Forgotten roots

When the Vikings shaped modern English and other linguistic adventures

Image: British Library

Like geological layers of rocks, languages are built over time, each layer preserving traces of cultural and linguistic events that give shape to its present form. Modern English is not an exception, and its rich history forms a complex tapestry of diverse influences across centuries. From conquerors to traders, each left an indelible mark on its vocabulary, grammar, and idioms. Join us to explore which 12 languages are key to understanding the English we speak today.

Image: British Library

Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon, is the bedrock of modern English. Introduced by Germanic tribes in the 5th century, it gave us many everyday words like house, king, or love.

Anglo-Saxon provided English with its core structure, including basic grammar rules and common prefixes like un- and over-. Though heavily transformed later, its legacy remains in our simplest and most essential words.

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Most Latin words entered English through Christian missionaries during the 6th and 7th centuries, introducing terms related to religion, education, and law, such as altar and scripture.

However, long before the Germanic tribes that gave rise to Old English reached Britain, many Latin words for common objects had already entered their vocabulary. Later, with the Norman Conquest, Latin's influence was further amplified through French.

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After the Norman Conquest in the 11th century, Anglo-Norman (a variety of French) became the language of the elite, influencing law, art, and cuisine. Words like court, beauty, and dinner all come from this period.

Over the centuries, French contributed more than 10,000 words to English, resulting in a dual-register vocabulary. Have you ever noticed that words like help have synonyms like aid, or that start can also be said as commence?

Image: National Historical Museum of Sweden (NHM)

Through Anglo-Saxon, English actually shares roots with German, which is evident in words like mother, brother, and night. Moreover, even the word English has a Germanic source, derived from Anglisc, an ancient dialect that evolved into Old English in later centuries.

Direct borrowing in the 19th century added terms like kindergarten and zeitgeist. The German impact is also seen in philosophical and scientific vocabulary, reflecting its intellectual contributions during the Enlightenment and beyond.

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Greek entered English primarily via scholarly Latin during the Renaissance, giving us terms like philosophy, democracy, and psychology. In fact, it is estimated that more than 150,000 words of English are derived from Greek words!

Despite the temporal and linguistic distances, Ancient Greek had a profound influence on English. This is particularly evident in science and medicine, where compound words like biology (bios = life, logos = study) form the backbone of technical language, but many common words also have Greek roots.

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Before the Germanic tribes arrived and brought Anglo-Saxon with them, the native Celtic inhabitants of Britain had their own language and culture. However, their encounters with the newcomers were far from friendly, leading to a lack of cultural and linguistic integration.

Despite this, Celtic languages still influenced place names like Avon and Thames, as well as many surnames and words like bard and whiskey. And in the areas of land where Celtic culture remained dominant, new languages such as Irish, Welsh, and Gaelic evolved.

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A long-time maritime power that competed with England for dominance of the seas, the Netherlands contributed many nautical terms, such as yacht, skipper, and reef, but also many everyday words, like cookie and landscape.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Dutch-English trade interactions solidified these linguistic exchanges, especially in shipping and art.

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Even the fearsome Vikings contributed to English! The Viking invasions of the 8th–11th centuries introduced many Old Norse words, such as sky, knife, and window, into English.

Perhaps more importantly, the influence of Old Norse simplified English grammar by blending its inflections with Old English, streamlining verb forms and case endings. This legacy persists to this day in many words related to everyday life and nature.

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Early 16th-century trade and cultural exchange brought many Italian terms into English, especially in music, art, and cuisine. Italy’s artistic dominance during the Renaissance made its vocabulary integral to describing classical art, architecture, and all sorts of culinary sophistication.

Words like piano, opera, and spaghetti are living proof of this influence.

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During the Islamic Golden Age, Arab scholars preserved Greek knowledge and made groundbreaking advancements in fields like mathematics and astronomy. Many Arabic-derived terms became essential in both science and trade.

As a result, Arabic enriched English—though primarily through Spanish and Latin translations—introducing many words such as alchemy, sugar, or algebra.

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Through Britain’s long-lasting colonial rule in India, many Indian words, such as shampoo, bungalow, and curry, found their way into English. These loanwords were often adopted to describe unfamiliar objects, animals, and cultural practices.

But long before the colonial era, many Indian words originating in Sanskrit and other local languages had already entered Greek and Latin through trade routes. Words like pepper, indigo, and ginger can be traced back to this time.

