Retro

Ah just learn some Anglo-Saxon - you'll be in word origin heaven.

James Tringham

I did wonder about that, though the Melvyn Bragg book The Adventure of English that I've just read said that 90% of Anglo-Saxon words died out, albeit that the core words of modern English still in the main derive from Anglo-Saxon.

Is it something that you have done?

I'm hoping someone will introduce a subject called Tringhamology, which involves just studying the links between everything, and then I can look into this in greater - and lessser - detail.

Scott AM

You mean heofon, or khemina?

Docker

James, you should tune into Balderdash and Piffle with the almost sexy (but a bit too smug for my liking) Victoria Coren on the Beeb.

It's a great show for any wordsmith or those interested in Etymology.
The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology is another must have book.

I love words me and have a rather large collection of dictionaries, thesauruses (ii?), books on the history of words and Etymological books/ dictionaries.

A knowledge of Latin is also a major plus as you can easily spot word roots.

It also makes me remarkably dull.

Retro

I did wonder about that, though the Melvyn Bragg book The Adventure of English that I've just read said that 90% of Anglo-Saxon words died out, albeit that the core words of modern English still in the main derive from Anglo-Saxon.

Is it something that you have done?

I'm hoping someone will introduce a subject called Tringhamology, which involves just studying the links between everything, and then I can look into this in greater - and lessser - detail. </BLOCKQUOTE>
I read that book too.

When you take the English language as a whole - then old English only forms a smallish percentage of the total. But it forms a fairly sizeable chunk of the more common words used. People only use a small set of words regularly - and many of these words derive from Anglo-Saxon.

Old English also accounts for many of the words that have multiple meanings. So Axe is old English, and Hatchet is from the Norman French.

The other thing that was interesting (to me) is how words derive their meaning from which social group used it commonly. An example is food - Old English is used for the animal before it's cooked - Ox, Cow, Pig etc... while Norman French for when that meat is prepared Beef, Pork, Mutton. Which is a clear indication of who did what (Anglo-Saxons reared the animal, the Normans ate it).

And yes, I do know a little Anglo-Saxon. Not enough to speak it, but enough to make sense out of written passages.

tim1000000

i love this kind of stuff. i recommend 'mother tongue' by bill bryson which has all sorts of interesting little tidbits about english and other languages.

ericcantona7

yeah good show, and she is hot, though can be a bit annoying at times when she acts dumb.

James Tringham

Mother Tongue is fb.

One of the great things about English is the number of synonyms, or near-synonyms, that there are. Which allows us to give nuance to the written word that perhaps is harder to do in other languages, and to vary the pitch of what we write and say depending upon the addressee. And that often stems from the thing Retro was mentioning about the two words meaning the same with two different origins and so on. Or with two similar words that come into the language at different times. Though the only example of that I can think of off the top of my head is chef/chief.

paulcl

Since this one hasn't been covered yet: "couth" as the opposite of "uncouth" exists (I've seen it used), but it's a back-formation coined some time around 1900.

"Nonchalant" looks like it was borrowed from French without borrowing the underlying form.

The opposite of reckless would be reckful, surely? "Reck" is a real word, but it's a verb meaning to take heed rather than a noun meaning the quality possessed by someone reckful.

"Sipid" exists as a back-formation - it's about 400 years old.

Some more suggestions:

If something is tant, does that mean it's near?
If you like something, are you gusted by it? If you admire it, do you hold it in dain?
If something isn't an anomaly, is it an omaly?

James Tringham

You're right about reckful.

Is innocent another???