This post is less about Latin but more on how English developed and enhanced its vocabulary because of it.
[1] re: again │ redo; reread; rewrite:
these three are good examples of the way in which English can apply Latin
prefixes to Germanic words
Old English: dōn (do) +
Latin: re- > redo
Old English: rǣdan (read)
+ Latin: re- > reread
Old English: wrītan
(write) + Latin: re- > rewrite
Sometimes, English has both
Latin and Germanic in the same word!
La: in- expressing opposite;
Engl: -ly ( OE: -līċ) > indirectly
[2] ‘progress’: an example
of displacement where an original Old English word had its
meaning shifted or the word was completely lost.
OE: forþgang (progress); it
still exists in ‘go forth’ but the Latin derived “progress” replaced
that original Old English meaning.
[3] What is very frequent in
English is the co-existence of two words, one from Old English and
the other derived (Latin) i.e. came from Latin.
Sometimes these words are synonyms and sometimes have a
related meaning, but a meaning more specific than they were in the original
Latin.
[i] What is a common feature
is that ‘domestic’ and ‘agricultural’ vocabulary in Old English is enhanced by
Latin derived words:
ox (and we still have the
plural: oxen < OE oxan) │ Latin derivation: bovine (La: bōs; ox)
house < OE hūs │ Latin
derivation: domestic (La: domus house)
ship < OE sċip │ Latin
derivation: naval (La: nāvis; ship); English has ‘shipping lanes’ (<
OE) and also ‘maritime laws’ (< Latin: mare; sea)
sail < OE seġl is an
interesting one; here, you can see that it remains fixed as the act of sailing
on a boat, but the Latin derived word navigate(La: nāvigāre; sail)
is used in a more specialised way.
[ii] Sometimes we can’t be
sure:
farm: could be from
Mediaeval Latin ferma or possibly OE feorm(rent;
supplies) but there’s no question as to where agriculture comes
from!
[4] Is there much difference
between these two?
friendly [< OE:
frēondlīċ]; Modern German: freundlich │ amicable [< La: amīcus; friend]
But English often uses
derived words to express abstract ideas or subtle
differences in meaning:
brain [< OE bræġn]:
He’s very brainy. │ He’s very cerebral rather than
emotional. [La: cerebrum; brain]
I have a pet cat.
[< OE catt] │ She has feline features. [< La: fēles;
cat]; the word cattus, -ī [2/m] is Late / Mediaeval Latin –
Old English already had it – and, rather like cats themselves, nobody knows
where the word came from!
· dog [< OE docga]
│ canine teeth [< La: canis; dog]
[5] There are a few Latin
words hiding in Old English which came from the Angles and Saxons who occupied
Britain after the Romans left. There is some debate as to whether the Germanic
tribes took these words from the Romans.
wall │ Gmn: Wall; rampart │
La: vallum; wall, rampart
street │ Gmn: Straße; street
│ La: (via) strāta; paved road
Some sites list others e.g.
‘cheese’ and ’wine’ but I’m not convinced they are of Latin origin despite
their similarities i.e cheese │ Gmn: Käse │ La: cāseus, and wine │ Gmn: Wein │
La: vīnum. I should imagine that the Germanic tribes were eating cheese and
drinking wine long before the Romans got involved!
Image #1: a small part of
the Lord’s Prayer in Old English and Latin; there is nothing in
the OE prayer that’s from Latin, not even ‘father’, or ‘name’ which look
similar. Those two words, both in English and in Latin, come from the same
Indo-European root, a reconstructed language that is the common ancestor of
most of the European languages. English didn’t take those words from Latin;
they were already in the languages of the Germanic tribes.
Image #3: … and English ends up like this
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