Põllu (Põld)

Field, arable land (the Polish for field is pole, from which Poland also derives). This is a rather enigmatic word: EES suggests a pre- or proto-germanic source, *pelto or *felþo-, which does indeed give rise to Mod. Ger. Feld, Eng. field, etc., and German did undergo a ‘p’ to ‘f’ switch at one stage, but I find it strange that most all of Est.’s relatives have very similar cognates across the board, ranging in proximity from Votic põlto and Finn. pelto, through Ludic peld(o) and Veps põud, to the remote(ish) Olonets Karelian pelto. Further afield, if you will allow the inevitable pun, even Forest Enets, a language spoken almost 5000 km ENE away has лота (lot) for meadow, where the ‘l’ & ‘t’ could be remnants of an ur-põld root. Without going that far, I’m intrigued as to why a German word could have spread so widely, when another more local land-management term was also widely shared. Among the same usual suspects (and don’t forget that Est. has a very FWB relationship with ‘h’), Alemaa is halme in Finn., halmeh in Ol. Kar., halmeh in Lud., and haumeh in Veps. So here we go… My suggestion is an ur-põld related to põletama, to burn, and a põld to be – unlike niit (see Niidu) and nurm (see Nurme) – a field resulting from slash and burn. There: I said it. And if German were such a driving force in FU languages, why not their southern neighbors too: Latv., lauks (or tīrums) and Lith. laukas, Võru põld and nurḿ and Liv. nuŗm which latter are cognates with Est. nurm (meadow, field, lea…). Briefly (1940-1941) known as Põllumehe, farmers (sing. Põllumees). Parallel to Saha.