Scandinavian
loans in Old and Middle English, and their legacy in the
dialects of England and modern standard English
(Updated
15 October 2011)
Word colours:
green = Old Norse
(ON) and Old English (OE); red = Modern
English; maroon = Middle
English (ME); blue = Modern
English dialect; purple = cognates in
Modern Scandinavian and German
*
Old English
examples cited are given in an Early West Saxon form unless stated.
**
Modern
Scandinavian parallels are given where these seem appropriate, and are
represented in Modern Norwegian form. This means Norwegian Bokmål unless stated otherwise, i.e. in
such cases where Nynorsk or even
Danish forms are closer
to the ON than the Bokmål ones.
Opening
remarks
Some ON words
were already beginning to find
their way into Old English, mostly due to Viking raids and later
settlement (in
the Danelaw) in
It is, however,
true to say the language of the
speakers of the Danelaw did more to
directly change English than did the Norman Conquest of 1066. This was
because
the two languages – ON and OE – resembled one another enough for the
learning
of a second language to not be necessary. OE and ME could quite
comfortably
admit loans from Norse and the reverse was presumably the case.
An example to
show the complexity of the issues
at hand would be the Northern dialect and Scots bairn which means
"child" in Standard English. It
may come from ON barn(it) and exists in
all the
Modern Nordic languages (Norwegian and Danish barn, Icelandic and
Faroese barn etc.). Old
English also had a version of this word,
i) The Old
English usage was
well rooted and familiar enough to remain in use despite standardising
tendencies from southern English.
ii) The Old English word was
declining until the Norse users maintained its existence by using an
identical
or very similar word from their tongue.
iii) The Old English word died out
completely, and was re-introduced (perhaps unwittingly) by the Norse
speakers
in the occupied districts.
The Norsemen
gave us a good number of words that
are in everyday use and a fundamental element of the everyday
vocabulary of
English. Many of the words which came in through Norse were those
associated
with the sea, law and local administration - as will be seen from the
divisions
made below. Everyday Norse words in English are, for example: law, fellow, get, take, anger, sky, skin, wrong, same, as well as,
most remarkably, the pronouns they, their and
them, which ousted
the OE equivalents hîe, heora and
him. They also
gave us the present meanings of words like
bread
(original
meaning “bit, piece,
morsel”), dream
(original
meaning “joy”), earl
(original
meaning “warrior; hero”), dwell (original
meaning “go astray, tarry”)
and
restricted the meanings of words like holm (original
meaning “sea, ocean, water”) and starve
(original
meaning “die”). Borrowing of
pronouns is a very rare phenomenon and
illustrates both the intimate relations and deep effect Norse had with,
and on,
early English. Most loans would have found their way into the language
from the
9th 11th centuries, but they do not start appearing in quantities until
the
written records of the 1200s i.e. Early Middle English. Norse words
were
relatively slow to show themselves in written verse, but when they did,
beginning in the North and
The effects of
Norse speech can be appreciated
from the fact that East and West Mercian developed into considerably
different
dialects in Middle English. There must have been areas of particularly
dense
Danish settlement for the local Saxons to need to acquire at least a
basic
understanding of the settlers’ language due to their numbers and social
and
commercial importance. Moreover, to Nordic cross-border linguistic
interference
and a form of creolized Old English can to a large measure be
attributed the inflexional-levelling
which occurred in
English from c.1100-1350 AD. This process has to a greater or lesser
extent
happened in all Germanic languages, but the need for the Saxon English
and
Norsemen to communicate, in languages whose vocabulary but not
inflexional
endings were very similar, very likely accelerated this process in
English.
However, not everyone now agrees with this view (advanced, among
others, by
Jespersen). Robert Burchfield, writing in his The
English Language, argues:
"This
view [i.e. the creolized, flexionless English],
which supposes a period, however temporary, of creolized and
virtually illiterate speech, cannot be sustained. It is much more
likely that
the linguistic changes of the period 900 to 1200 result from an
increasing
social acceptance of informal and unrecorded types of English ....These
informal types of English emerged because of the instability of the Old
English
declensional system itself ..." (p.14).
He continues to
point out that the OE case
system contained too few clearly distinguishable inflexions required to
reflect
the relationships between words in a sentence. Therefore the
inflexional
system, since it was an imperfect linguistic tool - perhaps to the
point of
hindering communication - was gradually scaled down (to a few easily
distinguishable forms) in favour of a system which expressed syntactic
relationships more clearly, i.e. prepositions. These, as Burchfield
notes, were
"powerful but insufficiently exploited". His argument certainly has
the force of logic behind it. In defence of the views of Jespersen and
others,
it is instructive to note, as he points out (p.76):
"So
when we find that the wearing away and levelling of grammatical forms
in the
regions in which the Danes chiefly settled was in a couple of centuries
in
advance of the same process in the more southern parts of the country,
the
conclusion does not seem unwarrantable this acceleration of the tempo
of
linguistic simplification is due to the settlers, who did not care to
learn
English correctly in every minute particular...".
Simplification
of the OE case system began in
precisely those areas where Saxon and Dane lived side by side.
Jespersen draws
our attention to the situation in
The reasoned
conclusion arrived at from all this
is that the OE case system was already breaking down, and the
inflexional
levelling that occurred during the late OE period and Early ME period
was no
doubt accelerated (especially in the Danish settled regions) by Norse
influence,
but not caused by, Norse influence
on
the English language. Loss of the case system was essentially a native
phenomenon, clearly influenced by, but independent of, the Scandinavian
settlements.
The Orrmulum
written about 1200 in the north-east
The Middle
English words rad “afraid”, leyten
“seek”, occ “and”, rowst “voice”, ros
“praise”, summ “as”, ro “peace”, usel
“wretched”, gal
“mad”, skil “divide” and allesamen “together”
seem entirely foreign to us but a Dane
would immediately recognize them as his own. None of these words made
it into
modern Standard English.
The Early
Middle English poems of King Horn
and Havelok the Dane
both show
considerable Scandinavian features at the level of lexis - the former
being
from the
In Laghamon’s Brut we find the first
use of the words leg (ON leggr)
and Thursday (ON Þórsdagr) instead of
Saxon shank (OE) and Thundersday (OE Þunresdæge). Chaucer was
to use some 25 Scandinavian words in
his later Canterbury Tales.
From the 1200s
onwards scores of Norse words
start to appear in English texts, often replacing words of native
origin. Of
these could be mentioned the replacement of werp by cast, halse by neck, eyethirl by window, swester by sister, ire by anger, snith by cut. In
some cases synonymous or near-synonymous word pairs arose, e.g. craft/skill, sick/ill, rear/raise, bâ/both (both of course
eventually became the word in Standard
English).
Eorl,
which in Anglo-Saxon England denoted a minor official was elevated in
meaning
to a high-ranking nobleman due to the influence of Norse jarl. Theonest, tithande and brydlop are
all attested in ME, but only tidings has
survived in the modern standard language. Thou
art and they
are reached
Some
400 items whose origins
are demonstrably Scandinavian are still alive in the modern standard
language,
and they are one of the cornerstones of the basic word-stock,
representing some
of the most common and everyday words of the language. If we add the
Norse
terms in the English dialects, a figure of well over 2,000 items can be
arrived
at.
Baugh
and Cable arrive at a
rather larger number for the standard language:
“That number, if we restrict the list to those for
which the evidence is
fully convincing, is about 900…To this group we should probably be
justified in
adding an equal number in which a Scandinavian origin is probable or in
which
the influence of Scandinavian forms has entered.” (p.105)
The following
list of
nouns, adjectives and verbs includes some of the most common words in
the
language: awkward, bag, bait (vb.), band, bank, bask, birth, boon, brink, bull, cast (vb.), clip (vb.), crave, crawl, crook, dirt, down (feathers), dregs, drip, droop, drown, egg, egg (on), fellow, flat, flit, fog, gait, gap, gape, gasp, gaze, girth, glint, glitter, guess, hap, ill, keel, kid (noun), kindle, leg, lift (vb.), link, loan, loose, low (adj.), lug, lurk, meek, mire, muck, muggy, nag, odd, prod, race, raise, rake (vb.), ransack, rid, rift, root, rotten, rug, rugged, scab, scare, score (noun), scowl, scrap, screech, seat, seemly, sister, skill, skin, skirt, skull, sky, slaughter, slouch, sly, snare, snub, sprint, stack, steak, swain, take, tangle, tattered, thrift, thrive, thrust, tidings, tight, trust, want, weak, whisk, window. Possibly of
Norse origin are sag, scrub, and toss.
Norse
words which reached us
via Norman French are flounder,
faggot,
frown,
equip,
blemish,
target,
tryst,
scutch,
jolly,
elope,
brawl,
waive
(after Geipel).
OE
scyrte
gives rise to modern shirt,
while the corresponding ON term skyrta
gives us skirt.
Similarly, retention of the hard
sounds of k and g
in such words as kid,
get,
give
and egg
is
telling of Norse origins. In OE plough
meant a measure of land, but in Norse it referred to the agricultural
implement.
The
following, according to
Geipel, are used over an area stretching from Shetland to East Anglia
and
Northampton: havers
“oats”, bigg
“barley”, addle
“earn”, clegg
“horsefly”, scarn
“cow dung”, ewer
“udder”, lea
“scythe”, skellum
“rascal”, kenspeck
“easily recognisable”, scrat
“goblin”, howk
“to dig”, aye
“always”, ket
“carrion”, nay
“no”, toom
“empty”, steg
“gander”, mun
“mouth”, waur
”worse”, smoot
“narrow passage”, hoast
“cough”, laithe
“barn”, ing
“meadow”, beck
“brook”, sprot
“twigs”.
So thorough was
the integration of Norse
elements in English that many words remained undetected until linguists
began
to investigate English using the comparative method in the second half
of the
1800s. It is reasonable to assume that if a form is not recorded in OE
but is
found in Scandinavian, and it is recorded in ME from the Danelaw or
other areas
heavily settled by Scandinavians, it is likely to be a loan.
