Old Norse Words

A few Old Norse words are commonly used in our current speech. For example, take and skull come from Old Norse. Even give and get show Old Norse influence since their Old English forms used not /g/ but /j/; the change in consonant is due to influence from the Old Norse forms.

Some Anglishers see Old Norse words as foreign influence and so wish to use their equivalents passed down from Old English instead, whereas others are open to Old Norse words for a few different reasons, the main one being that they are still Germanic and thus do not conflict with Anglish's main goal. This page lists out New English equivalents that one can use however one wishes.

Note that some words are originally from Old English, but later became influenced in meaning by their Old Norse equivalents. For example, -ling was used in Old English, but its diminutive meaning was small. That its diminutive meaning rose in Middle English is generally thought to be due to Old Norse influence. Whether this influence is acceptable depends on one's tastes, but here, this use of -ling will not be treated as English.

There are a few different ways to come up with New English equivalents:


 * 1) Since English and Old Norse are both Germanic speeches, they naturally have cognates. For example, stoup has the Old English cognate stēap, and so we can use steap, the expected modernization of the Old English word.
 * 2) Some cognates also differ only on whether the initial consonant was palatalized. For example, give is at least influenced by the Old Norse word, since the expected modernization of the Old English cognate would use /j/ instead of /g/, which underwent palatalization. Hence, Germanic words beginning with sh, ch, or y are very likely to be native.
 * 3) Sometimes, cognates later diverged in meaning. For example, skirt is the Old Norse cognate to shirt and meant the same thing as shirt, but when the word entered English, it later changed meaning, and so we cannot use shirt to replace skirt now.
 * 4) Some words have no cognates, one reason being that the Norse word was a Norse formation. For example, husband is a North Germanic formation and so is not found in West Germanic. In this case, a native equivalent, whether from Old English or from New English, must be sought after.
 * 5) Sometimes, there is no word, and unless one wants to make new words, one simply has to use multiple words to translate the Old Norse word. For example, gait can be replaced with the phrase way of walking, unless one wishes to make a new word such as walkwise.
 * 6) The usual techniques for making Anglish words apply. That is, we can bring back old words and maybe give them a new or extended meaning, or calque words from other Germanic speeches.

Of course, Norse words (originally) referring to Norse concepts such as hersir, berserk, and saga are generally deemed acceptable, since it is natural to borrow a foreign word to refer to a foreign thing.

Words not listed
Notably, the third-person plural pronouns currently used come from Old Norse and replaced the native set. For more information on what the native pronouns would now be, see here.

The word Thursday (OE þunresdæg) may have been influenced by the Norse equivalent, but given that Wednesday shows loss of d, it seems likely that the n in the OE word would have been naturally lost over time, so Thursday is treated as a native contraction here.

The etymology of gun is uncertain. One common etymology is that it was a shortening of Gunilda, the name of a specific ballista in Windsor Castle, and the name comes from the Norse name Gunnhildr. Since the word may have been gotten from a Norse name (and derivations from foreign names are commonly deemed acceptable), no attempt to substitute it is made here.

Though certainly Germanic, both is of uncertain derivation. Some trace it to the OE phrase bā þā, which was, however, rather rare. Others trace it to Norse bāþir. It is certainly possible that both is a native formation, as this formation is also seen in other Germanic speeches, e.g., Dutch and German beide. Hence, no attempt is made to substitute it here.

The word yea is native, since it is from OE gēa, but the modern pronunciation is odd, as it would normally rhyme with sea. There are very few words that are spelled with , but are now pronounced with /eɪ/, e.g., great, break. It is very likely that the vowel in yea did not shift, because it was generally used alongside nay, which is from Norse. Hence, if it had not been for nay, it is likely that yea would have come to rhyme with sea instead of lay.

The verb lose is said to have come from OE losian, but it must have been influenced in pronunciation somehow, as the expected form would rhyme with nose. It is likely that it was influenced by loose, which is Norse and is similar in meaning. A less common theory for the current pronunciation is that it is from the OE verb lēosan (meaning lose, see here for more details).

Harrow (referring to the tool) is sometimes thought to be a Norse borrowing, but according to the Middle English Dictionary, based on phonological grounds, it is unlikely that it was borrowed from another speech. Instead, it is likely to have come from the unattested OE word hearwe, which may be akin to the attested verb hyrwan (speak ill).

Workaday is said by some to have come from Norse virkr dagr, but others say that it is instead an alteration of workday by analogy with words like holiday. Hence, no attempt is made to substitute it here.

The suffix -ly is said by some to have been due to influence from Norse -ligr, as OE -lic (with a palatalized consonant) became -lich in southern ME dialects. However, it is perfectly possible that ch was lost over time because the suffix was naturally unstressed, and this development can also be seen in every (ME everich). Hence, that the suffix became -ly is deemed here to have been a native development.

Whoredom is traced back by some to Norse hórdómr, but it is possible that this was simply a native formation, so it is deemed to be a native word.

Some words show an unpalatalized form that may have been due to Norse influence, e.g., seek (the usual form would be seech, as seen in the derivative beseech), like (as in alike). However, it is possible that the unpalatalized consonant was due to influence from inflected forms that naturally showed no palatalization, as shown in think (OE þencan). Hence, these forms are treated as native as well.