January 06, 2005

Soothly we live in mighty years! A recent post in Language Hat links to an online version of Poul Anderson's "Atomic Theory", but it leaves out all non-germanic loan words that English has imported since (I think) pre-Anglo-Saxon days. Uncleftish Beholding "shows what English would look like if it were purged of its non-Germanic words, and used German-style compounds instead of borrowings to express new concepts."

Throughout the centuries since these times, English has borrowed loads and loads of words for new concepts such as science and food, from various languages, instead of creating new sets of words to go with these. An example of this is the import from French of food-related terms, so now we have the old germanic word 'cow', and the French-borrowed 'beef', and similarly 'deer' and 'venison', or 'pig'/'swine' and 'pork'. Can anyone think of any other categories into which English has imported other groups of words? All I can think of is the sciences, and food.

posted by alcarilinque 19 years ago
  • I daresay there would be quite a few angry monkeys if we couldn't use the word Schadenfreude!
  • I daresay there would be quite a few angry monkeys if we couldn't use the word Schadenfreude! I'd get a kick out of that... *ducks*
  • Nautical terms borowed from Dutch: skipper (schipper) pump (pomp) yacht (jacht) buoy (boei) boom (boom) cruise (kruisen) keelhaul (kielhalen) smuggler (smokkelaar) Also some words of artistic origin: easel (ezel) stipple (stippelen) landscape (landschap) etch (ets)
  • What subject would these adjectives come from? chutzpah ganas
  • Words borrowed from other languages. "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary." - James D. Nicoll
  • For those who aren't deeply into the english language but are interested in its history, I recommend The Mother Tongue, English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson, as an entertaining and educational read. (Great chapter on obscenities).
  • Chutzpah is from Yiddish/Hebrew. Means about the same thing as in English.
  • The one reason that English is perhaps the superior language for prose & poetry (arguably Russian vies for the title too) is its mongrel nature. Without that, it's not a very adaptable tongue.
  • Oh, please. All tongues are mongrel. Until they're dead.
  • Nostrildamus, I like your point about English's hybrid strength as a poetic tongue. However, in inflected languages like French, Spanish and Italian, rhymed verse is much easier to do... damn those continentals. There's a reason why the Norse and Anglo-Saxon poetic traditions are alliterative rather than rhymed. Except, gloriously, for this one, titled simply "The Riming Poem." Translation here. I'm waiting for some mad medievalist to record this as a rap...
  • mecurious, that Words Borrowed site has been cleaned up somewhat since I trashed it a couple of years ago, but it's still untrustworthy: cf. "aboriginal" listed under Australian. Treat with extreme suspicion.
  • From the Norman French we get many of our legal terms Justice Liberty Court Law Accuse Evidence Judge Libel Crime Verdict etc.
  • Pallas Athena: That "Riming Poem" is excellent, especially if read in a Beastie Boys style - the "Dēorlīce Cnapan" perhaps...