Old English words examples

1. What is hello in Old English?
2. How many Old English words are there?
3. How do you say love in Old English?
4. What is girl in Old English?
5. What's the oldest English word?
6. What is great in Old English?
7. What is the Old English word for me?
8. What are Old English words for world?
9. What is the oldest known English word?
10. What was the first example of Old English?
11. What are Old English terms for best?
12. What is cool in Old English?

What is hello in Old English?

Bill Bryson asserts in his book Mother Tongue that "hello" comes from Old English hál béo þu ("Hale be thou", or "whole be thou", meaning a wish for good health; cf. "goodbye" which is a contraction of "God be with ye").

How many Old English words are there?

The Thesaurus of Old English (TOE), with which you will be working, contains almost 34,000 different word forms, whereas a modern desk dictionary might contain 80,000.

How do you say love in Old English?

The word 'love' was once '*leubh', a word used by the Proto-Indo-Europeans approximately five thousand years ago to describe care and desire. When 'love' was incorporated into Old English as 'lufu', it had turned into both a noun to describe, 'deep affection' and its offspring verb, 'to be very fond of'.

What is girl in Old English?

From Middle English gerle, girle, gyrle (“young person of any gender”), of uncertain origin.

What's the oldest English word?

According to a 2009 study by researchers at Reading University, the oldest words in the English language include “I“, “we“, “who“, “two” and “three“, all of which date back tens of thousands of years.

What is great in Old English?

From Middle English greet (“great, large”), from Old English grēat (“big, thick, coarse, massive”), from Proto-West Germanic *graut, from Proto-Germanic *grautaz (“big in size, coarse, coarse grained”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrewd-, *gʰer- (“to rub, grind, remove”).

What is the Old English word for me?

From Middle English me, from Old English mē (“me”, originally dative, but later also accusative), from Proto-West Germanic *miʀ, from Proto-Germanic *miz (“me”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁me- (“me”).

What are Old English words for world?

Etymology. From Middle English world, weoreld, from Old English weorold (“world”), from Proto-West Germanic *weraldi, from Proto-Germanic *weraldiz (“lifetime, human existence, world”, literally “age/era of man”), equivalent to wer (“man”) +‎ eld (“age”).

What is the oldest known English word?

According to a 2009 study by researchers at Reading University, the oldest words in the English language include “I“, “we“, “who“, “two” and “three“, all of which date back tens of thousands of years.

What was the first example of Old English?

The earliest substantial example of English is the lawcode of King Æthelberht of Kent (reigned c. 589–616), but that work survives in just one manuscript (the Textus Roffensis), made in the 1120s.

What are Old English terms for best?

From Middle English beste, best, from Old English betst, betest, from Proto-Germanic *batistaz.

What is cool in Old English?

Etymology 1

From Middle English cool, from Old English cōl (“cool, cold, tranquil, calm”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōl(ī), from Proto-Germanic *kōlaz, *kōluz (“cool”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”).