The word 'garden' comes from the Old English 'geard', meaning a fence or enclosure, and from 'garth' meaning a yard or a piece of enclosed ground. The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology gives the meaning of garden as 'enclosed cultivated ground' and The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as 'an enclosed piece of ground devoted to the cultivation of flowers, fruit or vegetables'. Enclosure is essential to gardening, and this raises fundamental questions, such as who is doing the enclosing, who owns the land, and who is being kept out.
Quotes about etymology (3 Quotes)
The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.
Names, once they are in common use, quickly become mere sounds, their etymology being buried, like so many of the earth's marvels, beneath the dust of habit.