Lexical borrowings in Old English

Loan-words, or borrowings were not so frequent in Old English. They are: Celtic (taken from the substratum languages) and Latin.

Celtic element is not very significant, and is mainly reduced to the the following:

dun (down), dun (dun), binn (bin). These may occur as separate words, but a great many are found only as elements of place-names (amhuin -river: Avon, Evan, uisge water in names beginning with Exe-, Usk-, Esk-, (later - whiskey); dun, dum (hill): Dumbarton, Dundee, Dunstable, Dunfermline, Dunleary\ inbher (mountain) - Inverness, Inverurfe, coil (forest) Killbrook, Killiemore etc. Some common names of people are of Celtic origin, too - Arthur (noble), Donald (proud chief), Kennedy (ugly head).

Besides, one can find some words that were taken from Celtic languages by other Germanic languages, not necessarily on the Isles - wealas (alien) OHG wal(a)ha, Icel valir, eisarn - isarn, isern - iron.

Latin words in Old English are usually classified into two layers. Some were taken into Germanic languages in pre-British period, during contacts of the Germanic tribes through wars and trade; these words are found in many Germanic languages (we take Present-day German for comparison), and are so assimilated now that only a specialist can trace their origin. They are:

castel (castle - Lat. castellum)

cealc (chalk - Lat.calcium)

ciese (cheese - Lat. caseus, Mn Germ Kase),

cires (cherry - Lat. cerasus, Mn Germ Kirsche),

copor (copper, Lat. cuprum, Mn Germ Kupfer),

cycene (Lat. coquina, Mn Germ Kuchen),

cytel (kettle - Lat. catillus, Mn Germ Kessel),

disc (dish Lat. discus, Mn Germ Tisch),

mile (mile - Lat. milla passum, Mn Germ Meile).

myln (mill - Lat. molinum, Mn Germ Muhle),

pipor (pepper - Lat. piper Mn Germ Pfeffer),

pund (pound- Lat. pondo, Mn Germ Pfund),

strait (street, road Lat. via strata, Mn Germ Strasse),

ton (tower, Lat. Tunis, Mn Germ Turm).

weall (Lat. vallum, Germ Wall),

win (wine - Lat. vinum Mn Germ Wein),

ynce (ounce Lat. uncia, Mn Germ Unze)

Traditionally, to this first layer we refer the place names containing Latin stems cester - Lat. castra (camp) - Chester, Manchester, Winchester, Worcester, Leicester, Lancaster, coin - Lat.colonia (from colere to cultivate, inhabit) - Lincoln, Colchester, port - Lat. port (gate) - Portsmouth, Bridport, Devonport. There are lots of hybrid formations which are now familiar place-names in Britain:

(with the elements vie - village, strat—road, Llan - church)

Man-chester Win-chester Lan-caster Glou-cester

York-shire Corn-wall Devon-shire Canter-bury

Ports-mouth Wool-wich Green-wich Strat-ford

The second layer of the Latin borrowings is connected with the intro­duction of Christianity, and denotes religious notions plus some notions con­nected with the cultural and social phenomena which appeared in society after this event. A significant portion of religious terms are not specifically Latin, for they were borrowed into it from Greek, so we may find similar words in other languages:

Old English apostol biscop deofol antefn

New English apostle bishop devil anthem

Latin apostolus episcopus diabolus antiphona

Greek apostolos episcopos diabolos antiphona

Other words now existing in English but borrowed in old times are: abbod (abbot),abbudissa (abbess), selmesse (alms), alter, altar (altar), antecriste (Antichrist), candel (candle), engel (angel), ymn (hymn), martyr (martyr), papa (pope), mynster (monastery), proost (priest), ps(e)alm, sealm (psalm), saltere (psalter), sect (school), magister (teacher), dihtan (to compose), meter (meter), epistol, pistol (epistle, letter).

Some borrowed stems came easily into the word-building system of the language, forming the following hybrids in Old English - preost-had (priesthood), biscop-had (bishophood), cristen-dom (Christendom), biscop-rice (bishopric), martyr-had (martyrhood) etc. There are also compounds, one part of which is Latin and the other English cirice-jeard (churchyard), mynster-hdm (monastery as home), mynsterhata (destroyer of monasteries), mynsterman (a monk).

However, the English language still had a strong immunity to foreign influence; some religious terms are of native origin, though their original meaning was different, god (god) in pagan polytheistic religion was one of several deities, esp. a male deity, presiding over some portion of worldly affairs, halja (saint) is related to whole. Weofod (altar) was also native. It was already mentioned that translation-loans are also found in the names of days of the week, and also some other terms (Monan - daeg, Tiwes-daeg, Wodnes - daeg,Thu(n)res - daeg, Frige - daeg - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday).

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