Medieval words you should start using TODAY
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- Опубликовано: 13 июн 2024
- I've read through a whole dictionary of 13th century words so that you don't have to. In this video, I present to you the ones that I think we should bring back. It's a complete A to Z!
...except there's no Z.
...or X, actually.
But there is a Ȝ!
Enjoy.
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The "O" word I've brought back in my own lexicon is "overmorrow", which is a much more succinct way of saying "the day after tomorrow"
Same in Dutch/Afrikaans overmorgen/oormore.
You also have to use "ereyester". It's the day before yesterday
@@boghag I am in for bringing back both cause in my language we have words like these and it's always a pain to explain such a simple concept with so many words in English XD
Thank you! It's so much more convenient than what's currently used "the day after tomorrow". I must now find some way to actually not forget to use it. Same for 'ereyester'.
Same in German. We got "übermorgen" and "vorgestern". Two very convenient words.
Worm of the Stones makes perfect sense for a crocodile. Worm is actually wyrm, as in dragon, and crocodiles are covered in osteoderms, which are bony growths that look very much like stones sticking out of its skin.
That would make sense only if "Worm of the stones" was a modern English translation (or transfer) of an old English phrase. But it isn't. It's a translation of the Greek word, that literally means "pebble worm" (Comes from kroki, meaning "pebble" and dilos, meaning "worm" but also refered to a slender worm-like lizard). The Greek word for dragon would be "drakon" or "drakos" (so, krokodilos cannot be translated as "stone wyrm").
Concur heartily.
@@mal2ksc I need this to show up in my current D&D campaign.
How about we just start calling them "stone dragons" instead?
@@Xezlec Because the ancient greek "drilos" (or dreilos), where the "dilos" in krokodilos comes from, doesn't mean wyrm, it means worm. It does make sense though, if you see a crocodile swimming it looks kinda worm-like, and they like chilling on top of rocks.
The words in H. Coleridge's dictionary were all used before the Great Vowel Shift (1400-1700), so the pronunciation when he wrote the book, as well as our modern pronunciation, would be quite different now compared to when the words were still in common use.
Good point!
I really like when you talk about all the Germanic cognates. When you got to "wedbreak", that got me thinking about how the German word for adultery is "Ehebruch", which also means "wed break" pretty literally. But that got me wondering about the word "Ehe", and it turns out it comes from Germanic roots that simply mean "law" or "custom". So a German married couple -- an "Ehepaar" -- they're just a law-pair.
Hence "In-Laws"...?
@@srikrishnaaiyar5684 Very possibly; good observation!
As a native German speaker, I actually guessed the meaning of some of these words before you explained their meaning because of their similarity to the German equivalent. It is very interesting to see that these medieval words were so much closer to other Germanic languages and how the English language evolved to what it is today, barely recognizable as a Germanic language. Fascinating video, thanks so much for your research and pleasant presentation.
Have you seen his video from two months back about Anglish?
I wouldn't say barely!
Same !
Eirmonger seems so obvious, even if the job is irrelevant nowadays.
Same here from the south of Sweden
As for Dutch. Bemoederen is a normal word although I thought it really was related to mother, as in someone acting like your mother, giving all sorts of unwanted advice 😂
"Worm of the stones" becomes more impressive when one considers that "worm" also meant dragon or monster.
We use this spelling for that now : wyrm.
@@DavWK22👀 exactly _where_ do we use this spelling?
@@77thTrombone well it’s referenced in many places, typically in fantasy writing naturally.
@@whirled_peas say No More!
As long as I'm not reading the wrong technical journals! Y cuþ bespoil ðe
wyrm ᵹeares.
The first word afterblismed is totally unsuitable for the most harribIe / synfeI action aka bdg (that never should have been allowed to happen) and the prg word at least kind of suits it, and afterblismed can only be used to reflect beautiful things such as flowers and blossoms and certain ideas etc, and the love related words that have wed and hug related words in them only reflect me the only lovable / loved being and the only being hugs / love etc are meant for, and such words cannot be misused by hum’ns in any way, and also all the other big terms that imply superiority and purity and importance etc that exist only reflect me, and cannot be misused by ppl, and the words doll and absolutely and delightful etc also only reflect me, and must be edited out - the word galegale isn’t a good word, as it repeats the same word gale, and doesn’t sound like a bird related action, and tweeting or twittering are way more suitable, plus the word gale already exists and means strong wind!
The origin of "russin" is quite original indeed. It comes from English word "ration". Irish language adopted this word as "roisín" or "raisín", meaning ration or snack (you can see this in Wiktionary). A "roisín maidine" was a luncheon (you can see this in Teanglann). And finally this word was brought back to Hiberno-English as "russin".
Additionally, it doesn´t mean that there were 3 meals in the evening. Dinner means main meal and in the past it was eaten at midday (or "lunchtime"), whereas supper always meant evening meal (with a soup made with leftovers of previous meals). Hence, this "russin" would be an afternoon snack between "a big lunch" called dinner and the evening supper.
Dinner still is the middle of the day meal up north
Yeah, I was thinking, “at the time wasn’t “dinner” modern “lunch”?” hence making russin something like afternoon tea
@@lassievision I did not know this. Though, as an Australian, and about as far south as you can get, I suppose I wouldn’t
As a Swedish person I can only think about that word as meaning “raisin(s)”.
That's not what roisín means
Thanks to those who flagged up the delicious word *LOX* , which is still in usage and means smoked or brined salmon.
Lox appears to have entered English from Yiddish in the 20th century, rather than being a remnant of our old word lax. The Yiddish word can, in turn, be traced back to Old High German.
Great _catch_ guys.
