "forest" or "wild". It is closely related to the German Wald, Dutch woud and Old Norse völlr, all of which descend from the same Indo-European root.