Questions tagged [old-english]
Questions dealing with Old English, i.e. the language of the Anglo-Saxons up to about 1150.
215
questions
136
votes
1
answer
16k
views
Did English ever have a word for 'yes' for negative questions?
The Germans have doch and the French have si as a word that means "yes" in response to a negative question, such as:
Don't you want some ice-cream?
Yes [I do]!
In English, we only have yes (as ...
113
votes
3
answers
15k
views
How did 7 come to be an abbreviation for 'and' in Old English?
According to A History of the English Language: Revised Edition by Elly van Gelderen, p.53, in Old English the numeral 7 was used as an abbreviation for the word and:
Abbreviations are frequently ...
96
votes
3
answers
11k
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 ...
64
votes
6
answers
24k
views
What we've gelost — why doesn't English use the prefix "ge-"?
The Germanic languages that I'm familiar with all use a prefix similar to ge- on past participles:
German: Ich habe mir den Fuß gebrochen.
Dutch: Ik heb mijn voet gebroken.
But English doesn't do ...
59
votes
9
answers
21k
views
Was "book" to "beek" as "foot" is to "feet"?
"Foot" is a curious word in English because it is pluralized in an unusual way; the "oo" in the word is changed to "ee". Did this once use to be a standard way of pluralizing things in English (or a ...
40
votes
4
answers
6k
views
Did the English call a fruit “openærs” for 700 years?
There is a small apple-tasting fruit called medlar in English. It looks like a cross between an apple and a rosehip.
It has two main curious features: first the fruit must be bletted before it can ...
35
votes
4
answers
122k
views
Why are there two pronunciations for "either"?
A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with an individual who told me that pronouncing the word "either" is wrong when pronounced like \ˈī-thər\ instead of \ˈē-thər\ , but I didn't argue the point ...
34
votes
3
answers
17k
views
Ye olde english alphabet question: Any other letters lost besides thorn, edh, and yogh?
According to this link, we are missing (in Modern English) at least three letters that used to be in common use in English. These are thorn, edh, and yogh.
Are there others that were clearly in the ...
30
votes
4
answers
6k
views
Why don’t we write poetry like Beowulf any longer?
Beowulf, the Old English epic poem, uses a characteristically Germanic style of poetry in which the number of strong beats per line is what counts. Instead of counting syllables, strong beats alone ...
28
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Irregular verbs: the history of the suffix “-en” in the past participle
Recently I've been helping my home students learn the past participles of some irregular verbs, in a "new" way. Basically, I show that sometimes the suffix -(e)n is added to the PRESENT ...
28
votes
3
answers
17k
views
What were nightmares called before "nightmare" was used in that sense?
Apparently the word "nightmare" has only been used in the sense of "bad dream" since c. 1829. Before then the term referred to the agent causing the dreams—a mare < mera, mære 'goblin, ...
27
votes
5
answers
18k
views
How and in what way did the Danes come to influence English?
I was looking for some insight into the farewell greeting ta on The Urban Dictionary just now, and came across this mostly excellent top-ranked answer (adapted slightly, emphasis mine):
A slang word ...
27
votes
3
answers
6k
views
How did "oxen" (plural of "ox") survive as the only plural form with the Old English plural ending -en?
Oxen is a rare exception in English where it is the only common English word that retains the original Old English plural ending -en. (Note: Children and brethren are formed a bit differently, please ...
26
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Send, sent; end, *ent?
The past tense of a number of verbs changes from -end to -ent:
bend → bent
lend → lent
rend → rent
send → sent
spend → spent
wend → went
However, most do not, notably end. Granted, I say “I ent up” (...
26
votes
3
answers
18k
views
Why don't English nouns have grammatical gender?
English nouns — other than those with natural gender, e.g. people or animals — do not generally have grammatical gender, and so are referred to as 'it' rather than 'he' or 'she'.
However, modern ...
25
votes
4
answers
5k
views
Why did the F of "sneeze" and "snore" change to an S in English history?
The etymologies of "sneeze" and "snore" suggest that they were once pronounced with /f/. Here is what Wiktionary (from which all the following information also comes) says:
From ...
25
votes
5
answers
10k
views
Why do we use the object instead of the subject pronoun in constructions like "stupid me"?
I'm trying to find out how come we say lucky me and stupid us rather than lucky I and stupid we. My understanding is that this is not a recent invention, but a relic from the distant past where it was ...
23
votes
3
answers
7k
views
/ð/ → /d/ shift in English
As a result of a /d/ → /ð/ shift, fæder became father, hider became hither and togædere became together, giving us our modern English forms.
However, I know that murder and burden have archaic forms- ...
22
votes
3
answers
5k
views
Old English instead of Latin in early Britain
For almost 400 years, Britain was a Roman province. During that period, naturally, Latin was an important language in the region. When the Germanic tribes invaded the British Isles (around the 5th ...
22
votes
6
answers
5k
views
Why "English" but not "Anglish"?
Etymology of English from Etymonline:
Old English Englisc (contrasted to Denisc, Frencisce, etc.), from Engle (plural) "the Angles," the name of one of the Germanic groups that overran the island ...
21
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Did the Tironian "et" ("⁊") have any impact on the ampersand being shift + 7 on English keyboards? [closed]
How did 7 come to be an abbreviation for 'and' in Old English? is a beautiful question about the Tiroian "et", which is now the "⁊" character 1.
My question is what impact did the association of this ...
20
votes
2
answers
8k
views
Was the “Ye Olde Shoppe” ever used or is it just an ancient-looking construct of modern times?