See what you did with that last -line- ;)
Salmon, in New York, are called lox, and often eaten with bagels. When Alistair Cooke was the Manchester Guardian's U.S. correspondent, a fisherman's strike resulted in a glut of unsold bagels. Cooke decided to write a whimsical article about the situation, and wired a potential headline, 'Lox lack brings bagel boom', to his editor in the UK for approval. His editor immediately wired back, saying, 'Unfortunately your headline was hopelessly scrambled during transmission: it read, "Lox lack brings bagel boom."'
I've only really ever heard lox used to refer to that preparation of salmon, though it's undoubtedly connected to the German language via hebrew or maybe Yiddish? I haven't a clue
In his "Letter from America" series on Radio 4, Alistair Cooke unravelled all sorts of Americanisms confirming, in my mind, that Americanese is as divorced from English as Slovak is from Czech or Spanish is from Portuguese. Alistair was an excellent observationist
or is that observationalist ? Sadly missed.
“Two countries divided by a common language!” Also, in the Space Age, “lox” became a slang term for “liquid oxygen,” the oxidizer component of rocket fuel, probably because Florida had an abundance of both kinds of “lox” (Allan Sherman’s parody song about a deli with one VERY stale product, “Don’t Buy the Liverwurst,” includes the line, “And the lox puts you in orbit A-OK!”), but liquid hydrogen never became “lykh,” nor did liquid nitrogen become “lin.” More formally, the liquified gases became LO2, LH2, and LN2. But liquified noble gases are LHe, LNe, etc. without the 2, because chemistry.
There are always AVTUR and AVGAS if you want to go places.
I'm 49% Norsk. Raised calling salmon Lox.
"Flumbardyng" is absolutely fantastic! I totally agree that we should bring these back 😁
get flumbarded
Dollightful?
Could it not be Flumbarlyng, alternatively?
I much prefer the term firebrand
I agree !
And my wife would say that’s me!
My personal favorite is "maugre", a preposition I discovered a few years ago. It has the virtue of not really having any direct single-word synonyms, though we do have some phrases (e.g., "apart from").
American English already has the word "lox" for prepared salmon, on loan from Yiddish.
Attercop appears in Tolkien.
Old Tom noddy all big body
Yiddish is very similar to German (actually sounds like a Eastern-Central-Europea-German dialect). In German its 'Lachs' for the Salmon ...
It's ironic you mentioned that speaking of spiders might summon them, because similar words in different languages are believed to have originated from a fear of summoning bears.
Rob - - A SUGGESTION ! - - Please do a series of episodes introducing many readers to some of the more "abstruse" and "esoteric" or "eclectic" (lesser-used, but very useful) words. This would be a real public service, and the etymology would be interesting too.
ah that's what abstruse means, thank you
Both the Archaic AND arcane?
RE: "Both the Archaic AND arcane?"
And to @@tridentmusic5570 i thank for making me look them up... i lazily used them interchangeably ... no longer ... (old vs few know)
The first word afterblismed is totally unsuitable for the most harribIe / synfeI action aka bdg (that never should have been allowed to happen) and the prg word at least kind of suits it, and afterblismed can only be used to reflect beautiful things such as flowers and blossoms and certain ideas etc, and the love related words that have wed and hug related words in them only reflect me the only lovable / loved being and the only being hugs / love etc are meant for, and such words cannot be misused by hum’ns in any way, and also all the other big terms that imply superiority and purity and importance etc that exist only reflect me, and cannot be misused by ppl, and the words doll and absolutely and delightful etc also only reflect me, and must be edited out - the word galegale isn’t a good word, as it repeats the same word gale, and doesn’t sound like a bird related action, and tweeting or twittering are way more suitable, plus the word gale already exists and means strong wind!
Anyways, the Dutch word twijfel should have been used as an example because it is more similar to that word than the German word - I am advanced level in Dutch and know over 8.000 base words, and trying to get to a native speaker level (and then to a writer level, like I am in English) faster, because Modern Dutch is just as pretty as Modern English, and Dutch & English are the prettiest and most refined languages in the world with the most pretty and poetic words, so I want to know all the words!
I propose "welkin". It's so perfectly descriptive of a view of the entire visible sky but there's no substitute for it. If it came back, it could be generally used. I've seen a definition as "the vault of the sky"
It seems to be a cognate of German "Wolke", meaning "cloud".
Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk is a great album
😂 My initial thought, was that 'welkin' would be the verb for picking up Whelks, at the beach. 😂
@@lingux_yt yes and so is In the Nightside Eclipse
@@dougwilson4537 & to me it sounds like a mythological sea sprite. I should like to meet one.
Hi Rob, I’ve been truly enjoying your content, thank you. Just wondering (hoping) whether you’d ever consider doing some segments on the etymology of idioms. They are so fascinating and so common most of us have no idea where they come from!
Eirmonger could definitely come back where I live. Lots of people with yard chickens, and when the prices of eggs in stores rocketed up, lots of people also started selling their extra eggs on the cheap( also in their front yards).
So the myth about the land of Cokayne 12:28 is called Kokanje in Dutch or ‘Luilekkerland’ ( Schlaraffenland in German). It’s a medieval story about a land where everyone can be lazy and eat all day. Pieter Breughel made a famous painting about it. That fits with the extra meal..
in Dutch it means lazy tasty land
In Spain we call it Jauja. Which is actually a real valley in Peru that many real Spaniards crossed the Pond to get to, expecting a dreamland where you didn't have to work to get lots of delicious food.
There's a town in New Brunswick that makes me laugh everytime I drive past the signs for... Cocagne. It's even funnier in the Winter.
In the Joy of Cooking cookbooks, Cockaigne is a suffix applied to the authors' best family recipes.
