The term veld, sometimes anachronistically spelled veldt in
English, is a generic term used to define certain wide open
rural spaces of Southern Africa. It is used in particular to
refer to flatter areas or districts covered in grass or low
scrub, especially in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and
Namibia. A certain sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern
Africa has been officially defined as the Bushveld by the World
Wide Fund for Nature. The word veld comes from the Afrikaans
word for 'field', but a simple translation does not convey the
subtleties of the many idiomatic nuances and technical
applications of the term. A typical authoritative dictionary
will devote columns, or even pages to the subject. The
etymological origin is the old Dutch language veldt, a spelling
that the Dutch abandoned in favour of veld during the 19th
century, decades before the first Afrikaans dictionary.
Subsequent addition of the terminal "t" in the spelling "veldt"
seems to have been mainly an English confusion with the alre