The Relation of Borrowed and Native Words

A Selection of Scandinavian Loanwords in English

akimbo aloft anger aslant auk awe aye baffle bag bait balderdash band bang bank bark bask baste bat bawl big billow blather bleak bloat blunder blunt blur bole bond boon booth bore both boulder bound bow brad brae

brindled brink bulk bunch bungle bunk burr bustle butt by-law cake calf cast cleft clip clown club clumsy cock cog cosy cow cower crawl craze crook cub cut dairy dash dawn daze die dirt doze drag dregs droop

drown dump egg elk fast fellow fidget filly fir fit fizz flag flake flat flaw fleet fog freckle fro gain gait gang gape gasp gaunt gaze get gift gig gill girth glitter gloss grovel guess gun gust hail

happen happy harbour harsh hit hoot hug husband ill hug jolly kid kilt kindle knife lag law leak leg lift link loft loose low marrow meek mistake nag nasty nay nick nudge odd rack rag raise reef rid

root rotten row rub ruck rug sag sale scab scalp scant scare scold score scout scowl scrap scrape scream screech scrub scull sheer shrill skate ski skill skimp skin skirt skit sky slam slang slave sleek slug slush

snag snug snub spike spray squeak stag steak stren stilt stump stunt sway swirl swivel tag take tat their them they though thrall thrift thrive thrust tight till tit toss ugly waive want weak whim want wicker window wing

In many cases the new words could have supplied no real need in the English vocabulary. They made their way into English simply as the result of the mixture of the two peoples. The Scandinavian and the English words were being used side by side, and the survival of one or the other must often have been a matter of chance. Under such circumstances a number of things might happen.

1. Where words in the two languages coincided more or less in form and meaning, the modern word stands at the same time for both its English and its Scandinavian ancestors. Examples of such words are burn, Cole, fast, gang, murk(y), scrape, thick.

2. Where there were differences of form, the English word often survived. Beside such English words as bench, coat, heathen, yarn, few, grey, loath, leap, flay corresponding Scandinavian forms are found quite often in Middle English literature and in some cases still exist in dialectal use. We find screde, skelle, skere with the hard pronunciation of the initial consonant group beside the standard English shred, shell, sher.

3. In other cases the Scandinavian word replaced the native word, often after the two had long remained in use concurrently: egg, sister, take, cast, anger superseded OE ey, sweastor, niman, weorphan, irre.

4. Occasionally both the English and the Scandinavian words were retained with a difference of meaning or use: no-nay, whole-hale, rear-raise, from-fro, craft-skill, hide-skin, sick-ill.

5. In certain cases a native word which was apparently not in common use was reinforced, if not reintroduced, from the Scandinavian. In this way we must account for such words as till, dale, rim, blend, run and the Scotch brain.

6. Finally the English word might be modified, taking on some of the character of the corresponding Scandinavian word; give and get with their hard “g” are examples, as are scatter beside shatter, and Thursday instead of the OE Thunresd.

Some confusion must have existed in the Danish area between the Scandinavian and the English form of many words, a confusion that is clearly betrayed in the survival of such hybrid forms as shriek and screech. All this merely goes to show that in the Scandinavian influence on the English language we have to do with the intimate mingling of two tongues.

It is hardly possible to estimate the extent of the Scandinavian influence by the number of borrowed words that exist in standard English (their number is about 900). These are almost always words designating common everyday things and fundamental concepts. Furthermore there are thousands of Scandinavian words which are still a part of the everyday speech of people in the north and east of England. The English Dialect Dictionary contains 1054 simple words beginning with s- (sk). Locally, at least the Scandinavian influence was tremendous. The period during which the large Danish element making its way into the English vocabulary was doubtless is the X th and XI th centuries. This was the periods during which the merging of the two peoples was taking place. The occurrence of many of the borrowed words in written records is generally somewhat later. A considerable number first made their appearance at the beginning of the XIII century.

If we examine the bulk of Scandinavian loan words with a view to dividing them into classes and thus discovering in what domains of thought or experience the Danes contributed especially to English culture and therefore to the English language, we shall not arrive at any significant result. The Danish invasions were not like the introduction of Christianity, bringing the English into contact with a different civilization and introducing them to many things, physical as well as spiritual, that they had not known before. The Scandinavian elements made their way into English through the give and take of everyday life.

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