Anglo-Saxon words in the English language

“As an evidence of the great preponderance of Saxon in the present English language, it may be observed that while we could write entire pages and chapters without having resort to the use of a single word derived from any other language, it would be found impossible to compose a sentence of twenty words from which those of Saxon origin should be omitted”

Edward Newenham Hoare

Anglo-Saxon word	English
babbler	To babble, babbler To speak confusedly and without sense To speak like those at Babel
Angle-land (meaning the narrowness of the nook of land which Anglo-Saxons inhabited on the shores of the Baltic Sea)   Ang- or eng- signified a narrow strip	England (the Saxon king Egbert caused Britain to be called England and his subjects to be called Englishmen)
Wandel – To wander, being an unsettled wandering tribe	Vandal
Gaul, Gaulish	Wales, Welsh(G changed into W)
Saxon words relating to animals and food:
Interesting fact! Almost all words relating to agriculture and to handicraft trades, as well as the names of cattle in the field, are Saxon, while words relating to skilled warfare, as well as the names of animals when cooked and served at table, are of Norman-French origin. Saxon words: tillage (from Saxon earth-tylth), ploughing, sowing, reaping, threshing, winnowing, mowing, harvest, meadow, field, grass, hay and many others. Animals that are used for food are, when killed and cooked for table, called by their Norman-French names. This arouse from the circumstance of the Saxons rearing the live stock, while the Normans cooked and ate the animal food. Examples:
Saxon word	Norman-French word
Cow	Beef
Sheep	Mutton
Calf	Veal
Deer	Venison
Pig, hog, swine	Pork
Fowl, duck, chicken	Poultry
Exceptions having no Norman names:
Beech-tree (on the fruit of which pigs were fed to harden the flesh)	Buche or boc Bucen or becen Beechen (of or belonging to the beech)	Bacon Buckingham Bakony(extensive forest in Hungary)
	Hence came the phrase – to save one’s bacon – meaning to save one’s self from being hurt (borrowed from the care that the oppressed Saxons took to preserve their most valuable food from the marauding Norman soldiers).
Of this we have an amusing illustration by Walter Scott: - “Swine is good Saxon…and pork, I think, is good Norman-French; and so when the brute lives and is in charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by her Saxon name; but becomes a Norman, and is called pork, when she is carries to the castle hall to feast among the nobles… Alderman Ox continues to hold his Saxon epithet while under the charge of serfs and bondsmen, but becomes beef, a fiery French gallant, when he arrives before the worshipful jaws that are destined to consume hum. Calf is Saxon when he requires tendance and takes a Norman name when he becomes a matter of enjoyment”.
Saxon words relating to days of the week and months:
It is a curious fact that all the Saxon names of the days of the week are continued to be used in the English language, while, on the other hand, none of the months have retained their Saxon derivations, but are all of them called by names taken from Latin.
Sun	Sunday	Sunday
Moon	Moon-day	Monday
Tuesco (one of the founders of Saxon race)	Tuesco’s day	Tuesday
Woden (Saxon god of war)	Woden’s day	Wednesday
Thor (Jupiter)	Thor’s day (Also Thun-res-deag in some old Saxon manuscripts)	Thursday
Friga (goddess – the giver of peace and plenty)	Friga’s day	Friday
Seater (one of the Saxon chief idols)	Seater’s day Not from the Roman Saturn!	Saturday
From the Saxon names for the twelve months of the year we retain only two words:
Length month	Lent-monat (the month corresponding to our March)	Lent, Lenten
Ost (the Teutonic for east, signifying “angry”)	Oster-monat (the month corresponding to our April, during which the easterly winds prevailed), Ostern	Easter
Saxon words relating to time:
	Almonaght (a carved stick, all-moon-heed, by which Saxons took heed (regard) of every moon of the year)	Almanac
	Sdnnight	Seven nights
	Fortnight (Forienygt)	Fortnight
	Twa-night	Two night (or every second day)
Saxon words relating to manufacture and weapons of war:
Words referring to handicraft trades are almost all Saxon: builder, stone-cutter, brick-layer, cart-wright, smith, shoemaker, etc.
	Smiteth (beats)	Smith, gold-smith, silver-smith, black-smith, etc.
The weapons of war which were in use before the Norman conquest are called by words of Saxon origin: sword, shield, spear, bow, arrow. But every term relating to military science and to the army generally is of Latin or French derivation: siege, maneuvers, tactics, assault, battalion, bombardment and so forth. The words of Saxon origin prevail amongst seamen: ship, boat, stern, mast, sails, ropes, ladder, hull, dock, boatswain, starboard, aft, rigg, etc.
	Scip	Ship, skipper
	Scip-crcsft	Ship-craft
	Yeard Yerde (meaning any pole or rod)	Yard: -measure of three feet - enclosed piece of ground
	Aft	- ship’s aft - after
	Taut	Tight (rope) Taut (rope)
Sailors rig the masts, swab (wash) the decks, tug vessels, they call the progress of the ship its way, and this they reckon by knots, they stow away their goods, they row with oars, the trim the ship, they wan the yards, they speak of so many hands on board, they give a firm pull, a strong pull and a pull altogether – all Saxon words.
Saxon words relating to parts of the body
All the parts of the human body are called by Saxon names and are usually designated by words of one syllable.
