4. THE ETYMOLOGY OF ENGLISH WORDS I
(1) Etymology = origin
Borrowing (=loan-word) – a word which came into the vocabulary of one language from another and was assimilated by the new language
(2) The 1st century b.C.
Modern Europe is mostly occupied by Roman Empire.
Inhabitants – Germanic tribes (=”barbarians”), primitive cattle-breeders, know almost nothing about land cultivation. Tribal languages - only Indo-European elements.
wars
Germanic
tribes the Romans
↓
peaceful contact
↓
Trade
(new food (Latin words): būtyrum (butter), cāseus (cheese), vinum (wine), cerasum (cherry), pirum (pear), prunus (plum), pisum (pea), bēta (beet), piper (pepper), planta (plant), other words: cuppa (cup), coquina (kitchen), molina (mill), portus (port))
(3) The 5th century a.D.
English
Channel
Germanic
tribes Saxons→ → the
British Isles
Jutes (Celts=original inhabitants)
↓
North & South-West
(Mod. Scotland, Wales & Cornwall)
(4) Numerous contacts => Celtic words →Germanic tribes (Mod.E. bald, down, glen, druid, bard, cradle + names of places, rivers, hills, etc.,: Avon, Exe, Esk, Usk, Ux ← “river”, “water”; London ← Llyn (“river”) + dun (“a fortified hill”) → fortress on the hill over the river)
(5) Latin words → Celtic language → Anglo-Saxon language
(6) The 7t century a.D.
Christianization.
Latin = official language of the Christian church => church Latin borrowings
↓ ↓
persons, objects educational terms
and ideas associated schola → school
with church and schōlar(-is)→scholar
religious rituals magister → magister
presbyter → priest
episcopus → bishop
monachus → monk
nonna → nun
candela → candle
(7) end of the 8th c. - middle of the 11th c. - several Scandinavian invasions
▼
call, v., take, v., cast, v., die, v., law, n.,
husband, n. (< Sc. hus + bondi, i. e. "inhabitant of the house"),
window n. (< Sc. vindauga, i. e. "the eye of the wind"),