# How well do you know the origins of English words?



## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

How well do you know the origins of English words? To quote from the test itself:



> Because of its peculiar history, English often has two words that mean the same thing: an earthier one from Anglo Saxon (e.g. brotherly) and a more elevated one from French (e.g. fraternal). Can you tell them apart?


From a friend who knows my liking for quizzes. I got 19 out of 20. Thanks @PetrB :tiphat:


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I speak German, so I definitely usually recognize the Germanic words. I also speak French, but a bit falteringly, but I also recognize words of French/Latin origin.


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## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

This reminds me about a moment in time, when I was a beginner in French, but my English was quite good. So, I was convinced _travailler_ in French means to travel, and I fought my cousin who was older and more advanced...until she showed me the dictionary.
That what fault friends are for...


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## Guest (Jul 17, 2014)

20/20. Anything vaguely 'latinate' ain't gonna be anglo-saxon, anything vaguely 'germanic' is gonna be anglo-saxon. Simples, innit?


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## mirepoix (Feb 1, 2014)

I'm aware that for all intents and purposes I'm as ignorant as hell (although I'm not intimidated by it, if you know what I mean) but sometimes I receive a pleasant surprise -


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Wow, I got 19/20!

The secret of my success (in white text below..run your cursor over it):

"My method is simple. I like to use Anglo-Saxon
words with the least number of syllables." - Churchill


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

16/20 but I'm not an English scholar. I chose words that didn't look French, but my French is _tres mal_


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

To answer the question posed by the thread title: As soon as I look it up, I know.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I'd say English is still essentially a Germanic language in terms of its origins but after 1066 came an increasing amount of Norman French loanwords of Latin/Romantic origin which eventually became part of the standard vocabulary in England as the language evolved into Middle English (apparently, Norman and Plantaganet kings couldn't, or chose not no, speak English until the 14th c.). Before then, most additions to the Old English language (allowing for diverse regional differences in England) came from the Old Norse of the Norwegians and Danish. If anyone were to read a French text there are quite a few words that are recognisable in modern English.


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## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

I got 19/20 - I know some French, so what I did was look for the word that sounded more French and chose the other one.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I got 20/20 - which obviously I needed to get, to justify my school-exam Latin & French, and my university-level Anglo-Saxon.
So it was a tense few minutes - phew!


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## Guest (Jul 17, 2014)

19/20. It was my French that got me through, only failing me with lawyer/attorney.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Got 'em all 

I'm a Latin fiend and I'll be majoring in linguistics in college, so there's no way I couldn't have gotten those


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I thought this was going to go back to Latin and Germanic origins.

I don't know anything about Anglo-Saxon though.

Edit: WAIT, is the Anglo-Saxon word the one that's NOT the Latin word? I started answering them with that method and started getting them all right.


I don't really know what Anglo-Saxon means actually. I feel dumb.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The only thing I know about Anglo Saxons is in the US they belong to the country clubs which I can't join.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Ingélou said:


> I got 20/20 - which obviously I needed to get, to justify my school-exam Latin & French, and my university-level Anglo-Saxon.
> So it was a tense few minutes - phew!


Hell yeah! Without that, your justification for being and your personal identity would both have been down the tube. What a relief, eh?


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

violadude said:


> I thought this was going to go back to Latin and Germanic origins.
> 
> I don't know anything about Anglo-Saxon though.
> 
> ...


Anglo-Saxon refers to the original Germanic English words, yeah. "Anglo-Saxon" is sometimes used as a synonym for "Old English".


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I got 17. That's great considering that English is the only language I know, and I don't know it very well.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

hpowders said:


> The only thing I know about Anglo Saxons is in the US they belong to the country clubs which I can't join.


You are clearly not country club material.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

hpowders said:


> The only thing I know about Anglo Saxons is in the US they belong to the country clubs which I can't join.


