The Etymology of English Words.

English vocabulary contains an immense number of words of foreign origin.

The first century B.C. Most of the territory of Europe is occupied by the Roman Empire. Among the inhabitants are Germanic tribes with a primitive stage of development. They are primitive cattle-breeders and know almost nothing about land cultivation. Their tribal languages contain only Indo-European and Germanic elements.

After a number of wars between the Germanic tribes and the Romans, they came to a peaceful contact. Trade is carried on and the Germanic people gain knowledge of new and useful things. It is from the Romans that they learn how to make butter and cheese. They are to use the Latin words to name them. The names of fruits and vegetables are also borrowed from Latin.

E.g. cherry (Lat. cerasum), pear (Lat. pirum), plum (Lat. prunus), pea (Lat. pisum), beet (Lat. bẽta), pepper (Lat. piper).

The fifth century A.D. several of Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) migrated across the sea to the British Isles. There they were confronted by Celts, the original inhabitants of the Isles. The Celts yielded most of their territory. The conquerors got to know and assimilated a number of Celtic words (ME – bald, down, druid, bard, cradle). Especially numerous among the Celtic borrowings were place names, names of rivers, hills, etc.

E.g. The names of rivers Avon, Exe, Esk, Usk originate from Celtic words meaning “river” and “water”.

Even the name of London originates from Celtic Llyn+dun in which llun is “river” and dun stands for “a fortified hill”, the meaning of the whole being “fortress on the hill over the river“.

Some Latin words entered the Anglo-Saxon language through Celtic(street-strãta via; wall-vallum).

The seventh century A.D. This century was significant for the Christianization of England. Latin was the official language of the Christian church. So this period was accompanied by a new period of Latin borrowings. New borrowings mostly indicated persons, objects and ideas associated with church and religious rituals.

E.g. priest (presbyter), nun (nonnal), candle (candela).

Also some educational terms were borrowed (school-schola, scholar, magister).

From the end of the eighth century to the middle of the eleventh century there were Scandinavian invasions which left their trace on English vocabulary (call, take, cast, die, law, husband, window, ill). Some of the words of this group are easily recognizable by the initial sk-combination.

E.g. sky, skill, skin, skirt.

Certain English words changed their meanings under the influence of Scandinavian words of the same root. So the OE brẽad which meant “piece” acquired in ME by association with the Scandinavian braud (хлеб).

1066. With the battle of Hastings, when the English were defeated by the Normans under William the Conqueror, we come to the epoch of the Norman Conquest. England became a bi-lingual country: French words from the Norman dialect got into every aspect of social life. E.g. state, government, parliament, council, power, judge, crime, prison, army, war, battle, enemy, pupil, lesson, library, science, pen, pencil, etc. Everyday life words are: plate, dinner, supper, river, autumn, uncle, etc.

The Renaissance Period was marked by development in science, art and culture and a revival of interest in the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome and their languages. There occurred a great number of Latin and Greek borrowings. They were mostly abstract words (major, minor, intelligent, to elect, to create). There were scientific and artistic terms (method, music). The same is true of Greek Renaissance borrowings (atom, cycle, ethics).

A lot of French borrowings came into English from the Parisian dialect (police, ballet, matinee, scene).

Italian also contributed a number of words to English (piano, opera, alarm).

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