Interestingly
enough it is thought that the lexical convergences between Norse and
Northumbrian Anglian dialects – i.e. just in those areas where the
Norse
presence was the strongest – would have been particularly plentiful,
something
which probably assisted the uptake of Norse loans into those same
dialects. ME
texts in the Northumbrian dialect are particularly rich in Norse loans.
When we find
English words with an occlusive
rather than palatalised g or k before a front vowel, a feature that
was preserved in Old Norse, we may suspect a Norse loan or at least
Norse
influence. So there are the Norse forms garn, kista, skömm, skruð
besides native cognates yarn, chest, shame and
shroud. So words like
get, kid and skin are
loans, while the words give and
kettle were clearly
influenced by Norse (had they not been,
the modern forms of their OE cognates would be *yive and
*chettle).
Our word loose descends from
the Norse
form lauss and not its OE
cognate lêas. Likewise weak is derived
from ON veikr and not OE wâc. The archaic
word swain is from ON sveinn and not OE swân.
The -sk
in bask and busk is a relic of
the Norse reflexive form (ON
baðask
and búask). Also a relic
is the -t in
scant, athwart and want from ON skammt (the neuter
form of skammr “short
while”), þvert
(the neuter form of þverr
“perverse”)
and vant (the neuter
form of vanr “defective”).
In some cases
both the OE and
Norse words have survived with a difference of meaning or use, as in
the
following pairs (English word first): no-nay, whole-hale, rear-raise, from-fro,
craft-skill, hide-skin, sick-ill.
1
- OLD ENGLISH
Attested before
1016 – and thus before the reign
of Knud den Store (Canute) – are a
small number of words relating specifically to Danish or Danelaw
concepts, e.g.
sailing barða, cnearr, floege, scegð, æsc, mercantile
matters ôran, marc,
battle and the court dreng, hold, social,
administrative and legal matters liesing, grið,
Denelagu,
bonda, lagu, wæpengetæc, socn, hâmsocn, sâclêas, withermal, stefnan,
toft. These terms
are not common in
Æsc,
the name of a Viking ship (ON
askr),
is attested in the Chronicle
as early as 893.
Hûsbônda was first in general use around 1000.
Eorl was influenced
by Norse iarl. After 1017 eorl replaced the
old title ealdorman, which does
not completely
disappear, but no longer denotes the highest office in the state of the
king.
In 1036 Godwine
eorl is mentioned
in the Chronicle.
This is the first time
eorl is used
instead of ealdorman about an
Englishman outside the
Danelaw.
Terms connected
with the reign of Canute and his sons
are liðsmen,
hûscarl and nîðing.
Hûscarl lived alongside native hîredman. Also associated with Canute are gærsuman
“treasures”
(ODan.
gørsum).
During the late
1000s and
the first half of the 1100s about thirty Norse terms appear in English
manuscripts for the first time, and around half of these survive in
modern
standard English: knife, root, rag, score, skin, snare, haven, die, hit, take, crooked, they, them, their (in the case
of the personal pronouns the Norse forms
probably triumphed because the Saxon forms could be confusing). More
Danelaw
terms appear during this period: hird, hofding, fylcian, manslot, sceppe, tapor-æx. Also during
this period deyja replaced sweltan, skin replaced fell, root replaced wyrt,
and taka replaced niman.
(The first appearance of take is
in 1072 in the Chronicle:
ond
þa
men ealle he tóc). The words both and
till make an
appearance during this period (in the
Peterborough Chronicle), while birth, gape, cast and
want appear soon
after.
Scandinavian loans in Old English poetry are confined to the
accounts
of heroic battles against the Norse and others in The
Battle of Brunanburh and The
Battle of Maldon. Warfare and trade are two
principal
ways in which loans can come into languages and the Anglo-Saxons and
Norsemen
regularly participated in both - especially war. It comes therefore as
no
surprise that the lexis derived from the ON which appears in these
poems is
entirely martial in nature.
In Maldon we have: dreng "Viking
warrior" (where it only appears
here before 1066) - ON drengr
"bold man, warrior" etc. (Norwegian dreng, Danish dreng;
the OE equivalent was ceorl,
with a shift of meaning in modern churl); griþ "truce, peace,
cessation of hostilities"
(OE word for a general condition of peace was friþ,
and it sometimes appears with griþ
in ME in the expression griþ
and friþ) - ON griþ
"truce, peace" (archaic Danish
grid "peace",
historical Norwegian grid "mercy"; note
also griþlêas "violated" -
ON griðalauss
"truceless" -
this latter word is the first
known Norse loan into English); gârræs "attack" (lit.
"spear-rush") - ON
geirrás "spear-rush"
(the compound appears to be
Norse derived); ceallian “to call”
where it appears as a synonym to native clypian
-
ON kalla. Also in this
poem we have what appears to be a
conscious echo of a Norse legal idiom selja
sjálfdœmi "deliver
self-judgement" in the OE on
hyra sylfa
dôm "on their own
reckoning". Byrhtnoð,
the
tragic hero of the poem, is called an eorl
in the full Nordic sense
of the word.
And in Brunanburh
we find the Norse word knörr
"merchant ship" twice in the OE loan cnearr "(small) ship" (cf. Norwegian knarr "sailboat").
Poetic
vocabulary is much less prone to survive language
change and decay, and cnearr
never had, to my knowledge, anything more than a short life within Old
English
poetic diction. But dreng did
survive longer, appearing in Early Middle English poems from the North
and
Loans in Old
English prose
are more numerous
and frequently met. Here is a list of many of them, some of which are
easily
recognisable as common everyday words in Modern English, such as husband, law, and outlaw. Loans from ON
into OE are sometimes for concepts or
things peculiarly Scandinavian, or those things in OE for which
Anglo-Norse
contact altered the conception. But most simply define or describe
everyday
objects or concepts for which the early English already had words. The
vast
majority of such Norse loans are found in the late texts after 1000 AD,
especially The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
where we find such Norse loans as orrest "battle", griþ (1002) "truce,
cessation of hostilities"
and nîðing "villain",
among
a number of others. Some are, however, found in earlier texts such as
Alfred's Laws
(880-90). Naturally many
required adaptation to the OE sound and inflexional systems:
æsc
"ash" - with the sense
"warship" - ON askr "ash-tree;
small ship"; bâtswegen
"boatswain" - OE bât
+ ON sveinn;
bôtlêas
(late loan) "unpardonable" - ON bótlauss
"without remedy, irreparable" (cf. Modern English bootless);
brýdlôp
"bridal" (the first element is native) - ON brúðlaup
"bridal, wedding feast" (cf. Norwegian bryllup
"wedding"); bûnda
-
"householder" - ON bóndi "farmer,
householder"; bûtsecarl
(1052 ASC) "sailor (in royal
fleet), seaborne merchant" - ON buza
"boat" and karl
"man"; bý
"dwelling" (found occasionally in ME) - ON bý
"farm, homestead"; cann
"cognizance" (legal term) - ON kanna;
carlmann
"male, man" - ON karlmaðr "man,
vigourous man"; ceallian
(Maldon) "call" - ON kalla
(ousted
OE hâtan,
clipian "call, yell");
cnearr
"(small) ship" - ON knörr "merchant
ship"; cnîf
"knife" - (probably ) ON knífr (OE
used seax "short sword, knife");
crafian
"demand" (late loan) - ON krefja
"crave, demand, request" (cf. English crave,
Norwegian kreve);
crôcod
(once in late 1100s) "crooked" must
derive from unrecorded OE *crôk
< ON krókr
"hook, barb" (Serjeantson); dîegan,
dêgan
(late
OE, Anglian) "die" - ON deyja
"die" (ousted OE sweltan
"die" and altered OE steorfan
"die, perish" which now only denotes
"starve"; ON deyja
once had an OE cognate which may have given rise
to ME deien
but forms from 1000 onward very likely stem only
from the ON form, according to Serjeantson); efne
"material, matter" - ON efni
"material" (cf. Norwegian emne);
farnian
"prosper" - ON farnast
"succeed"; fêolaga
(1016 ASC) "colleague, mate" - ON félagi
"partner; fellow, mate"; flege
(rare) "little ship" - ON fley
"swift ship"; fylcian
(e.g. 1066 ASC)
"(to) marshal" - ON fylkja
"array, marshal"; genge
"troop" - ON gengi "help,
support"; gærsume
(1035 ASC; survived into Early ME
(Serjeantson)) "treasure" - ON gørsemi
"costly thing, jewel, treasure"; hâ
(once,
1039 ASC) "rowlock" - ON hár;
hâmele
(once,
1040 ASC) "rowlock" - ON hamla;
hâmsocn
"the offence of attacking someone in his home" - ON heimsókn
"attack on someone's home"; hâsæta
"oarsman" - ON háseti;
hofding
(1076 ASC)
"leader, ringleader" (has the latter meaning in ASC
(Serjeantson)) - ON höfðingi
"leader, chief"; hittan
(one
instance in OE meaning "come upon" in 1066 ASC
Ða com Harold ure cyng on unwær on þa Normenn, and hytte hi begeondan Eoferwic)
- ON hitta
"hit upon, meet; strike"; hold
(921 ASC)
"vassal" - ON höldr (a kind of higher yeoman);
hûsbûnda
"householder" - ON húsbóndi "master
of the house"; hûscarl
(1036 ASC)
"a member of the royal bodyguard" - ON húskarl
"manservant; member of the royal
bodyguard"; hûsting
(1012 ASC)
"meeting, tribunal" - ON húsþing (i.e. a thing held in a building);
lagslit
"breach
of law" - ON *lögslit
"breach
of law"; lahbryce
"breach of law" - ON lögbrot "breach
of law"; lagu
"law" (one of the most common and important ON loans) - ON *lagu,
lög
(npl.) -
(the OE word was æ);
landcop,
landceap
"tax paid on a land purchase" - ON landkaup
"purchase of land"; lîesing
(Laws)
"freed man" - ON leysingi
"freed man" (survives only in modern
dialect as leising);
lið
(1052 ASC)
"fleet" - ON lið "troops, host, following,
crew" (OE
form was lid);
liðsmenn
(ASC
1036) "sailors" - ON liðsmenn "troops";
loft (found once with meaning
"air") - ON lopt (native OE equivalent was lyft); læst (1000s) "fault, sin" -
ON löstr "fault, flaw; vice";
mâl
(e.g. 1086 ASC)
"suit, case, pleading; agreement" - ON mál
"suit, action, case" (the word later
occassionally appears in ME and appears in Modern English as -mail,
e.g. as
in blackmail);
manslot
"portion of land granted the householder"
- apparently ON manns-hlutr;
nîðing
(c.1000; 1049 ASC se cing þa and eall here cwædon Swegen for
niðing)
"villain, evil man, niggard, wretch" (the word is also fairly common
in ME) - ON níðingr "villain,
scoundrel"; ôran plural of
ôra
(Danish
coin) - ON aurar, OSwed. öre (cf.
