I recently started a class in Old English (OE), the language spoken in Anglo-Saxon Engla-lande from about 500 AD to about 1200 AD. (OE is the language in which Beowulf is written.)
An aspect that’s a lot of fun for me (no surprise) is learning words in OE and seeing how they manifest in modern English. A particular delight has been to learn words that are still around but are hidden (so to speak) in our latter-day language. I thought I’d share some that have tickled me.
First, a quick pre-note about Old English spelling, which is not as exotic as it first seems:
æ = a
þ = th
ġ = y
ċ = ch
I should note that there are a lot of words that are obvious once you’ve sort of learned to map Old English to modern English. These words are often disguised by our unhelpful spelling system.[1] For example:
- tūn: “town”
- mūs: “mouse”
- dæġ: “day”
- tredan: “to tread, step”
- ġesēon: “to see”
- lytel: “little”
- ġiese: “yes”
… and many (maniġe) others, such that with a bit of guessing and practice you can sort of read OE:
Maniġe munucas etaþ huniġ and drincaþ ealu on þæm mynstre on Wintanċeastre.
(“Many monks eat honey and drink ale in the monastery at Winchester.”)
Some other terms are recognizable once you know what the cognate is in modern English:
- mete: “food”; in modern English, this has narrowed to meat.
- dysiġ: “foolish”; this became dizzy, which in some uses still retains the original sense.
- bīdan: “to stay, wait”; we still have this in abide and in the expression bide one’s time.
- beorht: “bright”; the word underwent metathesis (swapped sounds) before it arrived in today’s English. The gh in our modern spelling is a relic from when that sound was actually pronounced like the ch sound in German or Scots.
Some terms have a slightly different grammar:
- þynċan: to think, to seem (to someone)
Ūs þynċeþ sēo sunne lȳtelu forþam-þe hēo is swīþe feorr fram ūs.
(“We think the sun is small because it is very far from us” or more literally “To us seems the sun little because she is very far from us.”)
- ġelīcian: to like, to be pleasing (to)
Mē ne ġelīcaþ swimman on ēa.
(“I don’t like to swim in the river” or more literally “To me it isn’t pleasing to swim in the river.”
All that said, what I promised at the beginning were some OE words that are hidden in today’s English but that are still around! Here’s a list of ones that I’ve learned about so far.
sōþ (“truth”), sōþlice (“truly”)
Sōþliċe hit is gōd stær.
(“Truly it is a good story.”)
Modern English remnants: soothsayer, forsooth
sċeþþan (“to harm, injure”)
Nān mann ne cann him sċeþþan.
(“No one can harm him.”)
Modern English remnant: unscathed
wer (“man”)
Maniġe weras wuniaþ on tūne.
(“Many men live in the town.”)
Modern English remnant: werewolf
wenan (“to believe, be of the opinion”)
Hē wēneþ þæt sēo wif sīe wīs.
(“He thinks that the woman is wise.”)
Modern English remnant: overweening (“arrogant”), from the sense of thinking overly (of oneself)
cunnan (“to know”)
Ne cūþe hē þone weġ tō Cantwarabyriġ.
(“He did not know the way to Canterbury.”)
Modern English remnants: uncouth, also cunning (h/t Nancy Friedman).
cariġ (“anxious, worried, sorrowful”)
And thonne he wearþ cariġ.
(“And then he became anxious.”)
Modern English remnant: chary
tellan (“to count, reckon”)
On þæm ġēare sindon ġetealde twelf mōnþas, and twā and fiftiġ wucena.
(“In the year there are a total of twelve months, and two-and-fifty weeks.”)
Modern English remnants: [bank] teller, told as in all told
ċēapian (“to buy, trade, barter”)
Hīe willaþ mete and ealu ċēapian.
(“They want to buy food and ale.”)
Modern English remnant: cheap (from gōd ċēap, “a good buy”). Also in placenames like Cheapside in London (locale of a marketplace) and Chipping (an old market town in Lancashire, UK).
awiht (“something”), nawiht (“nothing”)
Ne sæġde hēo nawiht.
(“She said nothing.”)
Modern English remnants: owt, nowt (N England, Scotland), showing that some dialects preserve quite ancient forms.
And that’s just a preliminary list; I suspect that I’ll keep finding more of these hidden remnants of Old English around us. There’s lots more fun in studying OE, which will undoubtedly give me plenty to post about another time.
Like this? Read all the Friday words.
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[1] Unhelpful today. Our spelling system started to formalize at a time when pronunciation was still changing, but at the time it was a reasonable effort to reflect how the language was pronounced (as best it could be recorded by people who sometimes spoke French). Anyway, the short story is that pronunciation changed, but spelling mostly did not.
Thanks! I knew nothing about OE and nowni know a tiny bit, and would love to know more.