Questions tagged [old-english]
Questions dealing with Old English, i.e. the language of the Anglo-Saxons up to about 1150.
9
votes
1answer
195 views
The “prickmouse” and the “butcher's broom”
I sometime go for walks in the wood near where I live, and in the undergrowth, beneath the oaks and pines, you'll find an evergreen prickly shrub which is called pungitopo in Italian. The word is ...
7
votes
2answers
686 views
Why is the origin of “threshold” uncertain?
The Barn, Church Hall Farm, Broxted, Essex (England)
See the YouTube video
(13.40) George Clarke: The architecture of threshing barns is absolutely driven by their function. With two opposing ...
3
votes
2answers
165 views
How is 'wl-' pronounced?
How is 'wl-' pronounced at the beginning of a word?
Of course, you just don't pronounce it at all, because there is no English word that begins that way and if there were, well, that's just not ...
0
votes
0answers
29 views
No Gender Nouns [duplicate]
Why do adjectives and some nouns in English not have gender?
Is there a history beyond that?
Don't this cause some ambiguity in the language itself?
7
votes
2answers
315 views
Etymology of 'black'
I saw a news article on ABC news that made the claim that "if you go back far enough in time", the word 'black' used to mean 'white' and has the same origins as the French blanc and English bleach.
...
3
votes
1answer
49 views
Is the edh ð always curved, or can it be straight?
I'm wondering about the orthography of the old english edh ð. It is always drawn (lowercase) as a curved d with the line through it. But I'm wondering if it would be acceptable to just have it be a ...
3
votes
1answer
72 views
How homogeneous was Old English spelling?
Are varying spellings available, or was Old English rather uniform, as far as the sources show?
Variant spelling may have indicated different verbal dialects, but written dialects, involuntary eye ...
5
votes
4answers
220 views
Why do ash (trees) and ash (burnt residue) have the same name?
I've often wondered why ash (trees) and ash (burnt residue) have the same name.
I've looked up the origin of both words, but I don't see anything that explains why the names are the same.
From the ...
1
vote
0answers
33 views
Continuous(Progressive) module in Old English
I'm curious as to the origins of the Continuous(progressive) module.
Whenever I meet texts emulating old speech, like in: video game RPGs, books like the Saxon Chronicles, Hollywood movies about the ...
0
votes
1answer
62 views
Looking for a list of hapax legomena that have lost their meanings over time [closed]
These are words that have lost their meanings over time and can't be reconstructed from context, as it only appeared in that context once and not in others. I've searched with Google but came up empty....
13
votes
2answers
4k views
Scottish, English, why not *Walish?
As the title question asks, and particularly in light of the Old English word wælisc apparently used to refer to "Welsh", when, why, and how did the English adjective meaning "of or relating to Wales" ...
0
votes
2answers
113 views
What is the grammatical name of prefixing a word by “A”?
I've noticed that in English, "some words" (I don't know if it could be used on all words) could be prefixed by the letter "a" to change the meaning,
here are a few examples:
Side and Aside
...
4
votes
1answer
163 views
Where did the word “brat” in reference to a spoiled child originate?
I've heard that the etymology is unknown as the original word refers to a garment and the old English word bratt a cloak. None of these seem to point to how it came to be used derogatorily.
5
votes
2answers
629 views
Shakespeare's “say sooth” vs. “tell truth”
The noun sooth, pronounced /suːθ/, is now archaic and means ‘fact’,‘reality’ and ‘truth’. Its legacy persists in the words soothe /suːð/, and soothsayer meaning someone who sees the truth, a synonym ...
2
votes
1answer
565 views
When do I use æ?
I've always seen this letter but didn't start learning about it until 10 minutes ago. What I was wondering most was when to use it. I have found some conflicting sources about it so if anyone could ...
0
votes
2answers
210 views
Has there been any theory on the vowel /o/ that was inserted into words like “arrow”?
Words like tomorrow, sorrow, arrow, follow, borough contain /o/, as in the diphthong /oʊ/, which was /wə(n)/ in Middle English which was weakened from Old English /x/ or /ɣ/ + some sort of vowel. ...
5
votes
1answer
361 views
Is the “blue” in “blue moon” a reference to betrayal?
