Etymology
The name "Weald" is derived from the Old English weald, meaning "forest" (cognate of wood and German Wald). This comes from a Germanic root of the same meaning, and ultimately from Indo-European. Weald is specifically a West Saxon form; wold is the Anglian form of the word. The Middle English form of the word is wēld, and the modern spelling is a reintroduction of the Anglo-Saxon form attributed to its use by William Lambarde in his A Perambulation of Kent of 1576.
In the Anglo-Saxon period the area had the name Andredes weald, meaning "the forest of Andred", the latter derived from the Roman name of Pevensey, Anderida. The area is also referred to in Anglo-Saxon texts as Andredesleage, where the second element is another Old English word for "woodland", represented by modern Leigh.
The adjective for "weald" is "wealden".
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