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Richard Walker

Three Old English Tool Names 🔨🪚🔧

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Here are three tools whose modern English names descend from very similar Old English words. All are of Germanic ancestry and ultimately come from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) roots. And they all have emojis!

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Hammer : From OE hamor, Proto-Germanic (PG) *hamaraz and probably from a word that meant "stone"; possibly derived from a PIE root ak- "sharp" or "tip"and if so related to a whole host of words; some surprising examples are acrobat, acronym, acropolis, oxygen, eager and vinegar

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Saw : From OE saue, PG *säge, from PIE *sek "cut" and related to words such as Saxon, scythe, secateur, section, secant , segment and insect.

🔧

Wrench : From OE wrencan, from PG *wrankjan, from PIE *wer- "turn". Related words include adverse, wrangle, wrap, vertex.

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Richard Walker

In an Anglo-Saxon kitchen

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Here are some things you might find in a cycene. Although the majority of words in English today have come from French, Latin, and other non-Germanic languages, most of these familiar domestic objects still have names very similar to their Old English equivalents. See if you can recognise what the objects are.

beod

bolle

cietel

cnif

cucler

cuppe

disc

hlædel

ofn

panne

sife

stol


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