heath

Heath comes from Middle English heth, from Old English hǣþ, meaning heath, untilled land, waste, or heather. This traces back through Proto-West Germanic *haiþi to Proto-Germanic *haiþī, and further to Proto-Indo-European *kayt-, meaning forest, wasteland, or pasture.

The word has held remarkably steady in meaning, referring since Old English times to open, uncultivated tracts of land — and by extension, the low shrubby heather that covers them.

It's cognate with Dutch heide and German Heide, both meaning heath or moorland, as well as Norwegian hei and Swedish hed. Further back, it connects to Welsh coed (forest) and Latin -cetum, seen in būcētum, a word for pastureland.