By 1400, when Chaucer died, there was a new English language, almost as much French as Saxon in vocabulary, but far less French than Saxon in grammar. Since French is largely derived from Latin, it is clear that the total Latin element in the vocabulary was already very great.
After Chaucer there came a general awakening of interest in ancient civilization; and in the Revival of Learning a great many words were adopted directly from Latin and Greek. In the sixteenth century followed the Renaissance of literature, art, and the sciences. This made its way to England from Italy, and naturally Englishmen caught up many new words from Italians. For example: alert, bankrupt, brigade, bust, cameo, caricature, cascade, domino, fresco, granite, influenza, malaria, niche, oratorio, pianoforte, ruffian, studio, tirade, umbrella, vista. The Spaniards, too, whom Englishmen met in those days on the sea and at courts, have lent our language such words as barricade, bravado, cigar, desperado, flotilla, guerilla, merino, mosquito, mulatto, renegade, sherry, tornado, vanilla.
The bold English seamen of the sixteenth century sailed back even from America with new things and new names—like tobacco. In the next century the commerce which followed hard upon the voyages of discovery was the means of bringing to the British island many new words. Here it may be said that the Dutch, who have rivalled the English in commerce, and who have taught the English some tricks of seamanship,—as did the vikings before them,—are represented in English by words like ballast, boom, boor, skipper, sloop, smack, trigger, yacht. English merchantmen of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries sailed to ports Oriental and Occidental. Returning, they brought from Africa canaries and gorillas, with the words canary and gorilla, and told of oases; from Arabia they fetched such names as admiral, alcohol, alcove, alkali, arsenal, azure, chemistry, coffee, cotton, lute, magazine, nabob, naphtha, sherbet, sofa, syrup, zenith; indeed, some of these words had got into English through earlier English travellers—chiefly crusaders. English sailors and travellers have brought from China silk, tea, etc.; from India, banyan, calico, mullagatawny, musk, punch, sugar, thug, etc.; from Malayan ports, bantam, cockatoo, gong, rattan, sago, etc.; from Persia, awning, caravan, chess, hazard, horde, lemon, orange, paradise, sash, shawl, etc. Few are the languages from which a British ear has not caught and kept a new term.
In America we have many Indian names of places and things. We have hominy, moose, opossum, raccoon, toboggan, and other words from North American tribes. Mexico gave us chocolate, tomato, etc.; the West Indies, potato, canoe, hurricane; South America, alpaca, quinine, tapioca, etc.
In the present century, science, both practical and pure, has discovered thousands of facts and invented thousands of contrivances. Consequently thousands of words have been coined, mostly from Greek, to name modern inventions and the facts of science. A recent dictionary found it necessary to codify 4000 technical terms that had sprung up within the last few years.
Anglo-Saxon Prefixes and Suffixes.—The following prefixes are Anglo-Saxon. Think of words made with each.
1. A- = in, on.
2. Be-. What grammatical effect has this prefix on moan, daub, friend?
3. For-. What effect has this on bid, lorn? Compare Latin per, in perfect.
4. Fore-.