Body	From bode or abode – past participle of the Saxon verb bidan – to abide. It was applied to the human body as being the abode of the soul. The Anglo-Saxons also called the body the sawol-hus – the house of the soul. Chaucer describes death: “His spirit changed house ”.
Head	From heved, or raised up, above all the members.
Eye	From a Teutonic word augyan – to point out.
Nose	From ness – prominent
Skull Shoulder	From scylan – to divide. Shoulder (originally shoulde) – where the arm separates from the body. Skull consists of several distinct pieces of bone.
Mouth	From matganto – to eat.
Jaw	Is that with which a man chaws or chews.
Ear	Derived from the verb eren – to take, to receive.
Tooth	Is that which tuggeth or toweth, as we say a steam-tug takes a vessel in tow.
Tongue	From fmngan – to speak
Hand	From hentan – to take.
Neck Knee	From nicken – to bend.
Finger	From fingan – to take; from whence comes the “fang” – the talons or tusks of an animal, by which it takes its prey.
Foot	Anciently – fet, from fettian – to carry.
Leg	From leggan – to place or support
Thigh	Thick part of the leg
Shin	The skinned bone; the word skin is derived from skinnan – to shine.
Blood	Past participle of the verb to bleed derived from the colour bledan – to blush or to grow red.
Liver	Essential to life
Lungs	From lungan – to draw (the breath)
Wrist	The joint with which we wrest o r pull off anything
Nail	From nceglian – to fasten (nails which a carpenter uses are of the same origin)
Ankle	The bone by which the foot is nankyd or hanged to the leg
Throat	From throwan – to throw
Breath	From Seand oreth – spirit
Arm	From eren – to take
Saxon words relating to animals and birds
Horse	From the Saxon word hyrsian signifying to obey
Dog	In northern dialects means not any dog, but a large hunting dog so called from tacken – to take or to catch
Cow	From the Anglo-Saxon ceowan – to ruminate or chew the cud
Cat	From the verb ge-wachen – to watch
Stag	From stigan – to stick or from steige – to raise up (from his raised and lofty head)
Wolf	Either from his yell or yelp, or from the Gothic wilwan - to ravage
Swine	Plural for sow, contracted from sowen, like kine from cowen
Birds	From the breadth of their wings; the word was anciently written bridd and is derived from brcedan – to broaden
Sparrow	From spyrrian – to search
Nightingale	Night+ galen – to sing
Hawk	In Saxon was called havoc. Havoc is a Teutonic word signifying devastation.
Raven	From reafian – to tear away
Crow Cock Owl	Owe their names to their hoarse voices, “shrill clarion” and melancholy howl.
Swan	From swimman – to swim
Snail	Diminutive of “snake” from snican – to creep (hence the term sneaking)
Worm	From werpan – to move in curved lines (from which we have warp)
Bat	With its wings expanded it resembles a boat;the boat itself is so called from being a vessel forced along the water by beating of oars, from the past participle beot – beaten.
Lobster	Called by Chaucer the loppe from the verb to leap The flea whose leaping powers are well-known was also called loppe in Anglo-Saxon
The words relating to the elements and winds
Three of the four elements – earth, fire and water – are of Saxon origin. As also the four winds – the “north” derived from an old verb, signifying to dry up and bind, as frost does; the “south” so called from a verb which signified to make warm, to boil, from which we have the word seethe; the “east” signifying stormy; and the “west” being the past participle ofwwtan, to wet; this being the rainy, as the others are the dry, warm and stormy points of the compass.
Interesting fact! The Saxons, like most of the northern nations were hard drinkers. They were not less remarkable for their hospitality than for their love of strong drink and didn’t like to see their guests, any more than themselves, leave a drop in the bottom of their very capacious tankards. Hence they called it a “carouse” when they drank all out: the word gar signifying “all” and ous meaning “out”; hence the g being changed to c, to “carouse” (anciently garousz) was to drink all out. This “carousing” tending to frequent quarrels, and many other evils, the Saxon king Edgar enacted a law, which he strictly enforced, ordering that certain marks should be made in their drinking cups at a particular height, above which they were forbidden to fill them under a heavy penalty.
“The Queen caroutes to thy fortune, Hamlet.” – Shakespeare.
It will be found that for the most part the nouns substantive and the verbs in the English language (including simple adjectives, such as great, small, young, old, good, bad …) are Saxon, while the derivatives and compound words, and generally the adjectives and adverbs, are of foreign origin, introduced either through the Norman-French or directly from the Latin or Greek. Examples:
Saxon origin	Foreign origin
Woman	Feminine
House	Domestic
Heart	Cordial
Earth	Terrestrial
Heaven	Celestial
God	Divine
Sea	Maritime
King and Queen	Royal and regal
Youth	Juvenile
Horse	Equestrian
Ship	Naval
Sailor	Mariner
Father	Paternal
Mother	Maternal
Brother	Fraternal
Boy	Puerile
Dog	Canine
Life	Vitality
Death	Mortality
Sleep	Dormitory
Book	Library
Happy	Felicity
Strong	Fortified
Weak	Debility
Anger	Irascible
Speech	Sermon
Read	Lecture
Speak	Oratorical
Light	Illumination
Old	Senility
Heavy	Ponderous
Foot	Pedestrian
Love	Amiable
Sun	Solar
Moon	Lunar
Health	Salubrious
Holy	Sanctified
Star	Astronomy
Bad	Malignity
Year	Annual

Дата добавления: 2015-07-19