To which 'court' does 'courtyard' refer?

courtyard (n.) 1550s, from court (n.) + yard (n.1).

Strangely, the OED forgoes the etymology. Wikipedia also is ambiguous. So please disambiguate the meaning of court? I know that court originated from the PIE root gher-¹, which produced:

Latin cohors (stem cohort‑), enclosed yard, company of soldiers, multitude.

But does court here refer to:

1. the original Latin meaning above? But then court + yard = enclosed yard + yard. So court would be redundant; yard already means it.

2. a royal court?   3. or a law court?

Solution 1:

In this case, the proper thing to do is to look at the definitions of court in the OED, and figure out which meanings were used in the 1550's and were also relevant to the word courtyard. Doing this yields (first usage 1297, and still in use in 1598):

2a. A large building or set of buildings standing in a court-yard; a large house or castle. In early times applied to a manorial house; Obs.
2b. Often in proper names of English manor-houses, e.g. Hampton Court, Tottenham Court.

So in the 16th century, a court (among other meanings) was a building or group of buildings in a courtyard, and a courtyard was the yard surrounding this court.

Solution 2:

Wiktionary says that court can refer to

(Social) Royal society.

1. The residence of a sovereign, prince, nobleman, or ether dignitary; a palace. The noblemen visited the queen in her court.
2. The collective body of persons composing the retinue of a sovereign or person high in authority; all the surroundings of a sovereign in his regal state. The queen and her court traveled to the city to welcome back the soldiers.

This is my understanding of courtyard, that it is the "yard" of the court, meaning a nobleman's home.

It also shows court and courtyard to be synonymous. I don't think the "enclosed yard + yard" thing should bother you: that kind of thing is common with many words in many languages.

Additionally, the Official English Dictionary (OED) seems to support this idea. It lists the following four main categories of definitions for court:

1. An enclosed area, a yard.
2. A princely residence, household, retinue.
3. An assembly held by the sovereign.
4. A court of judicature, of law, or of administration.

From the OED, the two earliest text quotations in the OED are from 1154 and 1175.

The earliest quotation (1154) is used to support this specific definition:

A formal assembly held by the sovereign at his residence: in early times, of his councillors and great lords, for purposes of administration; in later times to give state receptions, audience to ambassadors, and the like.

The second earliest quotation (1175) is used to support this definition:

The place where a sovereign (or other high dignitary) resides and holds state, attended by his retinue.

References:

• courtyard on Wiktionary
• court on Wiktionary
• courtyard on etymonline
• court on OED