Foreign Element in the Old English Vocabulary.
Although borrowed words constituted only a small portion of the OE vocabulary — all in all about 600 words, — they are of great interest for linguistic and historical study. The borrowings reflect the contacts of English with other tongues resulting from diverse political, economic, social and cultural events in the early periods of British history. OE borrowings come from two sources: Celtic and Latin.
Borrowings from Celtic.
There are very few Celtic loan-words in the OE vocabulary, for there must have been little intermixture between the Germanic settlers and the Celtic ones in Britain. Though in some parts of the island the Celts population was not exterminated during the WG invasion, linguistic evidence of Celtic influence is small. Obviously there was little that the newcomers could learn from the subjugated Celts. Abundant borrowing from Celtic is to be found only in place-names. The OE kingdoms Kent, Deira and Bernicia derive their names from the names of Celtic tribes. The name of York, the Downs and perhaps London have been traced to Celtic sources (Celtic dun meant 'hill').
(Cучасна назва міста походить від римського «Лондініум» (лат. Londinium). Єдиної думки щодо походження цього слова немає, але вченими неодноразово висувалися гіпотези про етимологію назви. Ось чотири найбільш популярні припущення:
1) назва — латинського походження і утворена від римського власного імені, яке означає «шалений»;
2) назва — латинського походження і походить від слова Lond, що означає «Дике (тобто тут заросле лісом) місце»;
3) назва — кельтського походження і складається з двох слів: Llyn (озеро) і Dun (укріплення): у кельтський період місто називалося Llyndid;
4) назва походить от древньоєвропейського слова Plowonida, що означає «Річка, що розливається»).
Various Celtic designations of 'river' and 'water' were understood by the Germanic invaders as proper names: Ouse, Exe, Esk, Usk, Avon, Evan go back to Celtic amhuin 'river', uisge 'water'; Thames, Stour, Dover also come from Celtic. Some elements frequently occurring in Celtic place-names can help to identify them: -comb 'deep valley' in Batcombe, Duncombe, Winchcombe; -torr 'high rock' in Torr, Torcross; -llan 'church' in Llan-daff, Llanelly; -pill 'creek' in Pylle, Huntspill. Many place-names with Celtic elements are hybrids; the Celtic component, combined with a Latin or a Germanic component, make a compound place-name; e.g.
Celtic plus Latin Celtic plus Germanic
Man-chester York-shire
Win-chester Corn-wall
(It means ‘Cornubian Welsh’; the name Wealhas (Wales, Welsh) was a common noun, meaning ‘strangers’; it was given by the newcomers to the unfamiliar Celtic tribes)
Glou-cester Salis-bury
Wor-cester Lich-field
Devon-port Devon-shire
Lan-caster Canter-bury
Outside of place-names Celtic borrowings in OE were very few: no more than a dozen. Examples of common nouns are: OE binn (NE bin 'crib'), cradol (NE cradle), bratt 'cloak', dun (NE dun 'dark coloured'), dūn 'hill', cross (NE cross), probably through Celtic from the L crux. A few words must have entered OE from Celtic due to the activities of Irish missionaries in spreading Christianity, e.g. OE ancor 'hermit', dry "magician', cursian (NE curse). In later ages some of the Celtic borrowings have died out or have survived only in dialects, e.g. loch dial, 'lake', coomb dial. 'valley'.