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Lecture 3.
Etymological Characteristic of the Modern English Word Stock

1. Some basic etymological assumptions of English word stock.

2. Words of native origin and problems of their definition:
a) Indo-European element;
b) Germanic element;
c) English proper element.
3. The role of borrowed element in the English vocabulary:
a) Celtic;
b) the classical element: Latin, Greek, Scandinavian, French (Norman);
c) various other elements in ME (Italian, Spanish, German, Indian,
Russian).
4. Assimilation of loan words.

1. Etymology – part of philology which traces the origin of words, derivation or

history of any word. Borrowings enter the language through oral speech (mainly in
early periods of history), and through written speech (mostly in recent times).

Native – are words of Anglo-Saxon origin brought to British Isles from the
continent in the V century by the Germanic tribes (the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes).
The term is often applied to words the origin of which cannot be traced to any other
language.

Borrowings (loan-words, loans) – the term is used to denote the process of

adopting words from other languages and also the result of this process, the language
material itself.
Not only words but also word-building affixes were borrowed into English.
Loans changed in their sound form, spelling, paradigm and meaning according to the
standards of English. All the native words are diachronically subdivided into:
- words of Indo-European origin;
- words of common Germanic origin.

Translation loans (calques) – are words and expressions formed by the material
available in language, but under the influence of some foreign words and expressions:
English – by heart --------- French – par Coeur
mother tongue --------- Latin – lingua materna
world-famous --------- German – Weltberuhmt
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Semantic borrowings is the appearance of a new meaning due to the influence of

a related word in another language e.g. English word “pioneer” got another meaning
– the member of Young Pioneer League; gift (Norse – викуп за дружину) – gift
(present).

Source of borrowing – this term is applied to the language from which this or
that particular word was taken into English.

Origin of borrowing – this term is applied to the language the word may be
traced to.

The immediate source of borrowing is naturally of greater importance, because it

reveals the extra-linguistic factors, responsible for the act of borrowing, the imprint
of sound and graphic form, the morphological and semantic structure characteristic of
the language they were borrowed from.
Latin: boticula – Old French: botele – English: bottle;
Latin: moneta – Old French: moneie – English: money.
origin sourse

2. Despite the borrowings already made before the Anglo-Saxons settled in Britain
and despite the large scale of borrowings of the later appearance, native words are
still at the core of the language. They stand for fundamental things, dealing with
everyday objects and things. The native stock includes auxiliary and modal verbs,
pronouns, most numerals, prepositions and conjunctions. The fruequency value of
these elements of the E. vocabulary is rather high. Ordinary E. and the E.
vocabulary of colloquial speech imbrace fewer loans than the l-ge of technical
literature. Almost all commonly used E. words are Anglo-Saxon in origin. It was
already mentioned that the native element of the E. vocabulary is subdivided into
words of Indo-European stock and of common Germanic origin.

The words having cognates in the varieties of different Indo-European languages

belong to the oldest layer.
Familiar examples of such words are:
1) terms of kinship (father, son, etc.);
2) the words naming the most important objects and phenomena of nature (moon,
star, day, water);
3) names of animals and birds (cat, swine, cow, goose, bull);
4) parts of human body (arm, lip, heart, ear, eye);
5) most freaquent verbs (come, lie, be, stand, sit, eat, know, bear, work);
6) adjectives that denote physical properties (hard, light, quick, slow);
7) numerals from 1 to a hundred.
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A much bigger part of this native vocabulary is formed by words of common

Germanic stock (i.e. words having their parallels in German, Norwegian, Dutch,
Icelandic). It contains a great number of semantic groups:
1. nouns: bone, storm, ice, ground, coal, iron, cloth, shiry, shoe, hand, hunger,
horse, meal, ship, care, evil, hope, life, sea, need, rest, calm, clock, half,
God, house, winter, spring, summer.
2. Verbs: spread, take, bake, burn, greed, climb, drive, hear, keep, learn, drink,
meet, rise, see, let, shoot, sing, grow, fall, fly, find, speak, give.
3. Adjectives: broad, deep, dead, dear, foul, green, blue, white, gray.
4. Adverbs: again, forth, ago.
5. Pronouns: each, he, such.