Norwegian øre);
orrest
(1096 ASC)
"battle" - ON orrosta "battle"
(also appears once in ME Ormulum,
c.1200: orrest);
rân
"robbery, rapine" - ON rán "robbery;
plunder, spoils"; rôt
(first in 1127 ASC
compound rôt-fæst)
"root" - ON rót;
ræfter
"beam" (modern raft)
- ON raptr;
saclêas
"innocent" - ON saklauss
"innocent"; sala
(one
instance) "sale" - ON sala
"sale"; sang
(does
not survive into ME) "bed" - ON sæng
"bed" (cf. Norwegian seng);
scægþ
"warship" - ON skeið "warship,
galley"; scægþmann
"seaman; Viking, pirate" - ON skeiðmaðr;
sceppe
(reappears in 1400s (Serjeantson)) "measure of grain or malt" - ON skeppa
"dry measure"; scinn
(1075 ASC)
"skin" - ON skinn
(OE used fell
and hýd
"hide" to denote both animal and human
skin); scoru
(late OE) "a score, notch" - ON skor
(cf. ON skora
"score, make a notch, tally", related to OE verb scieran
"incise, score with a point"); snacc
"small vessel, war-ship" - ON snekkja
"swift ship"; sparrian
"bar" (ME sparren,
sperren)
- ON sparra
"spar, bar"; stefnian
"summon" - ON stefna
"summon, call"; tacan
"take" (1072 ASC) - ON taka
(ousted
OE niman "take" during
the ME period); taper-æx
(e.g. ASC
1071) "small axe" - ON tapor-øx "small
axe"; targe
(late
OE) "small shield, buckler" - ON targa
"small round shield"; tîdung
"news, tidings" - ON tíðindi "news,
events, tidings"; til
(Northumb.) "till" - ON til;
þênest,
þegnest
"service" - ON þjónusta
"service" (cf. Norwegian tjeneste,
German Dienst);
þêonestmen
"retainers" - ON þjónostumenn "retainers,
servants"; þîr
"female servant" - probably ON þírr
"female slave, maidservant"; þriðing
"third part (of a county), riding" - ON þriðjungr
"third, third
part"; þræl
"thrall, slave" - ON þræll;
ðweng
"band" - ON þveng
"thong"; unlagu
"violation of law, injustice" - ON úlög "breach
of law"; ûtlaga
"outlaw" (common term in later OE) - ON útlagi
(note derived OE verb ûtlagian
"to outlaw"); wælrêaf
"plunder from the slain" - (probably) ON valrof, valrauf
"plunder from the slain"; wæpengetæc
(Laws) "wapentake"
(division of a riding) - ON vápnatak "the
grasping or brandishing of weapons"; wîcing
"pirate, viking" - ON víkingr
"man of the fjords"; wiþermâl
(1052 ASC) "counter-plea" - ON *viðr-mál
"counter-plea"; witter
(once in
1067 ASC; common in ME) "wise"
- ON vitr
"wise"; wîtword
"written evidence, proof" : ON vitorð
"knowledge, privity";
Serjeantson
makes a fascinating observation which
is worth mentioning here. She points out that in OE þæge,
we may
be seeing the first appearence of ON þeir
"they" in English. The word appears in
two OE texts, for example, in the Late
West Saxon Gospels as sume ðæge wæron hæðene
"some of them were heathens".
When
we bear in mind that Old English was
remarkable for the small amount of loanwords in its vocabulary, the
number of
loans from Old Norse at this stage seems quite significant; it informs
us of
the close links between the two linguistic communities, which were not
always
hostile. Indeed, the borrowing of pronouns and particles from
one language
to another seldom occurs, and yet perhaps OE and certainly ME borrowed
these
elements from Old Danish or Old West Norse. When
we recall that
in they are
both the pronoun and verb form are Scandinavian (ousted OE (West Saxon)
hie syndon),
we realize how intimately the language of the Norse invaders affected
English.
2 - MIDDLE ENGLISH*
i)
Everyday words
a
(ME) "river, stream" : ON á
"river" (cf. Norwegian å
"river"; form argues against derivation
from OE êa
"river"); addlen
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200; word
Northern/Midland ME only) "earn" : ON öðlask
"gain, procure" (survives in dial. addle
"earn, procure" - see below); algate
"in
every way" (ME c.1225: algate,
other forms allegate,
algates)
: ON alla götu "always"
(-s
adverbial suffix is native); allesamen
(ME) "altogether, everyone together" : ON allir saman
"all together"
(cf. Norwegian alle sammen
"everyone"); aloft
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200: o loft)
from a
Scandinavian source, cf. ON á lopti
"above, aloft"; anger
(ME
c.1250 anger,
angre)
: Scandinavian source corresponding to ON angr "grief,
sorrow"(ousted OE words grama
and irre);
attlen
(Brut,
c.1250) "think, intend; go" (now only in dial. ettle)
: ON ætla
"intend, propose"; awe
(ME c.1200: aghe,
1250: age):
ON agi
"fear; unrest" (ousted OE ege
"awe, fear"); awkward
(ME pre-1400: awkward,
awkwart)
: ON öfug-
"reversed, facing the wrong way" + Eng.
-ward;
axle
(ME 1290, in the compound axeltre
"axletree", ME 1368: axle)
eaxl
"shoulder" is known in OE but the modern
word is probably from the ON loan öxultré
(hence axeltre
above) from öxull
"axis, axle" and tré
"tree"; bag
(ME pre-1200: bagge)
: ON baggi
"pack, bundle"; bait
(n)
"food to entice animals" (ME c.1300: bait)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON beita
"food,
especially that which entices prey, bait", beit
"pastureland"; the verb dates from c.
1300 (Barnhart); band
"strip of material" (ME 1126: band,
a
dialectal variant of bond)
- this was a combination of a Scandinavian word
corresponding to ON band
"bond, fetter; cord" and Old French bande
"strip", originally from
Germanic (Barnhart); bank
(ME c.1200: banke)
: probably from ON banki,
bakki
"bank, ridge, mound"; bark
"outer layer of a tree" (ME c.1300: bark)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON börkr
"bark", Mainland Scandinavian bark
"bark"; bask
(ME
1397: basken "wallow
in warm water") : ON reflexive baðask
"bathe oneself"; bennk,
binc
(ME; now only in dial. benk,
bink
- see below) "bench, shelf" : ON bekkr
"bench" (preservation of the -k
proves this ME and dial. form to be Scandinavian
and not derived from OE benc,
from which the Modern Standard English form
derives); bî
(ME c.1315) "town" : ON
býr
"farm, homestead"; bigg
(ME
early 1300s) "dwell; build" : ON byggja
"colonise, populate, dwell, settle" (now
only dial. bigg);
birth
(ME 1170: burth,
1200: burthe,
burde):
ON byrð "birth,
descent" (ME ibirde
from OE gebyrd
was
ousted); bleak
(ME 1300: bleike):
ON bleikr
"pale, whitish" (blâke
from OE blâc
is found
in ME but gives way to the Scandinavian form); bloom
(ME
1200: blom,
blome):
ON blómi
(native were OE blôstm,
blôstma > blossom);
bloute
(ME Havelok,
c.1275) "soft"
: ON blautr
"soft"; bondeman
(ME and eModE) "male slave" : ON bóndamaðr
(with a different meaning
to the ME word; cf. Norwegian bonde
"farmer, peasant", (archaic)
"master, husband"); boon
(ME bôn)
"prayer, boon" : ON bón
"request, petition" (cf. OE bên "request, prayer");
booth
(ME 1200: bothe
(recorded earlier in ME place-names)): ON búð
"shop"; booty
(ME 1474: botye)
: ON býti
"share" (býta
"divide"); both
(1124: bathe,
1225: bothe):
ON báðir;
bound for
"ready to go" (ME Ormulum
c.1200: bûn,
pre-1400: bownde)
: ON búinn "prepared, ready", ODan. bôen
"ready, prepared"; brâþ
(ME
c.1315) "violently" : ON bráþr
"sudden, hasty"; bread
(by ME c.1200
bread
had the modern meaning) : ON brauð
(OE brêad
meant "crumb, fragment" - OE used hlâf
to
denote bread); brennen
(1137) "burn" : ON brenna
"burn" (cf. OE bærnan,
biernan "burn";
cf. Norwegian brenne);
brô
(ME c.1250) "eyebrow" : ON brá;
brodd
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200; word
Northern/Midland ME only) "spike" : ON broddr
"point, spike"; brink
(ME
1225: brinke)
: ODan. brink
(ON brekka)
"verge, brink"; brunie
(ME; Brut,
c.1250: brunie;
- now
only found in archaic Scots. byrnie)
"corslet, mailshirt" - ON brynja (OE
form
was byrne);
boulder
(ME Havelok,
c.1275 bulder(ston))
"stone" : cf. Swedish bullersten
"stone in a stream which makes a roaring noise from the rushing
water" - compound of bullra
"roar" and OE stân
"stone" (Barnhart) ; bull
(ME bule)
"bull" : OEast Norse bule; bulæxe
(ME) - ON bol-øx
"wood-axe"; bylaw
"secondary law" (ME 1257: birelage,
1280: bilage,
1370: bilawe) :
ON býjar-lög
"local ordinance" (modern meaning
appeared in 1541); cake
(ME c.1220: kake
"flat cake, flat loaf") from a
Scandinavian source, cf. ON kaka
"cake", Modern Norwegian kake,
Modern
Danish kage
"cake"; calf
(ME
pre-1325: calf)
"hind of the leg below the knee" from
ON kálfi "calf of the leg";
call
(ME 1200: callen,
kallen)
: ON kalla
(ousted OE hâtan,
clipian);
carl(e)
(known in OE in compounds and post-ME period only
in English dialects meaning "rustic" - see below) "man,
chap" : ON, ODan. karl
"man, man of the people" (cf. Norwegian kar,
Swedish
karl
"fellow, chap"); carling,
carline
"fore-and-aft beam in a vessel, used for
supporting the deck" from ON kerling
