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Words of Old Norse origin that have entered the English language, primarily from the colonisation of eastern and northern England between 800-1000 CE. Old Norse (abbreviated in dictionaries as O.N.) existed in its spoken and written form from c. 100 CE, until its spread from the Nordic region to colonies as far west as Greenland and far east as Russia and the Baltic region (spoken by Swedish settlers). The language diverged into West Norse (Norway, Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland) and East Norse (Denmark and Sweden). With some minor regional variations in loan words both West Norse and East Norse are essentially the same. The Vikings who invaded or settled in Great Britain came mainly from Norway and Denmark.
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A
- ado
- influenced by Norse "at" ("to") which was used with English "do" in certain English dialects
- aloft
- á ("=in, on, to") + lopt ("=air, atmosphere, sky, heaven, upper floor, loft")
- English provenance = c 1200 CE
- angr ("=trouble, affliction"); root ang (="strait, straitened, troubled"); related to anga, plural öngur (="straits, anguish")
- English provenance = c 1250 CE
- agi ("=terror")
- English provenance = c 1205 CE (as aȝe, an early form of the word resulting from the influence of Old Norse on an existing Anglo-Saxon form, eȝe)
- are
- awkward
- the first element is from Old Norse öfugr ("=turned-backward"), the '-ward' part is from Old English weard
- axle
- öxl ("=ox tree")
B
- bag
- baggi
- bairn
- barn (="child")
- bait
- beita
- bark
- bǫrkr
- bask
- baðask reflex. of baða "bathe" (baðast, baða sig)
- berserk
- berserkr, lit. 'bear-shirt', (alt. berr-serkr, 'bare-shirt') frenzied warriors
- billow
- bylgja
- birth
- byrðr
- blunder
- blundra (="shut one's eye")
- both
- bathir
- bulk
- bulki
- bulk
- balkr
- bull
- boli
- bylaw
- bylög ('by'=village; 'lög'=law; 'village-law')
C
- call
- kalla (="cry loudly")
- cast
- kasta (="to throw")
- club
- klubba (="cudgel")
- crawl
- krafla (="to claw")
D
E
- egg
- egg
F
- flit
- flytja
G
- game
- gaman, O.H.G. gaman "joy, glee",
- garth
- garðr (="garden")
- gawk
- from Middle English gawen, from Old Norse ga (="to heed")
- get
- geta, gat (> got), gittan (> gotten)
- geyser
- from Icelandic geysir, from Old Norse geysa (="to gush")
- gift
- gift (="dowry")
- girth
- gjörð
- give
- gefa
- gosling
- gæslingr" (="goose")
- guest
- gestr
- gun
- from Old Norse Gunnhildr (female name, both elements of the name, gunn and hildr, have the meaning "war, battle").
- gust
- gustr
H
- hack
- höggva (="hew")
- haggle
- haggen (="to chop")
- Hell
- may be in part from Old Norse Hel, the daughter of Loki and ruler of the underworld in Norse mythology
- hit
- hitta (="to find")
- husband
- husbondi (="master of the house")
I
- ill
- illr (="bad")
J
K
L
- lad
- ladd (="young man")
- lathe
- hlaða (="to load")
- law
- lagu
- leg
- leggr
- litmus
- litmose (="lichen for dying", lita ="to stain")
- loose
- lauss (="loose/free")
- low
- lagr
M
N
- Norman, Normandy
- from Old Norse through Old French, meaning "northman", due to Viking settlement in Normandy region
O
P
Q
R
- Ragnarök
- "Doom of the Gods" or "Destiny of the Gods", from Norse mythology & ON word of same meaning, composed of words ragna, genitive of "the great powers"(regin), and rǫk (later rök) "destiny, doom, fate, end". Often erroneously rendered "Twilight of the Gods" after Richard Wagner's opera Götterdämmerung, based on the mythological event.
- raft
- raptr (="log")
- raise
- reisa
- ransack
- rannsaka (="to search thoroughly")
- reindeer
- hreindyri
- rive
- rifa
- root
- rot
S
- saga
- saga (="story, tale")
- sale
- sala
- scare
- skirra (="to frighten)
- scarf
- skarfr (="fastening joint") (interestingly, "scarf" and "scarves" have been reintroduced to modern Swedish in their English forms)
- scathe
- skaða (="to hurt, injure")
- score
- skor (='notch'; 'twenty')
- scrape
- skrapa (="to scrape, erase")
- scrap
- skrap (="scraps, trifles") from skrapa
- seem
- soema (="conform")
- scale
- (for weighing) from skal (="bowl, drinking cup", or in plural "weighing scale" referring to the cup or pan part of a balance) in early English used to mean "cup"
- shirt
- skyrta (="shirt") see also skirt
- skate
- skata (="fish")
- skid
- probably from or related to Old Norse skið (="stick of wood") and related to "ski" (="stick of wood", or in this sense "snowshoe")
- skill
- skil (="distinction")
- skin
- skinn (="animal hide")
- skip
- skopa (="to skip, run)
- skirt
- skyrta (="shirt")
- sky
- sky (='cloud')
- slaughter
- slahtr (="butchering")
- sleight
- slœgð
- sleuth
- sloð (="trail")
- snub
- snubba (="to curse")
- stagger
- stakra (="to push")
- steak
- steik, steikja (="to fry")
T
- take
- taka
- tarn
- tjörn, tjarn
- their
- þierra
- they
- þeir
- thorpe
- þorp
- thrall
- þræll
- thrift
- þrift (="prosperity")
- troll
- troll (of disputed etymology)
U
- ugly
- uggligr (="dreadful")
V
W
- wand
- vondr (="rod")
- want
- vanta (="to lack")
- weak
- veikr
- whirl
- hvirfla (="to go around")
- whisk
- viska (="to plait")
- wight
- vigr (="able in battle") - The other wight meaning "man" is from Old English.
- window
- vindauga (="wind-eye") - Although gluggi was more commonly used in Old Norse.
- wing
- vængr
X
Y
See also
- Lists of English words of international origin
- List of English words of Scandinavian origin
- List of English words of Swedish origin
- List of English words of Norwegian origin
- Old Norse language
- Old Norse orthography
External links
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For a list of words relating to with Old Norse language origins, see the Old Norse derivations category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary |
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