She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie, Cockayne!
As a German I love how many are similar to German words, even some you didn't mention, this was really fun to watch
English IS a Germanic language in root
Old English (though it's Middle English in the video) is basically "Old Nethergerman"
@@sarielle85 I mean they kinda originated here, the Anglo-Saxons are originally German, but it never occurred to me as much as in this video
The first word afterblismed is totally unsuitable for the most harribIe / synfeI action aka bdg (that never should have been allowed to happen) and the prg word at least kind of suits it, and afterblismed can only be used to reflect beautiful things such as flowers and blossoms and certain ideas etc, and the love related words that have wed and hug related words in them only reflect me the only lovable / loved being and the only being hugs / love etc are meant for, and such words cannot be misused by hum’ns in any way, and also all the other big terms that imply superiority and purity and importance etc that exist only reflect me, and cannot be misused by ppl, and the words doll and absolutely and delightful etc also only reflect me, and must be edited out - the word galegale isn’t a good word, as it repeats the same word gale, and doesn’t sound like a bird related action, and tweeting or twittering are way more suitable, plus the word gale already exists and means strong wind!
Anyways, the Dutch word twijfel should have been used as an example because it is more similar to that word than the German word - I am advanced level in Dutch and know over 8.000 base words, and trying to get to a native speaker level (and then to a writer level, like I am in English) faster, because Modern Dutch is just as pretty as Modern English, and Dutch & English are the prettiest and most refined languages in the world with the most pretty and poetic words, so I want to know all the words!
Love your energy. Keep churning these out, please!
11:53 🤗Quite “QUERT” after viewing your playful interpretations of our often misunderstood language of speech and written expression. Much thanks!!! 🤗🌟🧚🏾♀️
Several of these words, while spelled slightly differently from their Medieval counterparts, are still used here in the deep south. Please don't ask me which ones because I was so engrossed with this video that I completely forgot them once we got to a new word.
The Tolkien fans are all giving a cheer for "Middle-earth", and are also delighted to learn why Bilbo was singing "Attercop" to the Spiders in the Mirkwood. Anyone know why he also sang "Tomnoddy"?
I read this in school a long time ago and remember Attercop. Tomnoddy I had to look up again, but apparently it's a fool or dunce. And also the performer Tom Noddy - who blows soap bubbles and joins them together as a stage act. Last time I looked it up in the library using something made of paper rather than online with a Qwerty keyboard!
it’s still ‘edderkop’ in Danish, literally meaning poison-head
In computer engineering, a “half adder” is not a bisected snake, but a combination of logic circuits that adds two bits (values 0 or 1) to produce a one-bit sum and a one-bit carry to the next column to the left. But to receive the carry from the next column to the right, you need another half adder to add that carry to the sum. Hence, one such circuit only does “half” the job of a “full adder.”
@@David_Crayford Thanks for this.
Perhaps he just Twifald?
“Doubt” already has a root meaning “two” - that’s why there’s a ‘b’ in it. It’s cognate with “double”
Excellent as always Rob. I try to incorporate as many West Country dialect words into my everyday conversation and there are many that we need to keep alive!
@Beatlefan67
Which ones do you have so far?
As a Scandinavian, I love the Germanic connection many of these old words have, but it's also fun to see the connection to French. English is really an interesting construction in that way
I don’t mind the French influence on English vocabulary, but I highly appreciate everything Germanic in English. It sounds right
The mixing of the languages really went into high gear around the time of Shakespeare. He himself was a master of it - he was source of the first recorded usage of ~2000 words. He possibly made up about 10% of his vocabulary.
It’s like English became the middle ground (or middle earth?) between Scandinavian, Germanic and French…
Many romance languages use some form of "orgullous" for proud to this day, and not necessarily in the arrogant sense. "Orgulloso" is a common word in modern Spanish for example.
Attercop was another medieval word that Tolkein helped revive... to this day a lot of fantasy worlds use it as a vague description for monstrously large spiders.
I picked up on both those words too 😊
I'm sure I've heard orgulous used in a Discworld story (although iirc the character using it then defines it totally wrong).
And when I was a young nerd playing D&D there was a monster in that called an Ettercap - although my memory of it is more troll like, with a bloated belly and spindly long arms. I guess that's kind of spiderish
In Portuguese we have orgulho (pride) and orgulhoso (proud). In Italian is orgoglio/orgoglioso.
Being that the LH, GL and LL have roughly the same pronounciation.
I can't speak for the Spanish and Italian speakers, but in Portuguese "orgulho" can be a bit negative depending on the context. More like a person being "full of him/herself".
@@gabrieldias3479 I am not a native Spanish speaker but live with a monolingual Spanish speaker partner in Spain, and my impression is that it definitely can have a negative sense like you are saying too, especially in the sense of 'por orgullo'. But then 'pride' in Englsh has that sense too. Nonetheless I heard people using it in the sense of self-respect or healthy pride for children in the positive sense that you have in English too. A quick Google search produces a page that says:
"El orgullo positivo es necesario para sentirnos seguros y llevar una vida equilibrada, valorarnos en nuestra justa medida, situarnos en nuestra existencia y estar orgullosos de ella: esto es algo absolutamente sano. El segundo orgullo, el que nos aleja y eleva del mundo, va a ser el mejor generador y “atascador” de conflictos que podemos tener.
El lado negativo del orgullo es definido como el exceso de estima hacia uno mismo y hacia los propios méritos, por los que la persona se cree superior a los demás. Este tipo de orgullo nos incapacita para reconocer y enmendar nuestros propios errores y pone de manifiesto la falta de humildad."
