Our modern language abounds with words borrowed from many foreign tongues; but a large number of them have come to us since 1500. Before that date the chief languages from which it was possible for us to borrow words were British or Gaelic, Irish, Latin, Greek (invariably through the medium of Latin), Hebrew (in a small degree, through the medium of Latin), Arabic (very slightly, and indirectly), Scandinavian, and French. A few words as to most of these are sufficient.
It is not long since a great parade was made of our borrowings from “Celtic”; it was very easy to give a wild guess that an obscure word was “Celtic”; and the hardihood of the guesser was often made to take the place of evidence. The fact is that there is no such language as “Celtic”; it is the name of a group of languages, including “British” or Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Manx, Gaelic, and Irish; and it is now incumbent on the etymologist to cite the exact forms in one or more of these on which he relies, so as to adduce some semblance of proof. The result has been an extraordinary shrinkage in the number of alleged Celtic words. The number, in fact, is extremely small, except in special cases. Thus we may expect to find a few Welsh words in the dialects of Cheshire, Shropshire, or Herefordshire, on the Welsh border; and a certain proportion of Gaelic words in Lowland Scotch; though we have no reliable lists of these, and it is remarkable that such words have usually been borrowed at no very early date, and sometimes quite recently. The legacy of words bequeathed to us by the ancient Britons is surprisingly small; indeed, it is very difficult to point to many clear cases. The question is considered in my Principles of English Etymology, Series I, pp. 443-452, to which I may refer the reader; and a list of words of (probably) Celtic origin is given in my larger Etymological Dictionary, ed. 1910, p. 765. It is also explained, in my Primer of English Etymology that, in the fifth century, the time of Hengist’s invasion, “the common language of the more educated classes among the British was Latin, which was in use as a literary language and as the language of the British Christian Church. Hence, the Low German tribes [of invaders] found no great necessity for learning ancient British; and this explains the fact, which would otherwise be extraordinary, that modern English contains but a very small Celtic element.” Of the Celts that remained within the English pale, it is certain that, in a very short time, they accepted the necessity of learning Anglian or Saxon, and lost their previous language altogether. Hence, in many dialects, as for example, in the East Midland district, the amount of words of “British” origin is practically nil. For further remarks on this subject, see Chapter v of Anglo-Saxon Britain, by Grant Allen, London, n.d.
I here give a tentative list of some Celtic words found in dialects. Their etymologies are discussed in my Etymological Dictionary (1910), as they are also found in literary use; and the words are fully explained in the English Dialect Dictionary, which gives all their senses, and enumerates the counties in which they are found. It is doubtless imperfect, as I give only words that are mostly well known, and can be found, indeed, in the New English Dictionary. I give only one sense of each, and mark it as N., M., or S. (Northern, Midland, or Southern), as the case may be. The symbol “gen.” means “in general use”; and “Sc.” means Lowland Scotch.
Art, or airt, Sc., a direction of the wind; banshee, Irish, a female spirit who warns families of a death; beltane, N., the first of May; bin, M., a receptacle; boggart, bogle, N., M., a hobgoblin; bragget, N., M., a drink made of honey and ale; brat, N., M., a cloth, clout; brock, gen., a badger; bug, N., a bogy; bugaboo, N., M., a hobgoblin; capercailyie, Sc., a bird; cateran, Sc., a Highland robber; char, N., a fish; clachan, Sc., a hamlet; clan, N., M., a class, set of people; claymore, Sc., a two-handed sword; colleen, Irish, a young girl; combe, gen., the head of a valley; coracle, M., a wicker boat; coronach, Sc., a dirge; corrie, Sc., a circular hollow in a hill-side; cosher, Irish, a feast; crag, craig, N., a rock; crowd, N., S., a fiddle; dulse, N., an edible sea-weed; dun, gen., brown, greyish; duniwassal, Sc., a gentleman of secondary rank; fillibeg, Sc., a short kilt; flummery, Sc., M., oatmeal boiled in water; gallowglass, Sc., Irish, an armed foot-soldier; galore, gen., in abundance; gillie, Sc., a man-servant; gull, a name of various birds; hubbub, hubbaboo, Irish, a confused clamour; inch, Sc., Irish, a small island; ingle, N., M., fire, fire-place; kelpie, Sc., a water-spirit; kibe, gen., a chilblain; linn, N., a pool; loch, N., lough, Irish, a lake; metheglin, M., S., beer made from honey; omadhaun, Irish, a simpleton; pose, gen. (but perhaps obsolete), a catarrh; rapparee, Sc., Irish, a vagabond; shillelagh, Irish, a cudgel; skain, skean, Sc., Irish, a knife, dagger; sowens, sowans, Sc., a dish made from oatmeal-husks steeped in water (from Gael, sùghan, the juice of sowens); spalpeen, Irish, a rascal; spleuchan, Sc., Irish, a pouch, a purse; strath, N., a valley; strathspey, Sc., a dance, named from the valley of the river Spey; tocher, N., a dowry; usquebaugh, Sc., Irish, whiskey; wheal, Cornish, a mine.