"old woman, hag"; carp
(ME
c.1225: carpen
"talk, converse") now "complain,
find fault" is a Scandinavian loan, cf. ON karpa
"boast", karp
"boasting, bragging"; cast
(ME
c.1200: casten)
: ON kasta
"throw" (ousted OE weorpan "throw, cast" cf. German werfen, Dutch werpen but was later largely pushed out
by throw from OE þrâwan);
clip
"trim, cut" (not "fasten") (ME Ormulum,
c.1200: clippen)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON klippa
"clip, cut", Modern Icelandic, Modern Swedish klippa
"cut, shear", Norwegian klippe
"cut, clip"; coupe
(ME Havelok,
c.1275) "buy,
purchase" : ON kaupa
"buy" (cf. OE ceapian "bargain, trade, buy",
Norwegian kjøpe);
crawl
(vb.) "move slowly along the ground on one's
hands and knees" (ME c.1200: crewlen,
pre-1400: crawlen)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON krafla
"make a pawing movement with the hands", Modern Danish, Norwegian kravle
"crawl, creep; swarm"; crook
(ME pre-1200: crôk "evil
device") from a Scandinavian source,
cf. ON krókr
"hook, bend", Norwegian and Swedish krok,
Danish krog
"hook, bend, curve, nook"; cut
(ME pre-1300: cutten, kitten and
early
dial. forms cutte,
kitte,
kette
point to OE *cyttan,
probably a Norse loan) : cf. Icelandic kúti
"small knife", Norwegian kutte
"cut" (Norse word ousted OE snîðan
"cut, slice" and partly ceorfan
which survives as carve);
cweld
(ME) "evening" : ON kveld
"evening" (cf. Norwegian kveld
"evening"); derf
(ME
c.1250) "bold" : ON djarfr
"bold, daring"; dil
(ME
c.1315) "conceal" : ON dylja
"hide" (cf. Nynorsk dylje,
dølje,
Norwegian dølge);
dirt
(ME pre-1300: drit,
drytt,
1425: dert,
1434: dyrt)
: ON drítr "dirt,
dung" (cf. Norwegian drit
"rubbish"); dirty
(ME c.1425: dyrty,
from earlier dritty
(pre-1400), from ME drit
+ y) - see dirt
above; down
"soft feathers" (ME 1345-49: doune)
: ON dúnn
"down, bed of down"; drag
(late ME
1440: draggen
"draw, pull") from a Scandinavian
source, cf. ON draga
"pull, draw, drag", but possibly a
dialectal variant of ME drawen
"draw" from OE dragan
"draw, drag"; dream
(ME 1250: drem)
: ON draumr
"dream" (OE drêam
meant "joy"); dregs (ME 1378: dregges)
: ON dregg
“sediment”;
dreng
(ME; Brut,
c.1250: dring,
Havelok, c.1275: dreng)
known from late OE - see above) "doughty
young man" : ON drengr
"bold man; fellow; attendant" (cf.
Danish dreng
"boy", Norwegian dreng
"farmhand", (archaic) "brave young man"); drepen
(ME Havelok,
c.1275) "kill"
either from ON drepa
"kill, strike, beat" or OE drepan
"strike, kill"; drip (ME c.1300: drippen
“drop
down”) : cf. ON dreypa “let fall
in drops”; droop
(ME 1300: drupen,
1333-52: droupen)
: ON drúpa
"droop (from sorrow)"; drown
(ME
c.1325 drounen, drunen)
: may
be from a Danish equivalent to ON drukna
"drown"; egg
(ME
1340: eg,
1366: egge)
: ON egg (defeated
OE parallel æg which
appeared in ME as ei);
egg
"to
incite" is according to Serjeantson already known in the OE loan from
Norse eggian
but I cannot corroborate this. Other authorities
have ME c.1200: eggen
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON eggja
"incite, whet"; farcost
(ME) "boat; circumstances" : ON farkostr
"vessel, ship"; fellow
(ME 1250: felawe)
: ON félagi "partner,
comrade" (already
recorded in OE as fêolaga);
fîken
(ME
c.1225) "hurry about" : ON fíkjast
"desire, yearn for"; fisk
(ME)
"fish" : ON fiskr
(cf. Norwegian fisk;
Modern English form derives from OE fisc,
cf.
German Fisch);
flat
(ME 1300: flat)
: ON flatr
"flat, level"; flit
(ME pre-1200:
flutten
“convey,
move, take”, flitten
ME King Horn
(c.1225)
"flit about") :
ON flytja
"carry, convey”; fo, fa
(ME)
"get, obtain, attain" : ON fá
"take; get gain, win" (cf. Norwegian få);
fog
(1554
but clearly much older) probably from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON fok
"snow flurry", fjúk
"drifting snow storm", Norwegian fokk
"drift", Danish fog
"drift, drifting snow"; frastys
(ME early 1300s) "tempt" : ON freista
"tempt";
frest
(ME Havelok,
c.1275) "delay" : ON frest
"delay, respite"; fro
(only in
phrase to and fro; ME 1325: fra,
fro)
: ON frá
"from"; frost
(ME
pre-1475: forst,
frost)
: ON frost;
froþe
(ME c.1300) "froth" : ON froða
"froth"; gain
(ME 1473: gayne)
: ON gagn
"advantage, profit"; gait
(late
ME c.1450:
gait,
gate
“walking,
departure, journey”)
: cf. ON gata “way,
road, path”; gaite
(ME)
"goat" : ON geit
"goat" (cf. Norwegian geit;
Modern
Standard English form comes from OE gât
as indicated by the dipthong); gal
(ME)
"mad, foolish, crazy" : ON galinn
"mad, wild; bewitched" (cf. Norwegian gal);
gap
(ME
c.1325: gap)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON gap
"chasm, empty space" (related to ON gapa
"gape"), Modern Norwegian gap
"wide open mouth; gap, chasm"; gape
"stare with mouth open, yawn" (ME 1250: gapen)
: ON gapa "gape";
garen,
geren
(ME
c.1250) "prepare, do, cause" : ON gøra
"do, make"; gasp
(ME
1393: gaspen)
: ON geispa
"yawn"; gaze
(ME c.1395:
gazen
“stare”)
: cf.
ON gá to heed; gere
(ME
early 1300s) "equipment, army" : ON gørvi
"gear, apparel"; gestning
(ME c.1250) "entertainment, feast" : cf. OSwed. gästning;
genge
(ME Havelok,
c.1275) "retinue,
household) : ON gengi "help, support";
get
(ME 1200: geten)
: ON geta
"be able to" (OE cognate gietan
only occurred in compounds in OE); gêten
(ME Havelok,
c.1275) "watch,
guard" : ON gæta
"watch, take care of, guard"; gift
(ME
1250: gift)
: ON gipta
"gift; good fortune" (OE form would
given modern *yift);
gill
(mainly Northern dialect) "ravine,
gorge" : ON gil;
girth (ME
c.1300: gerth
"belt used in husbandry") from a
Scandinavian source, cf. ON gjörð
"girdle, belt"; the modern meaning first
appears in 1664 (Barnhart); give
(ME c.1200: gifen
(pre-1130: yiven,
yeven
is from the native OE source West Saxon giefan
"give" (OE c.725))) the gutteral g
in the form of 1200, the form from which the
modern word is descended is the result of Scandinavian influence, cf.
ON gefa,
Old Swedish
giva
"give, grant", whose form spread from the north during the ME period;
glint alteration
of earlier c.1380 glenten
“gleam,
flash” : cf. Swedish
dial. glinta
“slip, shine”; glitter
(vb.) (ME c.1375: gliteren
"flash, sparkle")
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON glitra,
glita
"glitter, gleam"; greiþen
(ME) "prepare" : ON greiða
"make, get ready"; guess
(ME
1303: gessen)
: cf. OSwed. gissa,
ODan. gitze,
related to ON geta
"be able to, get, guess" (cf. ON noun geta
"guess, conjecture"); gæte(læs)
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200; word Northern/Midland ME only) "careless" : ON gæta
"heed, attend to"; hansel
(ME early 1300s) "gift" : ON handsal
"handshake binding an agreement"; happy
(ME
1380: happy
"lucky") : ON happ
"good luck" (survived in ME as hap
"luck, success"); haven
(ME
1200: haven,
from OE hæfen
"haven, harbour", probably from the ON
word, and therefore the only ON nautical loan to survive into ME) : ON hafn;
hâwer
(ME
c.1225) "skilful" : ON hágr
"handy, skilful"; helder
(ME -
now only dial.) "preferably, rather" : ON heldr
"more, rather" (cf. Norwegian heller);
heþen
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200; word
Northern/Midland ME only) "hence" : ON heðan
"hence"; hething
(ME early 1300s) "scorn" : ON hæðing
"derision, scorn"; hilen
(ME c.1250)
"hide, conceal" : ON hylja
"hide, cover"; hit
(ME
pre-1200: hitten; also found once in late OE - see
above) : ON hitta "hit
upon, meet; strike"; hærnes
(1137)
"brains" : ON hjarni
"brain, skull"; ill
(ME
1150: ille
"morally evil") : ON illr
"evil, ill, bad" (OE used yfel "evil");
immess
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200; word
Northern/Midland ME only) "variously" : ON ýmiss
"various, sundry"; keel
(1338: kelle,
1410: kele)
: ON kjólr;
ket
(ME c.1250) "flesh" : ON kjöt
"meat, flesh"; kettle
(ME 1338: ketil,
ketel)
: ON ketill (replaced
ME chetel from OE
citel);
kevel
(ME Havelok,
c.1275) "gag" from ON kefli
also "gag"; kid
"young goat" (ME Ormulum
c.1200: kide)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON kið
"young goat", Modern Mainland Scandinavian kid
"kid"; kick
(ME 1384 kiken)
: possibly derived from a cognate to ON kikna
"bend backwards, bend at the knees"; kindle
(ME
c.1200 kindelen,
kindeln)
: cf. ON kynda
"kindle", OSwed. quindla
"kindle"; laire
(ME c.1315) "clay" : ON leir
"clay, loam"; leg
(ME c.1275: leg)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON leggr
"leg; hollow bone", Modern Norwegian legg
"calf, lower leg", Modern Swedish lägg
"shin"; lift
(ME c.1200: liften)
: ON lypta
"raise"; ling
(date?)