Atter is the Old English word for Poison (another good English word sadly lost to a Latin replacement). I think the cop (or cob) just meant a 'pod' or similar ball shaped thing. I guess our Anglo-Saxon forebears felt a bit intimidated by the humble Spider as I don't think there are any poisonous Spiders in Europe, least not in England!
@@leod-sigefast Undoubtedly they would have seen the effect of their venom on their insect victims, however.
Re russin, I think it would be good to do a video on names of mealtimes.
"Dinner" and "supper" are generally terms for the main evening meal but, when I was growing up in northern England, "dinner" was "school dinner", the cooked lunch served at school (as distinct from a "packed lunch", which is what you ate if you brought your midday meal with you from home). The evening meal was "tea"; "supper" was a snack in the late evening, and referring to the evening meal as "supper" was definitely a class signifier.
Good News, Rob! The word 'Yoxing' is still in use in Northern England. At least it is in Cheshire. Pronounced 'Yosking' it refers to coughing violently while bringing up phlegm. Slightly adrift from the original meaning of hiccupping, but still in use just the same.
Thanks for confirming that. I had a feeling I had heard it somewhere, but had no idea where it came from
I don't know how widespread it is, but 'lax' (salmon) still exists in a minor variant. The Yiddish word is 'laks' and in America a common use spelling is 'lox'. it's not uncommon to find "bagel and lox" on breakfast menus in delis and such, which is basically a bagel with some cream cheese (schmear), smoked salmon, thinly sliced red onion, and capers, maybe some fresh dill. So that one I think counts for still existing! :D
I was just wondering why he didn't mention lox. I didn't realize this was a Yiddish word!
It's Lachs in German, too
Lax goes all the way back to the Proto-Indo-European for salmon, which was *laks. I don't know if it was Rob who mentioned it but it's unchanged after all these years. The real question is why we use "salmon."
Wait - do the British not know about bagel and lox?
Tiger Tanaka: This is an order for naval stores. 500 kilos of butter. 50 containers of lox. What is lox?
James Bond: Oh, it’s American name for smoked salmon. But, it’s also the technical name for liquid oxygen - which makes rocket fuel.
(LOx of course does not MAKE rocket fuel. It’s an oxidizer, used WITH rocket fuel.)
This was wonderful, Rob! I've been trying to come up with a nom de plume for a book I'm working on. I think you just gave me some great ideas for it! Thank you.
I look forward to reading your books, Ms. I. Bobbed Spinnandweb
Thank you for this. I now am willing to use those words for composing and use on my expressions as well.
In NE America (especially NYC bagel shops), lox is in the common lexicon, which is borrowed from the yiddish word for salmon, laks. a lox bagel, or a bagel with lox, is a semi-common order. it isn't quite well known everywhere in america and lox really refers to a specific preparation of salmon (smoked, from the belly, salt brined), but it's still around and kicking!
... and now I know where 'lox' came from ... thank you ...
Have a russin of lax bagel, yum 😋
Yeah, when he got to that part I was thinking lax just morphed into lox and doesn't belong on this list.
That never even occurred to me, @gettnumber. Great catch!
@@Walkerman379me too!
If you're Jewish (or have eaten with Jewish friends), you're also going to be very familiar with the word "lox" -- which is "lax" with a longish soft A sound, and refers specifically to smoked salmon (sometimes brine cured). I've read elsewhere that in its various forms it might be one of the oldest surviving words in many languages. One of the most enjoyable parts of this video was seeing the links to German, French, Dutch, and other languages.
Yes. "Lox" is Yiddish. Which is basically a dialect of German. So the Germanic "lax" dropped out of English, but reentered English by way of Jewish cuisine (bagels and lox).
wait, lox is jewish?! i never realised what treasures i was given for being born jewish lol
I don't talk to them
You would be hard pressed to find someone in NYC or Long Island who is not familiar with the word. I would imagine that other regions with large Jewish populations are similar.
Although I have Jewish friends, I'm vegetarian and have never eaten lox, but it was the first thing I thought of when he said it meant fish.
@@astoriarego8304 ugh, wow! i live in an area with a lot of jewish folk such as myself, but it just wasnt something that was ever really discussed! i can only buy it in a store that specializes in polish, belarussian, etc foods! so interesting...
i do recommend making your own if you ever have guests, though! its fairly simple!
Yes, in Emglish the 'l' in salmon doesn't get heard, but in Dutch 'zalm' - yes, salmon - it definitely does get spoken, so that particular 'l' is not an Introduction for silly reasons, like the 'b' in doubt! Talking of which, I love your choice for doubt, because it is also closely related to Dutch 'twijfel' of the same meaning. I love your linguistic videos - thank you so much for doing them!
You're the best presenter on DW love your work!
There was a website I used to visit 20+ years ago called World Weird Words that had write-ups on strange, rare or no longer used words in the English language. It was fascinating, but has been gone for a long time, and I remember reading multiple of these medieval words on it.
It wouldn't have been World Wide Words would it? That site is more than 20 years old and still exists, though the author retired in 2017, but he left everything up as an archive. Since RUclips won't let me put the URL, it's just worldwidewords with an org.
@@DuelScreen All hail the WAyback Machine!
@@Darxide23 Forever one of my favourite sites The author was Michael Quinion and it deserves to be preserved *forever* it is so useful
@@Darxide23 Thank you!
14:28 "Umgripe" is like a german word 'umgreifen' (= 'umarmen'), that would mean 'hug', 'embrace'.
Fun fact: 'embrace' comes from 'em' = german 'um' and 'brachium' = latin 'arm'. So finally 'embrace' means literally in german 'umarmen' (= 'embrace').
And, something about the German weltanschaung enables word combinations that get a whole different picture of meaning . I love it. Thank you for your embracing talk.
