The Story of English in 100 Words

The Story of English in 100 Words

Also by David Crystal

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of language

The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language

The stories of English

The fight for English

Think on my words: an introduction to Shakespeare’s language

Txting: the gr8 db8

By hook or by crook: a journey in search of English

A little book of language

Evolving English: one language, many voices.

Begat: the King James Bible and the English language

Internet linguistics

Just a phrase I’m going through: my life in language

David Crystal

First published in Great Britain in 2011 by
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Preface

A short history of English words

1
   
Roe
– the first word (5th century)

2
   
Lea
– naming places (8th century)

3
   
And
– an early abbreviation (8th century)

4
   
Loaf
– an unexpected origin (9th century)

5
   
Out
– changing grammar (9th century)

6
   
Street
– a Latin loan (9th century)

7
   
Mead
– a window into history (9th century)

8
   
Merry
– a dialect survivor (9th century)

9
   
Riddle
– playing with language (10th century)

10
  
What
– an early exclamation (10th century)

11
  
Bone-house
– a word-painting (10th century)

12
  
Brock
– a Celtic arrival (10th century)

13
  
English
– the language named (10th century)

14
  
Bridegroom
– a popular etymology (11th century)

15
  
Arse
– an impolite word (11th century)

16
  
Swain
– a poetic expression (12th century)

17
  
Pork
– an elegant word (13th century)

18
  
Chattels
– a legal word (13th century)

19
  
Dame
– a form of address (13th century)

20
  
Skirt
– a word doublet (13th century)

21
  
Jail
– competing words (13th century)

22
  
Take away
– a phrasal verb (13th century)

23
  
Cuckoo
– a sound-symbolic word (13th century)

24
  
Cunt
– a taboo word (13th century)

25
  
Wicked
– a radical alteration (13th century)

26
  
Wee
– a Scottish contribution (14th century)

27
  
Grammar
– a surprising link (14th century)

28
  
Valentine
– first name into word (14th century)

29
  
Egg
– a dialect choice (14th century)

30
  
Royal
– word triplets (14th century)

31
  
Money
– a productive idiom (14th century)

32
  
Music
– a spelling in evolution (14th century)

33
  
Taffeta –
an early trade word (14th century)

34
  
Information
(
s
) – (un)countable nouns (14th century)

35
  
Gaggle
– a collective noun (15th century)

36
  
Doable
– a mixing of languages (15th century)

37
  
Matrix
– a word from Tyndale (16th century)

38
  
Alphabet
– talking about writing (16th century)

39
  
Potato
– a European import (16th century)

40
  
Debt
– a spelling reform (16th century)

41
  
Ink-horn
– a classical flood (16th century)

42
  
Dialect
– regional variation (16th century)

43
  
Bodgery
– word-coiners (16th century)

44
  
Undeaf
– a word from Shakespeare (16th century)

45
  
Skunk
– an early Americanism (17th century)

46
  
Shibboleth
– a word from King James (17th century)

47
  
Bloody
– an emerging swear-word (17th century)

48
  
Lakh
– a word from India (17th century)

49
  
Fopdoodle
– a lost word (17th century)

50
  
Billion
– a confusing ambiguity (17th century)

51
  
Yogurt
– a choice of spelling (17th century)

52
  
Gazette
– a taste of journalese (17th century)

53
  
Tea
– a social word (17th century)

54
  
Disinterested
– a confusible (17th century)

55
  
Polite
– a matter of manners (17th century)

56
  
Dilly-dally
– a reduplicating word (17th century)

57
  
Rep
– a clipping (17th century)

58
  
Americanism
– a new nation (18th century)

59
  
Edit
– a back-formation (18th century)

60
  
Species
– classifying things (18th century)

61
  
Ain’t –
right and wrong (18th century)

62
  
Trek
– a word from Africa (19th century)

63
  
Hello
– progress through technology (19th century)

64
  
Dragsman
– thieves’ cant (19th century)

65
  
Lunch
– U or non-U (19th century)

66
  
Dude
– a cool usage (19th century)

67
  
Brunch
– a portmanteau word (19th century)

68
  
Dinkum
– a word from Australia (19th century)

69
  
Mipela
– pidgin English (19th century)

70
  
Schmooze
– a Yiddishism (19th century)

71
  
OK
– debatable origins (19th century)

72
  
Ology
– suffix into word (19th century)

73
  
Y’all
– a new pronoun (19th century)

74
  
Speech-craft
– an Anglo-Saxonism (19th century)

75
  
DNA
– scientific terminology (20th century)

76
  
Garage
– a pronunciation problem (20th century)

77
  
Escalator
– word into name into word (20th century)

78
  
Robot
– a global journey (20th century)

79
  
UFO
– alternative forms (20th century)

80
  
Watergate
– place-name into word (20th century)

81
  
Doublespeak
– weasel words (20th century)

82
  
Doobry
– useful nonsense (20th century)

83
  
Blurb
– a moment of arrival (20th century)

84
  
Strine
– a comic effect (20th century)

85
  
Alzheimer’s
– surname into word (20th century)

86
  
Grand
– money slang (20th century)

87
  
Mega
– prefix into word (20th century)

88
  
Gotcha
– a non-standard spelling (20th century)

89
  
PC
– being politically correct (20th century)

90
  
Bagonise
– a nonce-word (20th century)

91
  
Webzine
– an internet compound (20th century)

92
  
App
– a killer abb (20th century)

93
  
Cherry-picking –
corporate speak (20th century)