Latin is a language from which English has borrowed words in every century since the year 600. In my Principles of English Etymology, First Series, Chap. xxi, I give a list of Latin words imported into English before the Norman Conquest. Several of these must be familiar in our dialects; we can hardly suppose that country people do not know the meaning of ark, beet, box, candle, chalk, cheese, cook, coulter, cup, fennel, fever, font, fork, inch, kettle, kiln, kitchen, and the like. Indeed, ark is quite a favourite word in the North for a large wooden chest, used for many purposes; and Kersey explains it as “a country word for a large chest to put fruit or corn in.” Candle is so common that it is frequently reduced to cannel; and it has given its name to “cannel coal.” Every countryman is expected to be able to distinguish “between chalk and cheese.” Coulter appears in ten dialect forms, and one of the most familiar agricultural implements is a pitch-fork. The influence of Latin requires no further illustration.
I also give a list of early words of Greek origin; some of which are likewise in familiar use. I may instance alms, angel, bishop, butter, capon, chest, church, clerk, copper, devil, dish, hemp, imp, martyr, paper (ultimately of Egyptian origin), plaster, plum, priest, rose, sack, school, silk, treacle, trout. Of course the poor old woman who says she is “a martyr to tooth-ache” is quite unconscious that she is talking Greek. Probably she is not without some smattering of Persian, and knows the sense of lilac, myrtle, orange, peach, and rice; of Sanskrit, whence pepper and sugar-candy; of Arabic, whence coffee, cotton, jar, mattress, senna, and sofa; and she will know enough Hebrew, partly from her Bible, to be quite familiar with a large number of biblical names, such as Adam and Abraham and Isaac, and very many more, not forgetting the very common John, Joseph, Matthew, and Thomas, and the still more familiar Jack and Jockey; and even with a few words of Hebrew origin, such as alleluia, balm, bedlam, camel, cider, and sabbath. The discovery of the New World has further familiarised us all with chocolate and tomato, which are Mexican; and with potato, which is probably old Caribbean. These facts have to be borne in mind when it is too rashly laid down that words in English dialects are of English origin.
Foreign words of this kind are, however, not very numerous, and can easily be allowed for. And, as has been said, our vocabulary admits also of a certain amount of Celtic. It remains to consider what other sources have helped to form our dialects. The two most prolific in this respect are Scandinavian and French, which require careful consideration.
It is notorious that the Northern dialect admits Scandinavian words freely; and the same is true, to a lesser degree, of East Midland. They are rare in Southern, and in the Southern part of West Midland. The constant invasions of the Danes, and the subjection of England under the rule of three Danish kings, Canute and his two successors, have very materially increased our vocabulary; and it is remarkable that they have perhaps done more for our dialects than for the standard language. The ascendancy of Danish rule was in the eleventh century; but (with a few exceptions) it was long before words which must really have been introduced at that time began to appear in our literature. They must certainly have been looked upon, at the first, as being rustic or dialectal. I have nowhere seen it remarked, and I therefore call attention to the fact, that a certain note of rustic origin still clings to many words of this class; and I would instance such as these: bawl, bloated, blunder, bungle, clog, clown, clumsy, to cow, to craze, dowdy, dregs, dump, and many more of a like character. I do not say that such words cannot be employed in serious literature; but they require skillful handling.
For further information, see the chapter on “The Scandinavian Element in English,” in my Principles of English Etymology, Series I.
With regard to dialectal Scandinavian, see the List of English Words, as compared with Icelandic, in my Appendix to Cleasby and Vigfusson’s Icelandic Dictionary. In this long list, filling 80 columns, the dialectal words are marked with a dagger †. But the list of these is by no means exhaustive, and it will require a careful search through the pages of the English Dialect Dictionary to do justice to the wealth of this Old Norse element. There is an excellent article on this subject by Arnold Wall, entitled “A Contribution towards the Study of the Scandinavian element in the English Dialects,” printed in the German periodical entitled Anglia, Neue Folge, Band viii, 1897.