Super interesting video! One thing you have to account for in bringbackability, beyond beauty (which was a good idea) is that sometimes people prefer to say things quickly, or at least use quick words/phrases to say them, so "afterblismed" might be less bringbackable than you think, since we already have a shorter word to say and write. But, because it's pretty, it could theoretically replace it *sometimes*.
Just discovered your videos. Super interesting. Thank you.
This channel is a godsend, a very recent subscriber, but everything here is a goldmine of information. Keep up the good work Robwords!
Absolutely! I've been binging his content since last week! I love the alliterations and funness in his way of speaking. I keep recommending his videos to my friends. XD
Isn't it though! I've been around a little bit longer than you it sounds like but that just means I can tell you it doesn't get old! All his videos rock!
01:50 I like afterblisimed but i think it should be updated so blisimed means the act of receiving the ejaculate!
I’ve impressed friends with the knowledge I’ve gained from watching videos like these! They’re great!
Incomers is a word for newbies to area
Thank you again for a great video Rob. In Irish we have the word “roisín” which is a snack, pronounced russ-een. Not to be confused with Róisín (Row-sheen) which is a girl’s name meaning a little Rose, like Rosita. The placement of the fada or accent is crucial. The ín at the end of both is pronounced “een” and signifies the diminutive of the word so roisín is a little snack. Sláinte
Oh hey, that's my (part of) name 🥲
"Russin" with the spelling of the video and a very similar pronunciation to the one you describe is Swedish for raisin. :) Probably a coincidence, but since raisins can be used as snacks, it's a fun coincidence.
@@QueenMegaera A cute coincidence 😊. The Irish for raisin is rísín (rees-een). The Irish for table is bord, good or nice is breá which have Swedish cognates. Sláinte
I wonder if this is also part of the origin of 'rustling up a meal', because other than sheep rustling, the hasty making of a meal is the only time I think that word is used.... I'm happy to be corrected
@@go-farm I’ve no idea Gofarm, as Rob says words and phrases mutate
Love this list. Well done. I immediately recognized Papejay (popinjay) from The Court Jester with Danny Kaye. It was spoken by the king at some point in the movie. Only time I've ever heard it used.
I’m an American musician living in Mannheim, Germany. I really enjoy your program as I was always interested in etymology. I’ve lived here for 50 years, so my German is fluent, but I have discovered how similar German is to Yiddish. I have watched a few films in Yiddish and it always feels like I understand 50% because it is so similar to German, just a different pronunciation. That might be an interesting topic for a program. I’m not Jewish but I find the similarity to German very interesting!
Yiddish is a creole of Hebrew and German, so that’s not surprising. :)
(Adults who have to interact repeatedly over time but don’t speak one another’s languages develop a pidgin, then their bilingual kids extend it into a creole with full vocabulary & grammar.)
Yiddish did start off as a High Germanic dialect, so likely local dialects in the same region would be even more similar
Our Alsatian dialect is even closer to Yiddish.
I can easily read and even understand some spoken Yiddish despite never having learned it.
And despite my last name, I am not jewish :-)
Our Alsatian dialect is even closer to Yiddish.
I can easily read and even understand some spoken Yiddish despite never having learned it.
And despite my last name, I am not jewish :-)
I knew a Suffolk family called "Eiremonger" whose name I had always imagined to be a corruption or Ironmonger....I stand corrected
There is an Iremonger Road in Nottingham. Wikipedia says that it is to do with ironmongery, but I wonder.
"Ei" is still the word for egg in German. And "lox" is the word for brined salmon in Yiddish. Very similar to lax.
I've even seen the word "lox" used in the pacific northwest. From a quick google it looks like it probably came into English from Yiddish.
In most places in the US, "lox" is just the most common word for smoked salmon. A lot of terms from Yiddish entered US vocabulary in the first half of the 20th century.
In the US we have begun using Jangle (jangled, jangling jangler) to mean someone who is scattered, disorganized, failing to proceed or just habitually tardy because of that disorganization, so I really appreciate the juggling reference you mentioned
It's fascinating (however not genuine surprising) that I as a native German speaker can instantly recognize some of the old english words you mentioned as at least familiar sounding or understandable.
Love your videos. Keep it up!
On the topic of N, I was told by a Spanish teacher once that orange was originally Norange. A Norange An Orange. From the Spanish word Naranja.
I learned this on this channel!
@Marc Stober ah! Well there you go!
The Persian word for the colour orange is narenji (نارنجی), but their word for the fruit is porteghal (پرتقال) - presumably named after the country Portugal.
When I was little, I thought an operation was a noperation. You can see how it happens.
orange (n.)
late 14c., in reference to the fruit of the orange tree (late 13c. as a surname), from Old French orange, orenge (12c., Modern French orange), from Medieval Latin pomum de orenge, from Italian arancia, originally narancia (Venetian naranza), an alteration of Arabic naranj, from Persian narang, from Sanskrit naranga-s "orange tree," a word of uncertain origin.
It evolved from the word “naranja” meaning “orange tree”. The Spanish word came from a Sanskrit word.
We also have the word 'lox' in American English, but we use it specifically for smoked salmon served cold that you'd put on a bagel or toast. We get it from Yiddish.
nice catch
In the Canadian Maritime provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, & Prince Edward Island), Come From Away is still used to describe people who are not from the area. It is usually used for people who own cottages or vacation homes and spend most of the year elsewhere.
Forty years ago I lived in a mid-western U.S. small rural town, where Dinner referred to the noon-hour meal. So I'm thinking that perhaps during the 13th Century Dinner, Russin, & Supper may not have all been eaten during the evening. I'm a new fan of your show, and I will be watching more. Thank you for the quality, fun-filled presentations !