There are some previous questions on this site about the etymology of the phrase "blue moon" (What is the origin of the phrase "blue moon"? Any alternate phrase for it?, Why do we call some ...
1
vote
2answers
402 views
Pronunciation and syllables of pre-Modern English “belewe”?
I know the word "belewe" from traditional astronomy as a precursor to the phrase "blue moon", also known as the "betrayer" thirteenth moon in one of every three years that would disrupt a lunar ...
6
votes
2answers
237 views
Can anyone translate this text from the Wessex Gospels of 1175, please?
I would be grateful if someone could translate the following text as I am doing some research on Luke 1:35 and the various historical readings of the text in English :
for þan þt halig þe of þe ...
92
votes
3answers
10k views
How did English retain its non-Christian names of the week?
It amazes me that despite centuries of religion dominating almost every aspect of life in Britain or at the very least exerting a great deal of influence on the public and private sphere, the English ...
16
votes
3answers
2k views
Did Old English (Anglo-Saxon) use contractions?
German uses contractions a lot, including im (in+dem) and zum (zu+dem) to name a few. As an Old English learner, I wanted to know if there were any attested similarities. My research hereto has ...
26
votes
2answers
2k views
Irregular verbs: the history of the suffix “-en” used in past participles
Recently, I've been helping my home students learn the past participles of some of the irregular verbs, in a "new" way. Basically, I show that sometimes the suffix -(e)n is added to the PRESENT stem. ...
7
votes
1answer
269 views
How did “stroke” become the verb “strike” to mean “deal a blow”?
I've just been looking up the etymology of the word "strike," as in “The pedestrian was struck by a vehicle.” (I was curious about why we always seem to use "struck" in this situation).
A quick ...
10
votes
1answer
202 views
Are there any Germanic cognates to “lithe”?
When winter first begins to bite
and stones crack in the frosty night,
when pools are black and trees are bare,
’tis evil in the Wild to fare.
In this time of ...
12
votes
5answers
1k views
Crush the spearhead leek
I've often wondered why the pungent plant called garlic is a mass noun. If I look at its etymology, I see it is derived from Old English.
Old English gārlēac, from gār ‘spear’ (because the shape of ...
8
votes
2answers
744 views
Why does the past tense form of sleep have a weak suffix?
Meaning: to sleep is a strong verb in the Germanic languages. While I'm quite aware that strong vs weak anything has very little bearing on modern English, this is still something that puzzles me.
...
18
votes
2answers
1k views
Construction of “woe is me”
The expression “woe is me” (meaning) looks strange. On the surface, it seems to mean “an unhappy event is me”. Sure, it's an old idiom, undoubtedly reflecting vocabulary or grammar that is no longer ...
6
votes
1answer
649 views
When did all-caps formatting come to indicate shouting?
A question on the History stack discusses when all-caps formatting came to indicate shouting in digital text, the answer being that such formatting has been interpreted to indicate shouting long ...
3
votes
1answer
87 views
“So clean it was fallen away”… what?
This quote is from the Very Bloody History of Britain by John Farman. I have a soft spot for it as the first history book I ever read, almost twenty-five years ago.
I have always wondered what the ...
1
vote
1answer
117 views
Did Old English have /uw/?
Old English had the unstressed syllable rhyme /ij/, spelled as ⟨iġ⟩; which became the Modern English sound /i/, spelled as ⟨y⟩ (or ⟨ie⟩ in plurals). This sound was found in the suffix ⟨-iġ⟩ of "mihtiġ"...
1
vote
1answer
200 views
Mixed saying / witty remark about remarks
I need to mix
To err is human, to persist [...] is diabolical
with a joke about too much remarking.
The result should be
To err is human, to persist in remarking is diabolical.
Should I ...
1
vote
1answer
179 views
Use of 'here' for an army in Modern English
I came upon that here used to be utilised for an army (more likely enemy) in Old English (also shown in Wiktionary). The same page also shows that there is a modern form of the word as here and that ...
4
votes
3answers
3k views
What is non-borrowed English word meaning “calculate”, “compute”, “count”?
What is non-borrowed native English word meaning "calculate", "compute", "count"? What was the word for these things in Old English?
5
votes
1answer
370 views
How are double consonants pronounced in Old English (Ænȝlıſc/Eald Englisc/Anglo Saxon?)
