A short list of English words derived from Celtic

(entering English via Old Frankish or Vulgar Latin and Old French):

ambassador from Gaulish *ambactos “servant”, “one who goes about”

bard ‘a poet’

bog‘a piece of wet spongy ground’ (from bogach “a bog”, or bog “soft”)

boreen‘a small country road’ (from bóithrín)

brogues‘a type of shoe’ (from bróg “a shoe”)

bunny now obsolete word for ‘a rabbit warren’

clan from clann “children” or “family”

caroriginally “two-wheeled Celtic war chariot” (from Gaulish karros)

down from Celtic root dún

druid ‘derwydd’, possibly derived from “derw” meaning ‘oak’

flannel the etymology of this word is uncertain, but that it is likely to have come from the Welsh gwlanen “flannel”. Another suggested source is Old French flaine “blanket”

fiacre ‘a small four-wheeled carriage for hire, a hackney-coach’. This derives from the Old Irish given name fiacre (of uncertain meaning, perhaps ‘battle king’)

penguin possibly from pen gwyn “white head”

skean from sgian “a knife”

slogan from sluagh-ghairm “battle-cry”

trousers from triubhas via “trews”

twig ‘to understand, catch on’, from tuig “understand”

whisky short form of whiskybae, from uisge-beatha “water of life”

Traditionally there considered to be three layers of Latin loans:

1^st layer: a large proportion of Latin loans found in Old English are shared by English with German and other (West)Germanic languages. Quite a number of these – the so-called ‘continental borrowings’ – were taken over in the centuries before the migration of West Germanic tribes to Britain and reflect innovations in the life of the Germanic people which resulted from direct contacts with the Romans: includes words derived from the Roman-Germanic contacts on the continent: battle, wall (OE weall), street (OE stræt), mile (OE mīl), pound (OE pund), coin (OE mynet), wine (OE wīn), cup (OE cuppe), line(OE līne), butter(OE butere), church (OE cirice), bishop (OE biscop) etc.

2^nd layer: other loans entered English after the migration period and served to meet new communicative needs arising from the cultural changes brought about in the process of Christianization.

3^rd layer: the influx of Latin loans continued during Middle English times. Although French became by far the most important source on new words in this period, the number of loans that entered English directly from Latin was by no means small. In cases of minor formal differences between Latin and French it is often impossible to decide with certainty whether the word in question came into English as a result of direct borrowing or was introduced via its descendant language.

The common Germanic layer includes words which are shared by most Germanic languages. These are:

Nouns: sun, moon, star, morning, day, eve(ning), night, ice, snow, rain, heat, birch, beech, oak, alder, ash, rye, barley, wheat, rat, flax, iron, steel, gold, silver, birth, life, youth, man, woman, bride, father, mother, brother, child, son, daughter, house, home, friend, half, ship, boat, sail, horse, cow, ox, calf, swine, ox, hound, bird, fowl, goose, bread, fish, meal, water, beer, milk, hunger, thirst, hat, shoe, tongue, (parts of body: chin, neck, nose, mouth, lip, shoulder, breast, heart, knee, lung, arm, finger, foot, etc.).

adjectives: old, new, cold, cool, warm, hot, high, deep, broad, wide, long (colours: black, white, red, yellow, green, brown), good, evil etc.

verbs: live, hear, see, feel, think, speak, say, tell, sing, sit, stand, lie, go, eat, drink, sleep, wake, be, awake, clothe, make, sow, mow, read, spin, weave, bake, brew, wash, bathe, heal, heat, fight, so on

articles, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs and numerals are in the inherited lexical items underlines their centrality in function.

geographical names:

-ing meant ‘folk / family’ eg., Reading is the place of the family of Rada, “Hastings” of the family of Hasta

-ham meant ‘farm’ eg., Birmingham, Nottingham

-tonmeant ‘settlement’ eg., Southampton, Kingston

-ingham, like in Dersingham (Deorsige + ingas + ham “Homestead belonging to Deorsige’s people”)

-ingtun,like in Kedington (Cydda + ingas + tun “Farmstead belonging to Cydda’s people)

-borough (-borough, -burgh, -brough, –bury)the place-name element meaning “a fortified place” as in Branderburgh, Canterbury, Middlesbrough, Marlborough

merge easily with the cognate Saxon word-stock, having the same blunt strength.