The words of Indo-European origin and words of Germanic origin form the
etymological background of English vocabulary.

The words of the native stock are characterized by a wide semantic range and
grammar valence. They are of high frequency and developed polysemy. The native
element is mostly monosyllabic. It’s been estimated that more than 60% of English
vocabulary are borrowings and about 40% are words of native origin.
The English proper element can be dated to the 5th century AD. These words are
specifically English having no cognates (words of the same etymological root, of
common origin) in other languages, whereas for Indo-European and Germanic words
such cognates can always be found.
E.g. bird, boy, girl, lord, lady, woman, daisy, always.

The English proper element also contains all the later formations, that is, words
which were made after the 5th century according to English word-building patterns
both from native and borrowed morphemes. And naturally the quantity of such words
is immense.
E.g. word “beautiful is built from the French borrowed root and native suffix.

Native From French From Latin

to end to finish to complete
to ask to question to interrogate

3. Celtic borrowings refer to the 5th – 6th centuries A.D. when the Celts, the original
inhabitants of the British Isles confronted the Germanic tribes (i.e. the Angles, the
Saxons, and the Jutes). Through their numerous contacts with the defeated Celts, the
conquerors got to know and assimilated a number of Celtic words that came to ME:
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bald, down, bard, cradle etc. Some Celtic words acquired international currency:
whisky, mackintosh, budget, clan, career, tunnel, flannel.
Especially numerous were place names, names of rivers, hills etc., e.g. names of
rivers Avon, Exe, esk, usk, ux originate from Celtic words meaning “river” and
“water”. Even the name of English capital originates from Celtic ‘llyn+dun’ in which
‘llyn’ is Celtic word for ‘river’ and ‘dun’ stands for a ‘fortified hill’, the meaning of
the whole being “fortress on the hill over the river”.

The Latin influence on English begins so early and is of such a continuous

nature that it merits separate treatment. Latin loans are classified into 2 subgroups:
a) early Latin loans – those are the words which came into E. through the language
of Anglo-Saxon tribes. The tribes had been in contact with Roman civilization and
had adopted several Latin words, denoting objects belonging to that civilization long
before the invasion of Angles, Saxons and Jutes into Britain (the 5th century AD).
Among early Latin loans are:
Latin: asinus English: ass
colonia colony
cuppa cup
piper pepper
strata street
coquus cook
vinum wine
vallum wall
catilus kettle
mulus mule
Early Latin words were borrowed orally. To this period English owes
geographical names ending in –chester, as Manchester, Glouchester, Lancaster (from
Latin castrum – a fortified camp).
b) Later Latin loans: to this group belong the words which penetrated English
vocabulary in the 7th century when the people of England were converted to
Christianity and after the Norman Conquest in 1066. To this period belong such
words as religious terms: altar (an elevated place for sacrifices), chapter (a society of
clergymen), creed (a system of principles believed or possessed), cross (a symbol of
Christian religion), monk, feast, priest, candle, nun; borrowed things of foreign
production: chalk, marble, linen; other: master, elephant, lily, palm, pearl, pine.
c) The latest stratum of loans from Latin embraced abstract and scientific words; to
them belong the main part of the international English vocabulary. They were
borrowed through writing. They appeared in England during the Renaissance (the
revival of learning and arts) in the 15th century:
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L: iudex, iudicis E: judge

eligo, elegi, electum elect
collego, collectum collect
ansens absent
memoria memory
actio act
medius,a,um medium
absolutus,a,um absolute
centurio century
creo,creavi,creatum create
sino,situm situate
socialis,e social
crimen crime
educo,educavi,educatum educate

Without change in English: maximum, minimum, superior, senior, junior, animal,

formula alibi, index, datum, genius, propaganda, magister.
Among international words we should mention abbreviations (see the table).