Doubles for Alternate Sounds Per Letter -- Preface to Actual Subject:
I am aware that, with the exception of the letters ess, thorn, eth (by extension, though not historically), b (older manuscripts*)...
2
votes
1answer
260 views
What is the Old English(Ænȝlıſc/Eald Englisc/Anglo Saxon) Word for “Grammatical Case?”
I am curious as to what the Ænȝlıſc word is for "grammatical case." I remembered hearing a man say it before, but I cannot remember for sure. If I recall, he said something along the lines of "ſe Fæle,...
15
votes
1answer
1k views
What was Ꝧ (thorn with stroke through descender) used for in middle/old english?
I was doing some research online and I saw that a thorn with a slash through the ascender was a common abbreviation for "that," but the same website (wikipedia) also listed this character: "Ꝧ". What ...
1
vote
1answer
108 views
How did “like” change from a noun meaning “body” to the modern verb?
As pointed out here, saying "I like X" in old English would have to be formulated as "X pleases my body" and the word "like" would represent "body" in that sentence. But it's not clear to me how "like"...
7
votes
1answer
874 views
Did Old English have diacritics?
I was learning English, which is my second language, when I came across the methinks word. I went to google to look up its meaning and usage, when to my surprise I saw this description:
Old English ...
0
votes
0answers
35 views
the first consonants of “think” and “than” [duplicate]
think /θ/
than /ð/
As you can see,the first consonant of the two words differs.But according to the wiktionary,they are both from Proto-Germanic,and the first characters in Proto-Germanic are both ...
10
votes
2answers
977 views
What's up with “this,” in Old English(Ænȝlıſ͡ċ/Anglo Saxon‽)
I am asking two things here, about Ænȝlıſċ (Old English)
First and foremost, see this picture here:
– which was taken from this page:
QUESTION 1:
What is the difference between these two words: "...
6
votes
1answer
2k views
Sice, cinque, cater, trey, deuce, ace, and then?
The set of numbers for a six-sided die are: ace, deuce, trey, cater, cinque, sice. They originate from Old French (cf. un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six in modern French). Ace comes from Latin as, ...
3
votes
0answers
240 views
The dative case in medieval English [closed]
I speak an analytic language, Chinese, and a weakly inflected language, English. As such I'm having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around the concept of the dative case in Old English. I understand ...
4
votes
1answer
824 views
Why is therefore not written therefor?
Having just learned that in Old English the word for was written as fore, why is therefore still written as it is currently, and not as therefor?
Being a non-native English speaker, many times I ...
13
votes
1answer
2k views
What was “static electricity” known as before the discovery of electricity?
People must have dealt with static electrical discharge for thousands of years; well before they began to understand the principles of electricity.
What would a static discharge be called in early ...
1
vote
1answer
137 views
Meaning of 'to put sth. under the mind for sth.'
I found the following phrase when reading Ralph W. Emerson's The Poet:
The world being thus put under the mind for verb and noun,
the poet is he who can articulate it.
I am not entirely sure ...
3
votes
2answers
235 views
What's Old English for “petal”?
What was the Old English word for petal? (As in "rose petal".)
I've done research. And it seems the word petal is a relatively recent addition in the English language.
0
votes
1answer
391 views
Meaning and etymology of Middlesex
What is the meaning of Middlesex? I read somewhere that seax is an old English word meaning a type of Germanic knife, so was the county's original name Middleseax?
I'm looking for the etymology of ...
2
votes
1answer
1k views
Old English word for “lonely”
What Old English (and by Old English I mean the language of Anglo-Saxons, recorded in written works from VII to X century A.D.) adjective is the most appropriate to describe the feeling of loneliness ...
2
votes
1answer
316 views
is ye a subject or object or either, and can it be before or after or either?
Is Ye a subject, or an object, or either?
And would it go before a verb, or after a verb, or either?
For example
Seek Ye
A) is 'Seek Ye' valid.
B) if so, is Ye the subject, as in, you(plural) ...
1
vote
1answer
222 views
What do we call a “manuscript expert”?
Someone (in most cases an academic) who is well-rounded in the field of ancient manuscripts, with solid training in history and/or literature, one or more ancient languages, paleography, and ...
