Origin of English word stock

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins and how their form and meaning have changed over time.

Archaism is an old term no longer in general use. When used, it can either be done deliberately to achieve a specific historical effect (historical poems and prose), as part of a specific jargon (in law) or ceremonial occasion (religious contexts). They also appear often in place names (Woodthorpe = wood village in Viking), nursery rhymes and fairy tales. They can be lexical (behold!), grammatical (thee, thou, thy, whence) of semantic (coy – quiet).

Native words comprise only 30% of the total number of words in the English vocabulary but the native words form the bulk of the most frequent words actually used in speech and writing. Besides, the native words have a wider range of lexical and grammatical usage, they are highly polysemantic and productive with suffixes. (king, queen, earl, lord, lady, knight, kingly, queenly)

Loanwords are words borrowed from one language and incorporated into another = borrowings.

Slavonic: vodka, polka, robot

India: yoga, maharaja, jungle

Arabic: zero, algebra, sultan, alchemy, alcohol, harem, sofa

Neologism is a newly coined term that may be in the process of entering common use but has not yet been accepted into mainstream language. Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, book, period or event. (Robot – Karel Čapek)

Cyborg, cybernetics, blog, spam, metrosexual. There are also neologisms created just for occasion (aginda = agenda + drink, bagonize = wait anxiously for suitcase in the baggage claim area).

  

Celts

We can follow the etymology of the current English lexicon back to the oldest inhabitants of the British Isles - Celts. Traces may also be found in the place names because the British rarely change place names unlike the Czechs (except for rivers, Labe and Vltava have Celtic origin). Celts left approximately two dozen words in current English word stock.

Derry = oak wood (Londonderry). Loch = lake (Loch Ness). Rivers: Thames, Avon, Don.

Romans (43 – 410)

Romans had Latin influence on English word stock. They left 200 words. Chester = fortified camp, Roman town (Manchester). Villa = house. Century, legion, capital (caput = head).

Angles, Saxons, Jutes (6^th – 9^th century)

Aik-/Oak/Oke- = oak tree (Oakley). Barrow = wood. Borough/burgh/bury = fortified place (Salisbury). Dun/down/don = down, hill (Blackdown). Ing = place of (Birmingham). They also brought a lot of synonyms for the sea since they sailed a lot (sea, lagu, mare).

Vikings

When expansive Vikings from Scandinavia attacked British Isles, they left also some words and family names with –son ending (Davidson, Jackson). Dale = valley (Cowdale). Thorpe = village, farm (Woodthorpe). Thwaite = clearing. Skirt, skin, sky, anger, birth, bull.

Etymological doubles are duplicated words with the same notion but with little difference.

Old Norse                                   Old English

Raise (transitive)                       Rise (intransitive)

Sick (not seriously - flu)           Ill (seriously – cancer)

Skin                                             Hide (thicker)

Kirk                                             Church

Skirt                                            Shirt

Latin loans of church before 1000: abbadissa, altar, apostolus, cupla, missa, preadicare – preach

Normans (French speaking Vikings)

Vikings were invading France so Francs gave them Normandy. Viking lived there for 200 years and completely adopted French since they had no words for things of highly civilized Franc Empire. When William the Conqueror, duke of Normandy, claimed British throne, Normans brought these words with them into English language.

It produced two level society. Nobility (Normans) spoke French so they were using French words for meat that appeared on their plates (beef, veal, pork, mutton). Native peasants who killed those animals for meat were addressing them in their own way, describing animals, not cultivated meat of them (cow, calf, swine, sheep).

French loans include word stock of administration (authority, chancellor, council, crown, empire), law (accuse, adultery), religion (baptism, cardinal, cathedral), military (archer, army, besiege, captain), food and drink (appetite, bacon, biscuit, cream, jelly, mustard), fashion (attire, boots, brooch, button, cape), science (anatomy, geometry, medicine), home (basin, blanket, bucket, ceiling, chamber).

14^th century

At the beginning of 14^th century, 70% of words were of French origin but at the end of century, Middle English emerged = French + Anglo-Saxon + Scandinavian. After One Hundred Years War, French influence weakened.

Latin loans: clerk, demon, disciple, paradise, Sabbath, bibliotheca, chorus, grammar

Renaissance

Latin and Greek: allusion, angel, devil

French: bayonet, bigot, chocolate, duel

Italian: balcony, carnival, design, giraffe, macaroni, opera, solo, sonata, sonnet, soprano, stanza

Spanish: alligator, anchovy, armada, banana, cannibal, canoe, cocoa

Lexical twins

English has many words with similar meaning but different origin which is used according to a particular register. Medical register requires Latin of Greek words.

Home – domestical. Earth – terrestrial. Tooth – dental. Head – capital. Eye – ocular. Tongue – lingual. Mouth – oral. Dog – canine.

There are also lexical triplets:

Old English               French                    Latin

ask                            question                 interrogate

kingly                         royal                       regal