Their directness and generality place them naturally in the neutral or lower register.

Scandinavian influence was reflected in the numerous place names ending in:

-bymeaning ‘farm’ or ‘town’: Grimsby, Whitby, Normanby, Derby, Rugby, Thoresby;

-thorp(e)contain the Scandinavian word meaning ‘village’, like in Althorpe, Grainthorpe, Bishopsthorpe, Gawthorpe, Linthorpe;

- a number contain the word -thwaitemeaning ‘an isolated piece of land’, like in Applethwaite, Braithwaite, Cowperthwaite, Langthwait;

- about a 100 places bear names ending in -toftmeaning ‘a piece of ground’: Brimtoft, Eastoft, Langtoft, Lowetoft, Nortoft etc.

nouns:bag, band, birth, brink, bulk, cake, crook, dirt, egg, fellow, freckle, gap, gate, husband, keel, kid, leg, link, law, loan, raft, root, score, scrap, seat, skill, skim, skirt, skull, sky, slaughter, sneer, steak, thrift, window, wing…;

adjectives:awkward, flat, happy, ill, loose, low, meek, odd, rotten, scant, scarce, sly, tight, ugly, weak, wrong…;

verbs: bait, bask, call, cast, clamp, crawl, cut, die, drown, gape, gasp, hit, happen, lift, nag, raise, rake, rid, scare, scatter, scowl, snub, take, thrive, thrust, want...

The real test of a foreign influence is the degree to which the words that it brought in were assimilated. This is not merely a question of the power to survive; it is a question of how completely the words were digested and became indistinguishable from the native word-stock, so that they could enter into compounds and be made into other parts of speech, just like native words.

Traditionally all the French words are classified according to the semantic spheres:

Government and Administration: assembly, authority, chancellor, council, country, court, crown, govern(ment), nation, office, parliament, people, power, realm, etc.

Titles and ranks: baron, count, duchess, duke, feudal, manor, noble, prince, viscount etc.

Law and Jurisdiction: acquit, accuse, attorney, case, cause, condemn, crime, damage, defend, false, guilt, heir, injury, interest, judge, just, marry, money, penalty, poor, poverty, prove, rent, robber, session etc

Military terms: aid, armour, army, banner, battle, captain, company, defeat, dragoon, escape, force, lance, lieutenant, navy, sergeant, soldier, troops, victory etc.

Church and religious terminology: abbey, altar, Bible, baptism, cell, chapel, charity, clergy, divine, grace, honour, glory, lesson, miracle, nativity, paradise, parish, passion, pray, preach, procession, religion, rule, sacrifice, saint, save, sermon, vice, virgin, virtue etc.

The Home: furniture, architecture, arch, castle, chimney, column, curtain, cushion, lamp, mansion, palace, porch, table, wardrobe etc.

Art: beauty, colour, design, figure, image, ornament, paint etc.

Words denoting mental and emotional states:advice, anxious, change, eager, enjoy, envy, excuse, firm, joy, move, necessary, nice, obey, pale, please, remember, satisfy, search, sudden, sure, very etc.

Fashion:boot, coat, collar, costume, dress, fur, garment, gown, jewel, robe etc

Leisure (Games and Sports, Parties, Dancing, Theatre, Travel and Tourism): entertainment, chase, cards, dance, dice, leisure, partner, pleasure, sport, tournament, trump, contest, etc.

Cuisine: pork / bacon, venison, mutton, veal, etc.