A few decades ago the country club requirement (the hoity-toity ones that is) was WASP+$.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

I got 18/20. I learned about this stuff a bit while learning English, and some words (like "friendly") clearly show a Germanic origin. There was a time when English grammar was much more like German grammar as well.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

PetrB said:


> Hell yeah! Without that, your justification for being and your personal identity would both have been down the tube. What a relief, eh?


My degree course included a major component called 'Old and Middle English Texts', and most of my first year was spent learning Anglo-Saxon ('Old English') grammar. I absolutely loved it - it's fabulous knowing the roots of words, like a philtre that makes you see things in all their beauty, as they *are*. I had a similar experience about twenty years ago, learning New Testament Greek as part of a scripture exam - I had never realised how many terms that I used all the time in literary criticism came from Greek. (But my Greek has gone down the Swanee now - it's the things you learn when you're young that remain.)

When I was in my late twenties & studying for an M.A. on the traditional ballads, I eked out my grant by teaching Anglo-Saxon grammar and texts like 'The Dream of the Rood' and 'The Battle of Maldon' to the first year undergraduates at my old university.

So, yeah - if I'd got even one question wrong, I'd have felt that my memory was going and my brain falling apart.

I mean, it *is*, of course, but I want to kid myself for a year or two longer.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

What's lovely about studying Scottish ballads and folklore in general is that a lot of Anglo-Saxon words that have fallen out of Standard English remain in the poetry and in dialect. For example, 'lift' for 'air', 'to dree' for 'to suffer', 'weird' for 'fate', 'nesh' for 'tender', 'to thole' for 'to endure' and 'dule' for 'sorrow'. 

:tiphat: PetrB, thanks so much for finding this quiz, which has given me such a pleasant canter down Memory Lane.


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

Wow: 19/20 - and I thought I was flying blind.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Ingélou said:


> My degree course included a major component called 'Old and Middle English Texts', and most of my first year was spent learning Anglo-Saxon ('Old English') grammar. I absolutely loved it - *it's fabulous knowing the roots of words...*


*Speaking of which...*

Online Etymology Dictionary
http://www.etymonline.com/


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Bulldog said:


> You are clearly not country club material.


Never was. Never will be. I hate Guy Lombardo music.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Ukko said:


> A few decades ago the country club requirement (the hoity-toity ones that is) was WASP+$.


Actually, that is ASP + $, the "W" is not necessary _because it is completely understood._ !!!


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

PetrB said:


> Actually, that is ASP + $, the "W" is not necessary _because it is completely understood._ !!!


You are technically correct; I suspect it is there traditionally to emphasize its importance. It actually took (takes) on more importance than the AS, especially with more $, or sufficient 'old' $. Oligarchs have cachet with plutocrats, too.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

19 out of 20 right. The only one I failed was cry/weep.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

violadude said:


> I thought this was going to go back to Latin and Germanic origins.
> 
> I don't know anything about Anglo-Saxon though.
> 
> ...


Anglo-Saxon is Germanic (the Saxons who invaded and occupied England) then morphed by whatever the local tongue was -- one set of a kind of Gaelic, I think.

Norman French is from the Norse (Scandinavians) who invaded and became a part of France, who became French-speaking. (that was probably middle or late middle French.) French being a romance language = coming from Roman, ergo, Latin.

So Latinate words now morphed into late middle French vs. Early Germanic words morphed with some local patois likely Gaelic. LOL.

Like Ingelou, I had French (through four years of high school) and Latin though but one year of it. Later, I learned some Dutch to only a moderate degree; Dutch is near enough that you can read a lot of Chaucer (in the original middle Ango-Saxon English) without translation.

With all that, I _should have_ scored 20. I hit 19, and don't feel like it defines me


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

TalkingHead said:


> 20/20. Anything vaguely 'latinate' ain't gonna be anglo-saxon, anything vaguely 'germanic' is gonna be anglo-saxon. Simples, innit?


I got 19/20 by following precisely the method you outline above. But cry/weep threw me.


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## Symphonical (Mar 15, 2013)

I managed to get 20/20. That score may be justified by the fact that I study French A level. 

I do, however, take a keen side-interest in word origins of European languages and the phonology associated with them.


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