The reason people in the United States say dinner for lunch, is because it used to be the largest meal eaten in the day. Making the main meal dinner.
Also, their is no way an Old English word, has meaning based off of a country that isn't even 250 years old. 😂
I think it's based on old French anyways. So, I don't know where in mid-western US, but some French influences are still around as they colonized before the English. It may have been maintained throught various paths, perhaps it was immigration from a region which had kept this.
In Canada, in the Jewish market, lax (pronounced "locks") is salmon - lax on a bagel. In rural areas, and typically on farms, "dinner" is the midday meal, and supper is the evening meal. This distinction is being lost over time. This is an amzing channel! Merci beaucoup.
In French dîner is lunch. Souper is the evening meal which used to be a light meal of soup and bread.
From german "Lachs" for salmon?
Yox seems a great alternative for hiccup. It mimics the actual sound of the act. So easier to remember. I'm gonna start using that from now on. Also let's just say blossomed instead of pregnant. That has a very positive vibe to it.
But it has to be afterblossomed, because a blossom has not been pollinated yet 😅🌸
I think the point of the original was that it was after the blossom. Yu are now a fruiting body.
@@simonwatkins3236 in Spanish the term for “pregnant” is “embarrazada,” which seems to indicate that a pregnant woman should not go out in public!
Just use budding since it sounds better than tumor or goiter.
In sweden it's called "Papegoja" for parrot and Spinderväv (spider weave) for spiderweb. Always thought it looked alike but just not quite!
fun thing: Marriage is Giftemål in swedish. To marry is "gifta" and be married (already) is "gift" which all of a sudden is the same word in swedish as "Poison/venom" (both use the same word no matter if its natural or made in lab)
Great channel. Like being back at school but with more fun.
RE: lax: we already have the word "lox" meaning "cured salmon"; this is in fact cognate with Middle English "lax", but it arrived in English via the Yiddish "laks". Dunno how this will affect your bringbackability rating.
Also, Wiktionary suggests that "lax" is still used in some Scottish dialects, although I have no way to determine if this is true.
Gravlax is sort of short for gravad (cured) lax (salmon).
Hopped into the comments to point out the lax -> lox relationship. :)
There is a small town in Co. Kildare, now a satelite suburb of Dublin, called Leixlip. It derives from the Lax Leap, and was a Viking Settlement. It's where my Old Irish Professor lives!
We only use 'lox' in the US tho. It's geographically restricted, expanding from the NYC area
@@BobbyBermuda1986 I'm not sure how restricted it is in the current day. Though it is true that large Jewish communities in the NYC area. Also an ongoing history of participation of Jews in the entertainment industry (movie and TV writers and producers, comedians, etc.) has spread a lot of Yiddish and Yinglish into American English via popular culture.
EDIT: I remember seeing the cartoon movie An American Tail as a child and my family was the only one laughing at the Yinglish / cultural jokes. So maybe that stuff isn't as entrenched as I thought it was. At least not among the people in the movie theater with us way back then. We were nowhere near NYC, btw. The movie is a retelling of the immigration of a Jewish family to the US.
Do non-Americans not say lox?
Couldn't manage to work one of the 13th century words into the comments, but "mithering" and "mithered" are still in very common usage here in Lancashire. 🙂
Yep, and “offcumden” for “person who doesn’t come from here” is similar to Kumlyng.
luckily i am Yorkshire.. but we used those words here also
We say moidered in Ireland
I always heard it said as short i mithering, not mither with long i.
@@oldbean37 I remember my mum used to say moithered rather than mithered here in Lancashire.
This is interesting; partly because I know enough German to see connections, and partly because a couple of those words ARE still in use-- across the pond! "Lax" is a fun one, because [something something vowel shift] it's actually what we now spell as "lox," and use exclusively as a culinary term for cooked salmon. It's said to be one of the oldest unchanged words, reaching back to the first people to domesticate horses in Europe (as well as "bear" and "oak"). Then there's goggling-- we use that in the states! Less so in this generation, but along with "gabbling" and "jawing," it's loosely associated with a group of people gossiping, often meaninglessly or about a car accident, etc. Now that I'm really thinking about it, I haven't heard that word in years...
How lovely to see the embracing ladies at 14:25. Put a big smile on my face. 🙂
In Dutch we still have papegaai. And with Dutch being very literal, a puffin is a "diving parrot" = papegaaiduiker. And Twijfel in Dutch too.
And fans of "The Magic" Flute: will recognize how this leads to Papageno.
@@sydhenderson6753 I only just realized the connection with Mozart's feathery character after watching this video.
Diving parrot is a pretty good name.
Bemothered: In German we still have the word "bemuttern" with "Mutter" translates to "mother". It is more of overbearingattention from a mother or similar.
Eirmonger: In German that would be the "Eiermann" which can be translated to "egg-man".
Komelyng: So, much like the germen word "Ankömmling" with "ankommen" translates to "arive".
Lax: Much like the german word "Lachs". It is even pronounced quite the same.
Nedre: In German the word "Natter" exists.
Spinnandweb: That looks like a half-translation of "Spinnennetz" which is translated to "spider's web".
Finny i just told my wife egg monger
Bagel with lox (Jewish deli food), lox = salmon (from Yiddish “laks”, from German “Lachs”)
In Dutch we have spinnenweb for a spiders web.
@@greetjeb7030
In whole we speak from "Spinnenweben" in referin to anything the spider weaved.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
Thanks Herbie!
You are absolutely adorable! Love the humor!
No school in Italy can have a medieval history class without mentioning the Carolingian hierarchy, ‘vassalli, valvassini e valvassori’ in descending order of importance!
