geest

A substantivisation of Low German güst (“dry and infertile”, adjective).

geest (plural geests)

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.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of R. Jameson to this entry?)

• Teges, egest

• IPA^(key): /ɣeːst/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: geest
• Rhymes: -eːst

From Middle Dutch geest, from Old Dutch gēst, geist, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeysd-, *ǵʰisd- (“anger, agitation”). Cognate with German Geist, West Frisian geast, English ghost, Swedish gast.

geest m (plural geesten, diminutive geestje n)

1. ghost, spirit
2. mind, mental conscience
3. life force, vital energy
4. (alchemy) spirit, gas, distillate, essence

• bosgeest
• de geest is uit de fles
• geestdrift
• geestdrijver
• geestelijk
• geestig
• geestesziek
• klopgeest
• mensengeest
• plaaggeest
• veldgeest

From Middle Dutch geest, from Old Dutch *gēst, a nominalisation of an adjective that meant "dry, infertile", a derivation of Proto-Germanic *gais- (“infertile”).

Cognate to West Frisian gaast, geast (as in the Dutch/Frisian place name Gaasterland) and German Geest (which is borrowed from Low German). Other derivations of *gais- are: Old English gæsne (“infertility, poverty”), Old French gast (“waste”) and Icelandic gisinn (“dry”).[1][2]

geest m (plural geesten, diminutive geestje n)

1. heath, heathland

• geestgrond

• steeg, stege

geest

1. Alternative form of gesten (“to read poetry”)