"heather" (ME ling)
: ON lyng "heather";
link
(ME c.1415: lynke
"section of a cord or rope", c.1443:
"link of a chain") from a Scandinavian source, cf. Old Swedish lænker
"chain, link", Modern Swedish länk,
Modern Norwegian lenke
"chain, fetter", ON hlekkr
"link"; (vb.) (ME c.1385: linken)
probably derived from the noun; lîre
(ME)
"face, skin" : ON hlýr
"cheek"; lit
(now
only dial.) "colour, hew" : ON litr
"hew, colour" (cf. Norwegian lød);
loan
(ME
1175: lân,
pre-1250: loan)
: ON laun
"reward, recompense" (cf. Norwegian lønn
"wages"); loft
(ME c.1225: loft)
: ON lopt
"loft; air, sky" (found once in OE - see
above); loghe
(ME Ormulum;
c.1200: lôwe;
word Northern/Midland ME only) "fire" :
ON logi
"flame"; loose
(adj.)
"not firm" (ME pre-1200: lowse,
c.1350: loos)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON lauss
"loose" (OE form was lêas);
(vb.) "set free, release" (ME c.1200: lowsen,
c.1325:
loosen)
derived from the adjective (Barnhart); low
(ME
1175: lah,
1280: low)
: ON lágr "low, low down, short";
lug
(vb.) "pull, drag" (ME c.1375: luggen
"move heavily", c.1390: loggen
"pull, drag") from a Scandinavian
source, cf. Modern Swedish lugga,
Modern Norwegian lugge,
both "pull by the hair"; lurk
(ME 1300
lurken,
lorken,
older *lusken)
: cf. Danish luske
"slink, sneak about, prowl" from MLG lûcshen
"lie hidden"; mâl
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200: ) "speech,
payment" : ON mál
"suit, action, case"; may
(ME Brut,
c.1250) "maiden"
: ON mey "girl"
(also OE mæg
"kinswoman"; Norwegian mø);
meek
(ME
1200: mêok)
: ON mjúkr
"soft, mild" (cf. Swedish mjuk
"soft"); mire
(ME
1300: muir,
1338: myre)
: ON mýrr
"bog, marsh"; muck
(ME c.1250:
muc
“filth”)
:
ON myki “cow
dung”;
muggy
"humid" (ME 1390: mugen
"to drizzle") : ON mugga
"mist"; mun
(ME) "mouth" : ON munnr
"mouth" (cf. Norwegian munn);
myn
(ME early 1300s) "remember" : ON minna
"remember, recall"; mynnyng
(ME c.1300) "remembrance" : ON minning
"memory, remembrance"; nag :
cf.
ON nagga “complain,
groan, grumble”, dial.
Norwegian
nagga
“gnaw;
irritate”;
naken
(ME)
"naked" : ON nøktr
(cf. Danish nøgen;
Modern Standard English form is from OE nâcod);
naþe
(ME)
"grace, favour, mercy" : ON náð
"grace, mercy" (cf. Norwegian nåde);
nevenen
(ME King Horn,
c.1225; later nevnen)
"name" : ON nefna
"name, mention"; occ
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200; word
Northern/Midland ME only; now only dial.) "and" : ON ok
"and, also" (cf. Norwegian og);
odd
(ME 1280: odde)
: ON oddi "odd
number"; ôr
(ME
c.1250) "before" : ON âr
"before"; outlaw
(ME
1300: outlawe)
: ON útlagi;
prod 1535,
developed from ME brodden
(c.1475)
“goad, urge” from ealier brode
“pointed
instrument” : cf. ON broddr “shaft,
spike”; race
(ME c.1300: ras)
: ON rás
"race; course, channel" (cf. OE ræs "onrush, attack; jump, leap");
radd (ME
Ormulum, c.1200;
word
Northern/Midland ME only) "afraid" : ON hræddr
"afraid, frightened" (cf. Norwegian redd);
rag
(ME
1325: ragge)
: ON rögg
"tuft, shagginess"; raid
(ME
c.1425) "military excursion" (originally on horseback) either from ON
reið
"ride, riding" or a Scandinavian influenced northern English form of
OE râd
"ride, riding, journey; raid" with an
extension of meaning - which has otherwise given us "road"; raise
(ME
1200: reysen,
c.1250: reisen) :
ON raisa
"cause to rise"; rake
(vb.)
"gather in, sweep" (ME c.1250: raken
"gather, rake") from a Scandinavian
source, cf. ON raka
"scrape, rake"; rake
"dissolute man" (ME rakel
"rash" > eModEng. rakehell
(1554)
> rake)
: cf. ON reik
"strolling, wandering", Icelandic reikall
"vagabond"; ran
(ME; - known in OE (see above) with meaning
"robbery") "spoils, plunder, loot, booty" : ON rán
"robbery, plunder; spoils" (cf. Norwegian ran
"robbery; booty"); ransack
(ME
1250: ransaken)
: ON rannsaka
"search a house"; rapelike
(ME c.1250) "hastily" : ON hrapeliga
"hurredly, hastily"; rapen
(ME
c.1250) "hasten" : ON hraða
"hasten"; râþ
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200; word
Northern/Midland ME only) "counsel" : ON ráð
"counsel, advice"; reef
"section of a sail that can be taken in or let out" (ME c.1390: riff,
emodE
1667: reef)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON rif
"reef of a sail"; usage probably derived from ON rif
"ridge, reef" from which our word reef
(1584: riffe,
riff)
"narrow, rocky ridge" comes, via Early
Modern Dutch (Barnhart); reindeer
(ME c.1400: rayne-dere,
1408: reyndere)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON hreindýri
(hrein
itself
meant "reindeer" while dýr
denotes "animal"); OE hrân
"reindeer" is identical but was ousted by the Norse form; rid
(ME
1200: ruden,
rudden,
c.1250: ridden)
: ON ryðja
"clear, free up"; rift
(pre-1325)
“a split, act of splitting” : cf. ON ript “breach”; rig
(ME Havelok,
c.1275) "back" : ON hryggr
"back, spine"; rô
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200; word
Northern/Midland ME only) "quiet, peace" : ON ró
"rest, calm"; roose
"to praise", ros
"praise" (ME; - now only in dial roose)
: ON hrósa,
hrós
"(to) praise" (cf. Norwegian rose,
ros);
root
(ME 1127:
rot)
: from ON rót
“root”;
roþen, râþen
(ME) "counsel" : ON ráða
"advise, rule, govern, command" (cf.
Norwegian råde);
rotten
(ME pre-1300: roten)
: ON rotinn "rotten,
putrid" (the verb rot is however from OE rotian "rot,
putrefy"; cf. ON
rotna
also "rot, putrefy" (Norwegian Bokmål råtne,
Nynorsk
rotne));
rowst
(now only dial.) "voice" : ON raust
"voice" (cf. Norwegian røst);
rug (1551-2)
“coarse fabric” : cf.
Norwegian
dial.
rugga
“coarse
coverlet”, ON rögg “shaggy tuft”; rugged
(ME 1300
or earlier rugged)
: ON rugr
cf. Nynorsk rugga
"large, heavy person"; sacrabar
(ME) "plaintiff" - ON sakaráberi
"plaintiff"; sag (ME 1392: saggen)
:
possibly borrowed from Scand.: cf. Norw. sakke
“slow
down, lag behind”, Swed. sacka
“sink
down”;
same
(ME
c.1200: same)
: ON sami;
sammtale
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200; word Northern/Midland ME only) "agreed" : cf. ON samtala
"conversation" (Norwegian samtale
"conversation"), að samtala
"agree"; scab
(ME 1275: scab)
: ON skabb
"mange, scab, scratch" (note also
derived adjective scabby,
a direct equivalent to native English shabby,
which
derives from OE cognate scæb);
scale
(ME c.1300: scale)
: ON skál
"(measuring) bowl"; scant
(ME
c.1350: scant)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON skamt,
the
neuter singular of adjective skammr
"short, brief"; scar
"skerry, cliff" (ME 1395: scar)
: ON sker
"skerry" (cf. ON skera
"cut"); scare
(ME 1200: skerren)
: ON skirra
"avoid"; ON skjarr
"timid"; scathe
(ME
c.1200: scathen)
: ON skaða
"harm, damage, injure" (cf. Norwegian skade
or ska);
scôgh
(ME early
1300s) "wood, forest" : ON skógr
"wood, forest" (cf. Norwegian skog);
scorch
(ME skorken, pre-1325: scorchen)
:
probably from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON skorpna
"be shrivelled"; scot
"shot" (now only dial.) : ON skot
"shot, shooting; missile"; scot
(ME
mid-1300s), skat
(late ME/eModE dialect) "tax" : ON skattr
"tribute, tax" (cf. Norwegian skatt
"tax"); scowl
(ME
1340: scoulen)
: probably ODan. skula
"scowl"; scrap
: ON skrap
"clatter"; scrape
(ME 1225: skrapen)
: ON skrapa "scratch
out"; scream
(ME 1175:
scræmen)
: possibly ODan. skræmme,
ON *skræma
"frighten, scare"; screech
(ME
1250: schrichen, early 1300s skrîken)
: ON skrækja
"screech, shriek"; scrub (c.