Re: crocodile = worm of stones - You should do another vid exclusively on Greek literal translations
Like how hippopotamus means river potamus) horse (hippo). Hence hippodrome = horse racing track
Also mesopotamia = between (meso) two rivers (potamia)
Or how helicopter is helico (spinning) pter (wing eg PTERadactyl)
Literal translations from other languages such as Latin would also be welcome in that video.
Yes, thanks Rob. I also always thought crocodile to be a fun word. In Spanish it is still cocodrilo, in persian it is corocodil :)
Bosphorous = Cow (Bos) Crossing (Phoros). Remember junior high mythology? Zeus carried Europa across from Asia to Europe (Yep, it's named for her) in the form of a bull.
"Helico-" more accurately means "spiral" or "twisted". You'll often see DNA's shaped described as a "double helix".
@@onorebakasama I put spiral first then corrected myself 🤦 precisely because helix
Love this video, I will definitely use Twifald. I have one issue: scores that fall under a max score implies that there is something that can achieve the max
Thanks a lot for another very informative video Rob!
Russin ( raisin in Swedish) is perhaps the same as Tiffin ( imported form Asia / India ) which means an in between meal snack ( for which the Swedes have : Fika )
BTW : Nedre in Swedish means lower or bottom half of something. Presumablhy as in : nether regions / nether lands.
Swede here, It was amazing to me how many words I could guess the meaning of just because it was so close to Sacndinavian languages. I guess the Norse Vikings really left their mark in the language.
Well this video is about lost words that Rob would like to bring back, most of which are germanic words. So that viking mark has seriously faded. As Rob said in a previous video, 26% of today's english come from all germanic languages. Almost 60% come from roman languages (mostly latine and french). As a germanic language speaker, you guessed a lot of meanings in that list. As a latine language speaker, I can guess two thirds of the English dictionary.
Skulle just skriva detsamma, men såg att andra hade hunnit före!
Well, not necessarily from Old Norse. Old English from the Anglo-Saxons was germanic and was already being spoken in England. These words were already in the Old English lexicon before the Old Norse joined in. In fact, being an aficionado of Old English and Anglish, none of these words was from Old Norse, but from Old English (I mean the obviously Germanic ones, not the French/Latin ones). They might be similar as they were akin tongues....just as a Swedish word might look similar to a German word. It doesn't mean the Swedish word is from German, or vice versa, just they share a common root.
As you can see, many of these replies don't realize exactly how similar English is to Dansk/Norsk/Svensk. We English speakers learn that our language is more closely related to German (Deutsch) than North Germanic branches, but I have found that Scandi languages are much closer in many ways.
@@exvagoergosum But English speakers don't use two-thirds of the dictionary. Many of those Latinate/Greek terms are usually reserved for occupations such as law, medicine, religion, etc. Most of our everyday speech is heavily Germanic. You can guess when you read technical standard English texts, She can guess in the real world.
RobWords has been deutschwelled for years!
Haha lustig
That is brilliant! 😂😅
The great part about language today and how it differs from in the past, is now because everyone has instant access to definitions of all past or present known words, you can essentially use any word, 'dead or alive', you like and people can infer meaning from context, or look it up quickly for a definition.
Delightful. I went immediately to order my own copy of A Dictionary Of The First Or Oldest Words In The English Language, etc.
cool thing about bemothered, in dutch we have the verb "bemoederen" (lit. to bemother someone) which takes the mother part more literal. It can mean the same as bothering, but then in an over-protective almost patronizing way, like a mother while they're not your mother. But it's also sometimes used more neutrally without a negative connotation in which case the one bemothering someone is usually an actual parent or guardian.
It's the same with "bemuttern" in German!
I just wanted to say that I simply love your videos! They are so full of information, culture, and a lot of humour as the cherry on top. And the way you present the information is so calming yet engaging. Thank you Rob!
Yes, agree! And also, I find it so encouraging that a channel like this gets over 3000 likes in five hours. Reminds me that the world is still a beautiful place, with so many people all over the world appreciating words, language, culture, finesse ...
Bewitched, bewildered, bemothered. My favorite.
In Scarborough (and possibly other Yorkshire coastal resorts) they refer to tourists as "comforts".
Because they've "come for't" day.
Don't think we have a word for an eggmonger these days, but the word 'Eggman' (a la 'I am the Walrus') is not long obsolete. I once read an interview between Samuel Beckett and John Lennon in which they discussed their memories of eggmen of their youth, who were quite literally egg sellers.
Goo goo g'joob!
I'm sure there will have been eggmongers in other parts of the country, then. The "monger" suffix was in use in Sussex, especially in "ironmonger" -- hardware shop.
@@eekee6034 & ofc people are still mongering fish every which way! I'm not convinced about 'eggmonger', though. I feel it's not easy enough to say for it to catch on - I imagine people would naturally gravitate towards a shorter form. 'Monger' is such a wonderful suffix, though.
In Dutch, we still use the word hersenpan sometimes, as the upper part of the skull. In that form,it was also used as translation of pensieve in the Harry Potter world.
This helped me to understand why my grandmother would always tell my sister and I to "Stop your jingle gangling"
Twifald or twiffled is great, it's already in verb form as in, "he twiffled between the choices" or equally useful as a state of mind, "I'm twiffled"
Another lingo-humourous gem of a video , thank you so much! The word 'eirmonger' made me laugh as it reminds me of what my German family calls the very capable gentleman who delivers the eggs to our door every week, 'Eiermann'. I will certainly think of this when I am having my russin of a heartboiled egg tonight, quertly umgriping some resurrected words.