Image: Birmingham Museums Trust

Spanish influence on English can be traced back to the 1500s, when English sailors and colonists encountered Spanish explorers on the high seas and in the New World colonies. Exploration and trade with Spanish-speaking regions introduced words like banana, patio, and cargo.

Another unexpected source of Spanish words came from the Anglo-Spanish Wars, during which England and Spain were fierce rivals. Despite the hostilities, English adopted Spanish-derived terms such as armada and breeze.

Unexpected meanings

10 words of Latin origin with an odd etymology

Words of Latin origin abound in the English language, many of them with an original meaning quite similar to the current one. But some words, however, might surprise us when we look up their etymology. What does being genuine have to do with your knees? Which word comes from people gossiping in a street corner? Which compliment started as an insult? Here are 10 unexpected Latin etymologies.

Some linguists state that "genuine" comes from gignere, "to produce", related to the idea of giving birth. In this sense, something genuine would be something innate, not acquired. But there is an alternative origin proposed that links the term to genu, "knee". In Ancient Rome, newborns would be placed in front of their father to be acknowledged. If the father decided to recognize the infant as their true child, he would pick them up and place them on his knee.

Borrowed from French, the term "mortgage" is not completely of Latin origin. Its second half, gage, comes from a Germanic term for "pledge". Mort, however, comes from mortuus, meaning "dead". What do "dead pledges" have to do with real estate loans? In its original sense, mortgages were pledges that resulted in "death": either the pledge died when it was fulfilled, or when one of the parties failed to pay, which "killed" their rights over the collateral.

At first glance, we might not see the Latin roots of this word, but they become quite clear when we separate the two parts that compose it: Porcus, "pig", and spina, "thorn", which makes a porcupine a "thorny pig". English adopted this name through the French porc-espin, which resulted in the Middle English porke despyne. The name had several variations in English (including the Shakespearean porpentine) before settling into its current form.

What do muscles and rodents have in common? More than you might think. The Latin term for "muscle" comes from the diminutive form of mus, "mouse". For Ancient Romans, the movement of the muscle tissue under the skin looked like a small mouse scurrying around, which made the name musculus, "little mouse," quite fitting.

Trivia lovers might be delighted to learn that, since the time of the Ancient Romans, fun facts were shared just for the sake of sharing them. From the word trivium, "where three roads meet", trivia was used to describe road intersections where people gathered to chat, gossip, and share "trivial" news. Trivia might be of little consequence since its origins, but it has been loved and shared for centuries.

Being called "nice" might not be the highest of compliments, but it is also not a bad thing to be called. That is, in the last few centuries. In its Latin origin, nescius (from nescire, "to not know", "to ignore") was undoubtedly insulting, and it continued to be up until the 15th century, when "nice" lost its meaning of "fool", "ignorant", or "fussy", and adopted the meaning of "precise" and later on "agreeable" and "kind".

The placenta is an extraordinary and fascinating organ, but its name is almost underwhelming in its simplicity. It was named in the 16th century by Italian anatomist Realdo Colombo, who chose the name placenta uterina, Latin for "uterine cake". Yes, placenta is the Latin word for "cake" or "flatbread". Why did Colombo choose the name? To him, the shape of the placenta resembled a traditional baked flat cake.

In English, many familiar relations kept their original Old English form, but some were replaced by their Norman-French equivalent. "Uncle" (in Old English, ēam for maternal uncles and fædera for paternal uncles) was adopted from the French oncle, derived from the Latin avunculus. While avunculus was used in Latin for maternal uncles and is often translated as "mother’s brother", it is actually the diminutive of avus, "grandfather", which made your maternal uncle your "little grandfather".

We are used to suspecting the hidden motivations of political candidates, a reality that makes the etymology of "candidate" sound ironic. The term comes from the Latin candidus, meaning "shining white". Political candidates in ancient Rome would wear a bright white robe or toga candida as a sign of their purity, honesty, and good reputation, and they were known as candidatus or "clothed in white".

If you were to look for the Latin root of the word "desire", you would find the verb desiderare, meaning "to long for", "to wish", or "to demand". But what is behind desiderare? While some experts consider this a folk etymology**, others link** desiderare to de sidere ("from the stars"), from sidus ("heavenly body" or "star"), connecting "desire" with something ruled by or wished upon the stars.