Questions tagged [old-english]

Questions dealing with Old English, i.e. the language of the Anglo-Saxons up to about 1150.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
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 ...
Dancrumb's user avatar
  • 5,070
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 ...
user avatar
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 ...
Nobilis's user avatar
  • 2,222
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 ...
JSBձոգչ's user avatar
  • 54.8k
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 ...
Jez's user avatar
  • 12.7k
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 ...
Mari-Lou A's user avatar
  • 91.1k
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 ...
Jagd's user avatar
  • 764
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 ...
Warren  P's user avatar
  • 1,358
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 ...
tchrist's user avatar
  • 135k
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 ...
Mari-Lou A's user avatar
  • 91.1k
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, ...
Charles's user avatar
  • 2,454
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 ...
Uticensis's user avatar
  • 21.8k
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 ...
ermanen's user avatar
  • 62.8k
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” (...
Jon Purdy's user avatar
  • 32.4k
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 ...
Steve Melnikoff's user avatar
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 ...
user avatar
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 ...
RegDwigнt's user avatar
  • 97.2k
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- ...
user59470's user avatar
  • 239
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 ...
Otavio Macedo's user avatar
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 ...
ermanen's user avatar
  • 62.8k
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 ...
Patrick M's user avatar
  • 4,287
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 ...
F'x's user avatar
  • 38.7k
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 ...
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil''s user avatar
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. • ...
F'x's user avatar
  • 38.7k
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 ...
tchrist's user avatar
  • 135k
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 ...
Rune Aamodt's user avatar
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 "...
michael_timofeev's user avatar
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 ...
Alain Pannetier Φ's user avatar
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 ...
Judicaël's user avatar
  • 171
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 ...
user avatar
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?
Sklivvz's user avatar
  • 969
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 ...
user avatar
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 (...
F'x's user avatar
  • 38.7k
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 ...
Matt Gutting's user avatar
  • 6,220
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 ...
Daniel's user avatar
  • 57.5k
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 ...
Morella Almånd's user avatar
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 ...
ermanen's user avatar
  • 62.8k
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" ...
Matt Gutting's user avatar
  • 6,220
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 ...
Noldorin's user avatar
  • 13.3k
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 ...
Gavin42's user avatar
  • 403
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 ...
Joe's user avatar
  • 1,239
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 ...
Mari-Lou A's user avatar
  • 91.1k
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 ...
user avatar
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 ...
Golden Cuy's user avatar
  • 18.2k
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 ?
Alain Pannetier Φ's user avatar
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. ...
mcalex's user avatar
  • 1,057
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 ...
Mr. Shiny and New 安宇's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
2k views

What is the earliest written example of Old English?

What is the earliest written example of Old English?
Artur's user avatar
  • 111
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 ...
Uticensis's user avatar
  • 21.8k
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;    &...
Bob Tway's user avatar
  • 570

1
2 3 4 5