1303)
“scratch or rub oneself” : could be from Middle Low German
but cf. Norwegian and Danish
skrubbe
to
scrub; seat
(ME
c.1200: sete)
: ON sæti
"seat"; seem
(ME
c.1200: semen)
: perhaps ON sóma
"beseem", from sæmr
"befitting" (cf. related OE sêman
"reconcile"); seemly
"proper, fitting" (ME c.1200: semlich)
: ON sæmiligr
"becoming"; sêr
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200: )
"separate" : ON sér
"for or by oneself, separately"; serk
(ME; -
now only in Scots. sark)
"shirt" : ON serkr
"sark, shirt" (cf. Danish and Norwegian serk
"shift, chemise"; ON word has reinforced
OE cogante serc);
silt
(ME c.1440: silt)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. Modern Danish sylt
"salt marsh"; Barnhart argues for Middle Low German or Middle Dutch silte, sulte
"salt marsh" - either is possible; sister (ME
c.1250: sister) :
ON systir
(ousted
OE form sweostor which
appeared in ME as swuster);
skath
(ME c.1300) "injury" : ON skaði
"harm, damage"; skemten
(ME) "joke, jest" - ON skemta
"amuse, entertain" (cf. Norwegian skjemte
"banter, jest", Icelandic skemmta
"amuse, entertain"; note also ME skenting
"amusement"); skere
"clear, pure" (ME; - obsolete dial. skir,
skeer
"sharp") : ON skírr
"clear, bright, pure" (cf. Nynorsk skir,
Norwegian skjær
"pure, sheer"); skid
(1610)
"beam or plank on which something rests" from a Scandinavian source,
cf. ON skíð
"stick of wood" (also "ski"); skill
(ME
1175: skil "skill, discrimination")
: ON skil
"distinction" (cf. ON skilja
"separate"; - skil
ousted descendant of OE cræft
"skill, art" in this sense); skirt
(ME
1325: skirt)
: ON skyrta
"shirt" (competed with OE scyrte);
skulk
(ME
c.1200: skulken)
: probably ON skolla
"skulk away, remain aloof", (cf. ODan. skulkæ;
Norwegian skulke
"shirk"); skull
(ME
pre-1200: sculle)
: ON skalli
"bald head, skull"; sky
(ME
pre-1200: sky)
: ON ský
"cloud" (cf. Norwegian sky
"cloud" - ON word marginalised OE hêofon
"sky, heavens" to religious/lyrical use
and OE wolcen "cloud" (cf.
German Wolke)
fell out of use (except in poetic and archaic welkin "sky, heavens"));
slaughter
(ME
1303: slaghter)
: ON slátr
"fresh meat" (cf. OE slieht
"slaughter, murder; animals for slaughter"); slouch
(1515)
“awkward, slovenly or lazy man” :
cf. ON slókr “a
slouching fellow”;
sly
(ME 1200: sleh,
1303: slye)
: ON slægr
"cunning"; smile
(ME
c.1303: smylyng)
probably from a Scandinavian source, cf. Swedish smila,
Danish smile
"smile, smirk, grin" but perhaps from Middle Low German *smîlen;
snare
"trap" was already loaned from Norse in Old English times (OE snearu)
from ON
snara
"snare, noose"; in ME we find pre-1100: snear,
c.1300: snare,
while the corresponding verb appears c.1395: snaren
- a
derivation from the noun (Barnhart); snub
(vb.) (ME c.1250: snibben
"rebuke", c.1340: snubben)
from a
Scandinavian source, cf. ON snubba
"curse, reprove, chide"; sprint
(1566)
“spring, dart”, prob. an
alteration of ME sprenten
(c.
1325) to leap or spring : cf. ON spretta
“to
jump up”; squall
(modE.
1719: squall)
: probably related to ON skella
"make a noise; break out, burst out, strike" (cf. Nynorsk skjelle
"cold wind", Swedish skvala
"pour, gush"); stack
(n)
"hayrick" (ME c.1300: stac
"pile, heap") from a Scandinavian
source, cf. ON stakkr
"haystack", Norwegian stakk,
Danish stak
"rick, stack"; stagger
(ME c.1434: stageren,
a variant of c.1355: stakeren
"stagger") from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON stakra,
staka
"push, shove; stagger", Modern Danish stavre
"dodder, totter"; steak
(ME
1440: steyke)
- ON steik
"steak"); sterne
(ME)
"star" : ON stjarna
"star" (cf. Norwegian stjerne;
Standard English form derives from OE steorra);
stôr
(ME; now only dial.) "strong, great" :
ON stórr
"big, great" (Norwegian stor);
stro, stra
(ME) "straw" : ON strá
(cf. Norwegian strå;
Modern Standard form is from OE strêaw);
summ
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200: ) "as"
: ON sum
"as, like" (cf. Norwegian sum
"as"); swain
"(arch.) a male lover; a country youth, a rustic
lad" (ME pre-1160: swein
"young man, attendant") from a
Scandinavian source (Scand. form ousted ME variant swon
from OE swân "herdsman, peasant; youth,
swain"), cf. ON sveinn
"boy, servant, attendant", Modern Danish
svend
"fellow; swain; shop assistant", Modern Swedish sven
"swain, page", Modern Norwegian svenn
"youth, squire, page; journeyman" - as a
personal name, Svend,
Sven
is still popular in Mainland Scandinavia; the now
archaic or poetic sense in English of "lover, wooer" first appears
c.1585 (Barnhart); swîðen
(ME c.1250) "burn" : ON sviþa
"singe, burn, roast" (now only in dial. swithen
- see below); take
(ME
c.1200: taken)
: ON taka
(ousted OE niman "take, get, seize" (cf.
German nehmen, Dutch nemen) which still occurred in the forms nimen, nemen during
ME
period); tangle
(ME
pre-1340: tangilen,
variant of tagilen
"entangle") probably from an OScand. source, cf. Swed. dial. taggla
(Barnhart); tarn
(ME) "pool, pond" (now only dial. tarn)
: ON tjörn
"small lake, pool" (cf. Norwegian tjørn,
tjern
"small lake, pond"); tattered (ME c.1340: tatrid
“wearing
ragged clothes”) : cf. ON töturr “rag”; their
(ME 1303: theyr)
: ON þeira;
them
(ME c.1300: them):
ON þeim;
theonest
(ME) "service" (already loaned into OE
as þênest,
þegnest)
: ON þjónusta
"service" (cf. German Dienst);
þerne
(ME Havelok,
c.1275) "serving
wench" : ON þerna
"maidservant" (cf. poetic Danish terne
"handmaiden", archaic Norwegian terne);
they
(ME c.1200: thei)
: ON þeir;
though
(ME 1200: thohh,
c.1378: thowgh)
: ON þó,
þauh
"yet, though, nevertheless" (cf. OE ðêah,
ðêh);
tînen
(ME
c.1250) "lose" : ON týna
"lose"; tît
(ME
c.1315) "quickly" : ON tít adverb formed from tíðr "frequent,
usual"; thrift (ME pre-1300
“prosperity, profit,
savings” from ME thriven
“to
thrive”)
: prob. influenced
by ON thrift,
variant of thrif “prosperity”; þrinne
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200; word
Northern/Midland ME only) "three" : ON þrinnr
"three"; thrive
(ME
c.1200: thrifenn,
c.1300: thriven)
: ON þrífa
"grasp", middle voice þrífast
"thrive, prosper" (cf. Norwegian trives
"prosper, thrive", (dial.) trive
"grab, seize"); thrust (ME
1175: thrusten
"push with
force") from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON þrýsta
"thrust, force". The noun appears in
1513 (Barnhart); Thursday
(ME
pre-1250: thursdei;
from OE c.1000 Thurresdæg,
probably a contraction
influenced by the ON form) : ON Þórsdagr
(OE had Þunresdæg,
which would have become *Thundersday
in
Modern English - cf. German Donnersdag);
thwart
(ME c.1200: thweart)
: ON þvert,
neuter of þverr
"athwart, converse, adverse" (Norwegian tvert
"crosswise, athwart"); tight
(ME 1325: tigt)
: ON þéttr
"tight" (cf. Norwegian tett);
toss
(ME pre-1450:
tossen
“pitch
or throw about”)
: possibly Scand.:
cf.
dial.
Swedish
and Norwegian
tossa
“to
strew, spread”; trust
(n)
"faith, confidence" (ME c.1200: truste)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON traust
"help; confidence", Norwegian trøst
"comfort, solace"; (vb.) "have
faith, confidence in" (ME c.1200: trusten)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON treysta
"trust; make firm"; uggen
(ME c.1250) "fear" : ON ugga
"fear"; ugly
(ME c.1250: uglike,
c.1325: ugli "horrible, fearful";
modern sense not until into 1300s)
: ON uggligr
"frightful" (cf. uggr
"fear", OE ege
"awe, fear"); tome
(ME; -
now only in dial. toom
- see below) "empty, idle" : ON tómr
"empty, vain, idle" (cf. Norwegian tom);
umme
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200; word Northern/Midland ME only) "about" : ON umb
"around, about"; wandraþ
(ME) "suffering" : ON vandræþi
"difficulty"; want
(ME c.1200: wanten)
: ON vanta
"lack"; wassail
(Early
ME 1140: wes heil,
c.1200: wæshail,
later: wasseyl,
wassayl)
: ON ves heill
"be thou hale!" (could be OE wes hâl)
note
the derived verb ME Havelok,
c.1275 wesseylen
"drink healths"; waythe
(ME
early 1300s) "hunting" : ON veiðr
"hunting, fishing"; weak
(ME
c.1300: wayke,
c.1325: weke)
: ON veikr
"weak, feeble" (OE equivalent was wâc - this
would have become *woak
or *woke
in Modern English); whisk
(ME 1375: wisk, wysk
“quick
sweeping movement”) : ON visk
“wisp”; window
(ME c.1200: window)
: ON vindauga (lit. "wind-eye"; Norse
word ousted OE êagþyrel lit.