Surely, if I were the owner of a shop selling archery goods and wanted to portray my shop as some kind of old-fashioned, high-quality traditional outlet, I might be tempted to call it “Ye Olde Archery ...
19
votes
2
answers
2k
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 ...
19
votes
4
answers
8k
views
What is the history of adding the a- prefix to form words?
I have always found the a- prefix to words (as in anew, ajar, aside, awake, afoot, a-hunting, etc.) fascinating. The NOAD says on this topic:
a- 2. prefix
•to; toward : aside | ashore.
• ...
19
votes
2
answers
3k
views
What did we gain in return for the loss of phonemic vowel length from Old English?
In Old English, vowel length was phonemic, but stress and certain kinds of consonant voicing were not. In Modern English, that situation is reversed: vowel length is no longer phonemic, but stress ...
18
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Is the word “formulæ” valid English?
Is the word formulæ, written with an æ at the end, valid in English? I stumbled upon this apparently plural form of formula in the Wiktionary.
I had no idea the letter æ could occur in English. Does ...
18
votes
4
answers
13k
views
Silent "e" at the end of words
Back in 2009, a job interviewer sent me a link to a web service that would help me make a free telephone call via the internet... Skype. As a native speaker, I knew "instinctively" to pronounce this "...
18
votes
1
answer
1k
views
When and why did the number reading order change [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
19th century English texts occasionally use germanic-style number words, such as “four-and-twenty”. When did this fall out of use?
In Arabic and even in several ...
17
votes
3
answers
3k
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 ...
17
votes
2
answers
4k
views
How was the letter -u- written in Old English?
I was reading the etymology for 'come (v.)' when I encountered:
[...] The substitution of Middle English -o- for Old English -u- before -m-, -n-, or -r- was a scribal habit before minims to avoid ...
16
votes
5
answers
15k
views
Etymology of “Easter”
I’ve heard claims that the word Easter has the same Bronze Age root as east, Ishtar, Astarte, and ultimately star.
Is this the correct etymology of the word Easter?
16
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Why did the Old English word "līċ" get displaced by "corpse"?
While checking the etymology of the English word corpse, wikitionary says it had been līċ in Old English. Wikitionary also gives /liːt͡ʃ/ as its pronunciation, which apparently is completely different ...
16
votes
4
answers
8k
views
What did Old English writing (letters and formatting) typically look like?
I am wondering if there is a specific kind of writing that people would typically associate with Old English language. Are there well-known manuscripts that typically represent the kind of writing (...
16
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Etymology of certain words ending in "-en"
Tchrist's comment here on my answer to an etymology question brought the following to mind:
Ox (from Old English oxa) maintains the same vowel in the plural oxen that it has in the singular. But ...
16
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Why is “Saturday” Romanic?
Sunday and Monday are named after the sun and moon (English < Germanic), and Tuesday through Friday are named after Anglo-Saxon/Germanic gods. This seems consistent enough so far, but then we come ...
15
votes
1
answer
2k
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 ...
14
votes
3
answers
5k
views
The eerie origin of "eerie"
Eerie is a rather common word but its origin is somewhat strange. In fact, OED doesn't provide the origin of the word eerie, but provides the etymology where it is given as a variant of an obsolete ...
13
votes
2
answers
7k
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" ...
13
votes
5
answers
18k
views
Is it true that the 100 most common English words are all Germanic in origin?
There is an oft-quoted statement that the 100 most common (frequently used) words in the English language are entirely Germanic/Anglo-Saxon in origin. (Also sometimes said is that ~80% of the 1000 ...
13
votes
1
answer
4k
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 ...
12
votes
2
answers
1k
views
What did English use before "triangle"?
Apparently the word "triangle" was borrowed into English in the late 1300s. Triangles are a very common shape in everyday life, and there were certainly English-speaking craftsmen and artists before ...
12
votes
5
answers
2k
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 ...
11
votes
3
answers
76k
views
"Ph" for the /f/ sound; Is Old English responsible for this swap?
Is Old English responsible for creating the /f/ sound from ph, as in Philip, Pharoah, Physics, Sophia, etc? Many European countries keep the f for all of their /f/-sounding letters, as in Sofia and ...
11
votes
4
answers
10k
views
Did the "We shall fight on the beaches" speech mainly use words from Old English? If so, why?
I read today that Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches" speech mainly used words from Old English.
Wikipedia's article states that Melvyn Bragg claimed in "The Adventure of English" that only ...
11
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Evolution of the meaning of "to dwell"
The Old English meaning of "to dwell" (dwellan) is to mislead.
Can we trace the gradual shift from this original sense to that of Modern English: to reside, to inhabit ?
11
votes
4
answers
30k
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.
...
11
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Are Anglo-Saxon words better at expressing emotion? [closed]
Twice recently I've seen someone on this site state that Anglo-Saxon words, or words of Germanic origin, are better for expressing emotion than words derived from Latin. Does anyone have any ...
11
votes
1
answer
2k
views
What is the earliest written example of Old English?
What is the earliest written example of Old English?
10
votes
8
answers
3k
views
Is the "wit" in "to wit" the root of any other English words?
...and if not, where'd it go? One obvious venture is that the noun "wit", in the sense of cleverness and general know-how, has an etymological affinity with the Old English witen, "to know", and which ...
10
votes
4
answers
13k
views
How did *Old* English transform into *Middle* English so quickly?
Anglo Saxon Old English was the most common language in England before the Norman invasion. To the modern eye, it is unintelligible without specialist learning:
lange þrage; &...