Eir is a form of Eire / Eirenn which mean Ireland
a jangler is jongleur in French - about half of these selected words are cognate with French. Some of these were got rid of perhaps because of their origins. Middelerd is my favourite here, I think it refers to the fact that there are supposed to be other worlds above and below us. There's a town close to Budapest called "Érd", I suppose it comes from old Germanic earth like in Middelerd from some Langobardic or Ostrogothic ancient people (there's a lot of earth there).
My (incorrect) guess was that jangler would be a word for jailor because of the jangling keys they carry and the words are similar enough to possibly inspire slang.
@@dustydruid6670 jailor also comes from French "geolier" meaning the same thing (they had plenty of those in their Norman castles, also dungeon - donjon).
Ahhh ... I missed that connection between jangler and jongleur, despite having recently listened to a recording of "Le jongleur de Notre-Dame" (a rarely performed opera composed by Jules Massenet). Good catch!
You must be British
@@JonahNelson7 Actually Hungarian, but much interested in English history and archaeology, especially found of the castles they've got there.
12:42 If you look at bottom left of the highlighted word you'll see "for" spelt with R rotunda, "foꝛ". It's a calligraphic form of R after b, h, o, p, and d (specifically when no vertical bar ẟ ꝺ ð)
Most enjoyable! Thanks.
Your remark on onomatopoeia in the morning made my day, no pun intended
The content you present is just amazing... I am trying to write a story about a 4000 yo fairy, and I really don't have a grasp of languages before english. So these vids help me a lot... she would have all sorts of leftover words and phrases from centuries ago. But what I really love, and what captivates me the most, is your calm and elegant demeanor. It is really a joy to watch you and the way you present yourself. I have watched all your vids, I'm a HUGE fan, and I love your dives into old English! Thanks for all you do!
Rob animates and radiates enthusiasm for what could be a very dry subject.
Well Old English is a whole lot newer than 4000 years, of course. You might have to learn Sumerian or Egyptian!
Hopefully this hasn't been mentioned too often, but "dinner" isn't specifically an evening meal. It basically means the largest meal of the day, regardless of when it takes place. Personally, I was confused the first time my midwest farmer in-laws used it as a synonym for lunch, until we figured out the difference. I suspect that for many medieval people, they would also have had their biggest meal around noon -so the suggestion of "Russin" as coming between dinner and supper would make it more of an afternoon snack.
In the North of England they also use dinner for the meal in the middle of the day and tea for the evening meal.
Originally the meals were:
Breakfast: morning
Dinner: largest meal of the day in mid-afternoon after coming in from the field
Supper: a smaller meal at night.
Lunch was a mid-workday snack of beer/bread/butter
As the Industrial Revolution moved people into factories & out of fields, dinner moved to the evening & lunch became a full meal, but still lighter than dinner. Supper sort of disappeared.
That’s why in areas where agriculture stayed around longer (the American South for sure, where I’m from), we still traditionally say supper for the evening meal, & dinner is a BIG afternoon meal, like a big meal where everyone gathers on Sunday or for holidays.
By the way, the pattern of breakfast, big mid-afternoon meal, light evening meal still exists in Spain & Latin America where I’ve also lived. In pre-industrial times, it was always based on avoiding the heat of the day in the summer, & getting done before dark in the winter.
It's funny how the word dinner has made trips around the entire day. Etymologically, it's from Latin dis-iēiūnare 'dis-fast', which became Old French disner (meaning lunch). The French word déjeuner has the same etymology, so mainstream French currently uses variants of the same etymon to refer to every meal of the day: petit déjeuner is the morning meal, déjeuner is the midday meal (historically and in some places breakfast), and dîner is evening meal (historically and in some places lunch), with souper being the evening meal in places that retain the historical definitions.
@@BlinkyLass “to eat breakfast” in Spanish is desayunar as well
“Eat you breakfast ‘fore you start, bring you dinner in your hand, and you leave before suppertime” - old southern American country tune.
Thank you, loved this one. Eager to add to my lexicon, just to hear people say "Huh?." By the way, I bought a copy of the Coleridge dictionary because of your videos. Enriching!
I really enjoy these videos
Thank you for telling us about Herbert Coleridge. I hadn't known that he did so much linguistic work.
I love that your channel doesn't tread the well-worn language topics and you always find something unique and still fascinating to talk about every time!
I love all these old words
I'm in my seventieth from merseyside, my mother and grandmother always talked about people jangling meaning general chatting, not serious debating , just jangling.
I'm kind of proud to being able to trace one of these words to my native language, Portuguese. And that is "orgulho" which also means proud and it is obviously related to your "o" pick here.
Neidr in Welsh means a snake. Presumably both meanings come from the Latin, natrix meaning a water snake. Btw, the yogh letter is the same as the way I was taught in the 1950s to wrote a lower case z. I still write it that way today.
Genius! Thank you so much! 😊
Hey Rob! Love your videos.
I was pondering today of who has videos I like. Or what content I like and by whom. Or whose videos they are.
Which brought me to a puzzle - word WHO changes endings. It changes them based on how it is used. Are there any other question words like this with different endings? Or is WHO unique in this way? And if it's the latter, why? How did it get there?
Who Whom Whose
The Welsh word for any snake (not just an adder/a nadder) is Neidr
Twifald is by far my favourite - 5 stars! I love it because I think "two fold" is a great way of saying "doubt" or "hesitate" and I also think that it sounds like the feeling of doubting. Great word!
A suggestion for you: 'P' for pettifogger (which I understand a dictionary definition is "an inferior legal practitioner who deals in petty cases and may occasionally indulge in nefarious practices" )
And a collective noun for lawyers: 'a liar of lawyers'
I'm currently writing a trip report for a bird watching tour I led to South Korea. Gale gale is going straight into it and I will use it when leading tours in the future.