"eye-opening");
wing
(ME c.1175: wenge,
c.1200: whing,
1390: winge)
: ON vængr
"wing" (OE used feþera);
witerr
(ME Ormulum,
c.1200: )
"wise" (a common word during the ME period) : ON vitr
"wise"; witnen (ME) "witness" : ON vitna "witness, attest"; wrô (ME
early 1300s) "corner" : ON *wrá
"corner, nook"; wrong
(ME pre-1200: wrang
"twisted, crooked", c.1250: wrong,
1325: wrong "bad,
immoral") : ON vrangr "injustice,
wrong"; wyterly
(ME) "plainly; indeed" : ON vitrligr
"wise, sensible, judicious" (cf.
Norwegian vitterlig "known,
obvious").
*Note that these words were merely first
recorded in ME literature but no doubt were more ancient in spoken
English.
**They are given in their modern forms
with ME forms in brackets, where known. Some forms have not survived
into
Modern English and are given in their recorded ME forms.
ii) Scots, Northern and
One
result of the Norse input into the English
language is the large number of words in the dialects beginning sc-
or
The
northern dialects often have [k] where Standard
English has [t] and [g] where Standard English has [dj], for example thack
“thatch”
(ON þak),
kirk
“church” (ON kirkja),
brig
“bridge” (ON briggja).
The
fact that such a frequent and fundamental part
of speech as an auxiliary verb mun
“must” made into the dialect vocabulary provides
some idea of just how deeply Norse penetrated into early English.
The
Scandinavian influence has left an indelible
mark on the pronunciation of Scots and northern English. In some areas
one can
still hear forms such as garth
“yard”, garn
“yarn”, kist
“chest”, kirn
“churn”, skift
“shift”, skelf
“shelf”, skrike
“shriek” and scrood
“shroud”.
It
is ON -au-
that we find in dialectal rowk
“reek”
and nowt
“cattle” not the OE cognates with -êa-.
Norse medial -ei-
contributed to the retention in northern dialects
of such forms as stain
“stone”, hame
“home”, mair
“more”, ain
“own” and aik
“oak”. The -oo-
sound familiar in such dialect words as oot,
hoose
and doon
(feathers) may well have been reinforced by the same sound in the Norse
cognates. The lack of a medial guttural -h-
(cf. knight,
right)
sound in Norse probably accelerated the shedding
of this feature in medieval English – spellings such as dowter
and rite
are
attested from the late 1300s onward in areas most densely settled by
the Danes.
Native Norse terms not attested in early English at the time of their
borrowing
are drengr
“bold man”, gríss
“pig”, kjót
“flesh”, lyng
“heather”, sild
“herring” and elska
“to love”. All these
words can be found in the dialects. The words barn
“child” (cf. Norwegian barn),
cwen
“woman” (cf. Norwegian kone),
wynstra “left”
(cf. Norwegian venstre),
gamol
“old” (cf. Norwegian gammel),
gnidan
“to rub” (cf. Norwegian gni,
gnide),
tygle
“bridal” were once
common to both OE and ON, but are now only found in modern Scandinavian
and
some of the English dialects.
According
to Xandry, Westmoreland, County
Durham, Cumberland, Lancashire, and Northumberland have best preserved
the
Norse idiom in their local dialects, followed some way away by
Cheshire,
Derbyshire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Suffolk.
Of
the 1617 words which Joseph Wright
labeled as Scandinavian in origin in his Dialect
Dictionary, Xandry calculates that 40% can be
traced back to ON, 24%
are to be found in Norwegian dialects, while 9% and 5% are found in
Danish and
Swedish respectively. Of these words, Xandry reckons 220 (13.6%) are
agricultural expressions, 202 (12.5%) are to do with sailing and
fishing, 155 (9.6%)
relate to tools, 85 (5.3%) are names of animals, 52 (3.2%) refer to
people,
children etc., 35 (2.2%) refer to parts of the body, and 25 (1.5%) are
plant
names.
Many
northern words in English dialects
(and Scots) only occur in isolated regions or individual counties, so
it is not
possible to give an exhaustive list here. Some are also obsolete. But
an
attempt is made below to include dialectal terms from Norse which have
at least
a fairly wide currency.
addle
"earn, procure" : ON öðla,
öðlask "gain, procure";
air
"sandbank" : ON eyrr "sandbank",
MDan. ør
(Norwegian øyr);
algate
"in every way" (ME c.1225: algate,
other forms allegate,
algates)
: ON alla götu "always"
(-s
adverbial suffix is native); and
"breath" (ME c.1315 and)
: ON andi
"breath; soul, spirit" (cf.
Norwegian ånd);
arr
"scar" : ON ørr "scar";
aund
"fated, forewarned" : ON auðinn
"destined" (Norwegian auden,
Swedish öen);
awns
"chaff" : ON agnar
(sing. ögn)
"chaff, husks" (Danish avner,
Norwegian agner);
aye
"always" (ME ay)
: ON ei,
ey
"always, ever" (OE â
"ever" > ME ô);
bain
"flexible, ready, direct" (ME
early 1300s bein,
bain)
: ON beinn
"straight, direct" (note Yorksh. bainsome
"helpful, at hand", Norwegian beinsam);
bairn
"child" (ME 1150: barn)
: ON barn "child" (partly
OE bearn)
"child"; bait
"graze, send to pasture" : ON beita "cause
to bite" (Norwegian beite);
bask
"thrash, beat severely" : ON
(probably from Middle Low German batschen)
"thrash, beat" (cf. Norwegian baske
"slap", Standard English bash
probably derives from the Norse form); batten
"thrive" : ON batna
"improve"; beck
"stream" : ON bekkr "brook,
stream" (Norwegian bekk);
bigg
“barley” : ON bygg,
cf. Norwegian bygg
“barley”; big, biggen
"build" : ON byggja,
byggva
"inhabit; build" (Norwegian bygge,
Nynorsk byggje);
birr
"force, impetus" : ON byrr
"favourable wind"; blowt
"soft, weak" : ON blautr
"soft, weak; wet" (Norwegian bløt);
brae,
bree
(mainly Scots.) "hillside, slope, bank; an upland area" (ME 1300s: brâ, brea)
: probably from ON brá
"eyebrow" or related (cf. Norwegian Nynorsk brå
"eyelid", English brow <
OE brû);
brat
"steep; sudden" : ON bráðr
"sudden, hasty" (Nynorsk brå
"abrupt, sudden", Norwegian bratt
"steep; sudden"); brenn
"burn" : ON brenna
"burn" (Norwegian brenne);
bro
"footbridge" : ON brú "bridge";
busk
"dress oneself" : ON búask "get
oneself ready"; cair
"drive" (ME kairen,
cairen) :
ON keyra
"drive, thrust; ride" (Norwegian kjøre);
car
"pond, swamp, pool" : ON kjarr
"thicket, copsewood" (Danish kær,
Norwegian dialect kjerr
"bog"); carle
"rustic, peasant" : ON karl
"man, fellow" (Norwegian kar,
Swedish karl
"fellow, chap"); carlin,
carline
(Scots., dial.) "old woman, hag, witch" first recorded in 1300s ME ,
from ON kerling
"old woman, hag" (therefore identical in origin with carling
above), cf. Modern Danish kælling "hag,
crone; old woman", Modern Swedish kärring "old
woman; crone", Modern Norwegian kjerring "old
woman"; chaft “jawbone; mouth” (in pl.) : ON
kjaptr
(cf. Norwegian kjæft);
cled
"clothes, apparel" : ON klæði
"cloth, garment" (Nynorsk klede,
Norwegian klær);
clegg
“gadfly” : ON kleggi;
crake
"raven, rook" : ON krákr
"crow, raven" (Norwegian kråke
"crow"); dag
"dew" : ON dögg "dew" (Norwegian
dugg,
dogg);
drucken
“drunken” : ON past participle drukinn;
ea
“island” : ON ey
“island” (cf. Norwegian øy);
elding
"fuel" : ON eldsneyti,
eldviðr "wood,
material for burning";
elt
"slush, mud, quagmire" : from ON
verb elta
"knead, squeeze" (Norwegian elte
"mess, quagmire"); ert
"pea" : ON ertr
"pea" (Norwegian ert);
ettle
"intend, propose" : ON ætla
"intend"; ewer
"udder" : ON júgr
"udder" (Danish yver,
Norwegian jur);
far
"sheep" : ON fé
"cattle, sheep; money"
(Norwegian får
"sheep");
feal
"hide" : ON fela "hide,
conceal"; fell
"hill, mountain" (ME fell)
: ON fell,
fjall
"hill, fell, mountain" (cf.
