English Explanatory Dictionary

geest

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A type of slightly raised landscape, with sandy and gravelly soils, that occurs in the plains of Northern Germany, the Northern Netherlands and Denmark.

Pronunciation

/ɡiːst/

Word forms

geest geests

Etymology

Borrowed from German Geest (from Low German güst (“dry, infertile”, adjective), from Middle Low German gēst (“dry, elevated”, literally “cracking, gaping, yawning”)) or Dutch geest (from Middle Dutch geest, from Old Dutch *gēst (“dry, infertile”)), in either case a substantivization of what was initially an adjective, Proto-Germanic *gais- (“infertile”), ultimately probably from *gīnan. See also German gähnen.

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