Norwegian fjell);
flit
"move" : ON flytja
"carry, convey, move" (Norwegian
flytte);
force
"waterfall" (ME fors)
: ON fors,
foss
(cf. Norwegian foss);
frae
"from" : ON frá
(Nynorsk frå,
Norwegian fra);
frosk
"frog" : ON froskr
(cf. Norwegian frosk);
gain
"convenient, handy" : ON gagn "advantage,
benefit, profit"; gape
"yawn" (ME 1250: gapen)
: ON gapa
"gape,
stare with the mouth open"; gar
"make" : ON gera,
gørva "make,
do, construct" (Norwegian gjøre);
garn,
gairn
vb. "to darn" and noun
"yarn" : ON garn
(ME garn;
standard English yarn
probably derives from OE gearn);
garth
"field, yard" : ON garðr "fence,
enclosure; dwelling" (Norwegian gård;
cf. modern yard
< OE geard);
gate
"way, street, road" : ON gata "path,
way, road"; gaum
"heed" : ON gaumr
"attention, heed" (Nynorsk gaum;
cf. also English gormless
from ON gaumr);
gawk
"cuckoo" : ON gaukr
(Norwegian gauk);
glatten, gladden
"smooth, polish, soften"
: ON *gletta
(?) (cf. Norwegian glatte,
Norw. dial gletten
"smooth, slippery",
Danish glat
"smooth", Middle Dutch glad,
glat); gleg
"small window" : ON gluggr
"window" (Norwegian glugg "small
window"); glegg
"clear-sighted, sharp" : ON gløggr
"sharp, clear" (Nynorsk gløgg);
goadick
"mystery, riddle, puzzle" : ON gáta
"riddle" (Norwegian gåte);
gool
"yellow, fallow" : ON gulr
"yellow" (Norwegian gul);
grice
"pig" : ON gríss "hog,
pig" (Norwegian gris);
grum
"angry, surly" : ON gramr
"wroth, angry" (cf. OE gram
"angry, cruel, fierce"); haaf
"open sea" : ON haf "sea,
ocean"; hag
"to hew" : ON höggva "strike,
smite, hew" (cf. Nynorsk
hogge,
Norwegian hugge);
haver
"oats" : ON hafre (cf.
Norwegian havre);
helder
"rather" : ON heldr "more,
rather" (cf. Norwegian heller);
henstee
"chicken runway" : ON hönsstígr
(?) (Norwegian hønsestige);
heppen
"tidy" : ON heppinn
"lucky, happy" (Nynorsk heppen);
hill
"cover up, wrap" : ON hylja "hide,
cover"; hoast
"cough" : ON hósti
"cough" (Norwegian hoste);
how
"hillock" : ON haugr
"mound" (Norwegian haug,
Danish
høj);
ing
"meadow" : ON eng "meadow,
pasture"; intake “new enclosure” : ON in+taka; keek in
"peep in" : late ON
derived from MLG kîken (cf.
Norwegian
kikke);
kelda
"spring" : ON kelda
"well, spring" (Norwegian kilde);
kenning
"knowledge" : ON kenning "teaching,
doctrine;
hallmark"; ket
"carrion" : ON kjöt
"meat" (Norwegian kjøt);
kirk
"church" (ME 1200: kirke)
: ON kirkja;
kirn
"churn" : ON kjarni
"kernel" (Norwegian kjerne,
Nynorsk kinne);
kist
"chest" : ON kista "chest,
coffin"; kittling
"chicken" : ON kjúklingr
"chick" (Norwegian kylling);
laik,
lake
"to play, sport" : ON leika
"play" (cf. Norwegian leike,
leke);
lait
"search" : ON leita "seek,
search" (Norwegian leite);
lathe
"barn" : ON hlaða "store-house,
barn"; lax
"salmon" : ON lax (cf.
Norwegian lax,
German Lachs);
lea
"scythe" : ON ljár, lé (Norwegian
ljå);
leising
"freed man" : ON leysingi
"freed man"; lift
"air, sky" : ON lopt "air,
sky; loft"; lig
"lie (down)" : ON liggja
"lie (down)" (Nynorsk liggje,
Norwegian ligge);
ling
"heather" : ON lyng
"heather" (Norwegian lyng);
lit
"to dye" : ON lita "dye";
lithe,
lythe
(ME lîþen;
now only obsolete dial. form) "listen" : ON hlýða
"listen, obey" (cf. Norwegian lytte
"listen"); lop
(ME loppe)
"flea" : ODan. loppæ
"flea" (Norwegian loppe);
loup
"leap, run with strides" : ON hlaupa
"run" (Norwegian løpe,
løype,
ME loupen,
Standard English lope,
all from hlaupa, English cogate was OE hlêapan, modern leap);
meal
“sandbank” : ON melr
“sandhill”; mense
(ME mensk)
"honour, respect, good manners" : OSwed. mænska
"goodness"; mickle
"great, large" : ON mikill "great,
large; much" (Norwegian
Bokmål meget,
mye,
Nynorsk mykje);
min
"less" : ON minnr
"less" (cf. Norwegian mindre
"less"); minne
"lesser" : ON minni
(cf. Norwegian mindre
"less"); mirk
"dark" : ON myrkr "darkness" (cf.
Norwegian mørke;
this mainly dialect word may in fact
derive from OE mirce
"darkness,
murk"); mun
"mouth" : ON munnr
"mouth" (cf. Norwegian munn);
mun
"must" : ON munu
"shall, will, must" (cf.
Norwegian må
"may, must"); mug
"fog" : ON mugga "drizzling
mist"; naut
(Scots), nowt
(North. Eng.) "cattle" : ON naut
"cattle, livestock" (OE parallel
was nêat,
found in Shakespeare - now obsolete; Norwegian naut,
Jutlandic dialect nød);
nay
"no" (ME 1325: nai)
: ON nei;
neave, neive
"fist" : ON hnefi
"fist" (Norwegian neve
"fist, handful"); near,
niere,
nyre “kidney”
:
ON nýra (cf. Norwegian
nyre);
oast
"cheese" : ON ostr
"cheese" (Norwegian ost);
oc
"and" : ON ok
"and, also" (cf. Norwegian og
"and"; OE ac
"but, and"); ouse
"bale out" : ON ausa
"to pump, bale" (cf. Nynorsk ause,
Norwegian øse);
ownly
"lonely, dreary" : ON aumligr
"wretched" (cf. Nynorsk aumleg
"wretched", OE earm
"poor, wretched"); quey, quee
"heifer" (ME cwie)
: ON kvíga
"heifer" (cf. Norwegian kvige "heifer",
kveg
"cattle"); raun,
rown “a
female
fish, esp. the herring or salmon” : ON hrogn
(cf. Dan. rogn);
rawk
“sea fog, fog” : cf. Swed. rök, Danish røg “smoke”; red up
"tidy, clear" : ON reiða "shift,
convey; lift" (Norwegian rede opp);
rig
"rye" : ON rugr
(Danish ryg,
Norwegian rug);
roose
"praise" : ON hrós "praise";
roose
" to praise" : ON hrósa "praise"
(cf. Norwegian ros,
rose);
sammen
"together" : ON saman
"together, in common" (cf.
Norwegian sammen,
German zusammen);
scar,
sker
“skerry” : ON sker
“skerry”; scarn,
skarn
"dung, filth" : ON skarn
"dung" (Norwegian skarn
"dirt, filth, dung", Swedish skarn
"dung, filth"); scrat
“goblin” : ON skratti
“devil,
demon”; seng
"bed" : ON sæng
(found once in OE - see above; Norwegian seng);
skep
"basket" : ON skeppa
"a measure" (archaic Norwegian skjeppe
"dry measure"); skoal
(Scots - recorded from 1600
onwards) "hail! cheers!" : ON skál
"bowl, vessel" (cf. Norwegian skål
"bowl" and also "cheers!"); skrellin
"weakling, wretch" : ON skræling
"native inhabitant of Greenland" (Norwegian skræling
"weakling, wretch"; cf. Modern Icelandic skrælingi
"barbarian"); slem
"mud, sludge, ooze" : cf. Norwegian slam
"mud, ooze, sludge, slime",
Swedish slem
"slime, phlegm"; sniggle
"snail" : ON snigill
(Nynorsk snigel,
Norwegian snegl);
spae
"foretell" : ON spá
"predict, prophesy" (Norwegian spå);
spear
"ask, enquire" : ON spyrja
"ask" (Nynorsk spørje,
Norwegian spørre);
stang
"stake, pole" : ON stöng
"staff, pole" (Danish stænge
"bar, pole, rod, shaft"); stithy, stiddy
"anvil" (ME steþe,
steþi,
stiþi)
: ON steði
"anvil" (Norwegian ste);
stive
"dust, smoke" : late loan
in ON from MLG stof (Norwegian støv,
Danish støv);
stor
"large, big" (ME stôr "strong, great")
: ON stórr
"big, great" (Norwegian stor);
stud
"steer, bullock" (ME 1200: stod)
: ON stútr
"stud" (Norwegian stut);
sum
"as" : ON sem
"as, which, like" (Norwegian som
"as, which"); swawl
"swallow" : ON svelja
(Nynorsk svelgje,
Norwegian svelge;
Modern Standard English swallow
is descended from OE swelgan);
swip
"likeness" : ON svipr
"look, appearance" (cf. Nynorsk svip
"resemblance, appearance"); swithen
(also swidden
and swizzen)
"burn superficially, shrivel up,
singe, scorch" : ON sviðna
"be singed" (also nouns swidden,
swivven
"place in a moor cleared by burning"; cf. Nynorsk svide
"burn, scorch"); tang
“spit of land” : ON tangi;
tarn
(ME 1380: terne)
"pool" : ON tjörn
"small lake, pool" (cf.
Norwegian tjørn,
tjern
"small lake, pond"); tine
"to lose" : ON týna "lose,
destroy" (cf. Nynorsk tyne
"plague, torment; kill,
destroy"); toft
"homestead" : ON topt "homestead";
toom
"empty" : ON tómr
"empty, idle, vain" (Norwegian tom);
trigg
"safe, secure" : ON tryggr
"faithful, true" (Norwegian trygg);
udal
: ON óðal
"ancestral property, inheritance" (Norwegian odel; cf. OE eðel "ancestral
home");
ug
"fear" : ON uggr "fear,
apprehension"; veesick
"show" : reflexive of ON vísa
"show" (Norwegian vise);
wale
"choose" : ON velja "choose,
select, pick out" (Nynorsk velje,
Norwegian velge);
wath
"ford" : ON vað
(cf. Norwegian vad
"ford", OE wæð
"wade, ford"); waur
"worse" (ME werre)
: ON verr
"worse" (Norwegian verre);
wick
"creek" : ON vík
"bay, inlet" (cf. ON víkingr);
will
"bewildered" : ON villr
"bewildered, astray, wild" (cf. Norwegian vill
"savage, fierce; unruly"); yammer
"moan; bewail, lament" : ODan. iæmre
from MLG jâmeren (cf. Norwegian jamre).
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©
Edward
Sproston 2011
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