Borrowings from Greek go back to an early period. But the influx of Greek words
on a large scale did not begin until the time of Renaissance. These are mostly bookish
borrowings. It is interesting to note that modern scientific and technical terms of
Greek origin are nearly all of international value. Greek terms added much to the
scientific terminology. Among numerous Greek borrowings in the English
vocabulary we find the following: analysis, comedy, chorus, democracy, dialogue,
episode, gymnastics, catastrophe, theatre, drama, theory, tragedy; names of branches
of science: philosophy, philology, botany, physiology, psychology, and physics. One
should mention linguistic terms of Greek origin: etymology, lexicology, synonym,
antonym, neologism, polysemy, metaphor, and metonymy. There are hundreds of
Greek terms used in modern medicine: adenoids, paediatrics, and psychoanalysis.
There is considerable number of proper names of Greek origin: Peter, George,
Theodor, Nicholas, Helene, Sophie, Eugene.
French loan words: linguists distinguish between
1) early French loans
2) later French loans.

1) Early French loans (Norman-French) were borrowed early in the XII-XV

centuries. They were single words that denoted a) vital things: air, arm, autumn,
course, cry, case, autumn, cattle, beauty, roast, chance, choice, church, coat, coin,
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country, dinner, family, pen, people, place, creature, courage, joy, condition, flower,
chair, pleasure, supper, beef, marriage, table;
b) military terms: army, soldier, officer, battle, enemy, war;
c) relating to law: judge, justice, accuse, crime, prison;
d) administrative words: state, government, parliament, council, power;
e) educational terms: pupil, lesson, library, science, pen, pencil.

2) Later French loans (Parisian) – since XV1 century – up to now, were borrowed
through literature. In this stratum of French loans one can come across Greek and
Latin words that came into English vocabulary throughout French. The question of
separating French loan words, Latin and those that came from Latin through French
is difficult, because very often it is next to impossible to define whether a given word
was borrowed directly from Latin or from Latin through French. Many words of this
type change their meaning in the French vocabulary and came with it to the English
vocabulary. E.g. words used in the period of the French bourgeois revolution (18th
century): democrat, revolution, aristocracy, proletariat, terrorist, humanity,
parliament, monarchist, royalist, publicist.

Old Scandinavian. The effect of the Danish conquest in 878 was a contribution of
many Scandinavian words into English vocabularry. It is important that Scandinavian
element in ME amounts to 650 root words. Scandinavian borrowings are numerous in
geographical names in Northern England: Whitby. There are also practical everyday
words such as: anger, cake, knife, husband, sister, window, law, roof, etc.; adjectives:
flat, ill ugly, wrong; verbs: give, seem, take, call. Most of Scandinavian borrowings
belong to the fundamental stock of words. Some Scandinavian loans are easily
recognizable by the initial sk-: sky, skill, skin, ski, skirt.

Russian borrowings in the English vocabulary may be subdivided into 2 principal

groups:
1) early Russian loan words
2) later Russian loan words (borrowed after GOSR (Great October socialist
revolution of 1917)). Early R. loan words entered the English vocabulary as early as
16 century. They were brought to the British Isles by the tradesmen and travellers.
The form the following semantic groups:
1) geographical names: steppe, taiga, tundra;
2) fish and animals: sable, beluga, laika, borzoi, sterlet;
3) money: rouble, copek;
4) vehicles: troika, kibitka;
5) articles of wearing: shuba, saraphan;
6) beveriges: vodka, kvas;
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7) meals: casha, borshch;

8) musical instruments: balalajka, gusli;
9) weight and measure: arshin, sagene, versta, pud;
10) goods: makhorka, samovar, izba, fortochka;
11) notions reflecting the political, economic and cultural life of Russian in
previous periods: tzar, muzhik, voevoda.
In the 19th centuries borrowings penetrated into the English vocabulary through
translations of the great Russian writers. These works reflected the political and
everyday life of Russia at that time: intelligentsia, narodnik, duma, ukaze, volost,
cossack, nihilist. These words are translation loans (calques, they do not have
equivalents in English. After the revolution the Russian language has been
supplemented by the multitude of new words and expressions which appeared with a
new socialist production, with the emergency of new socialist state, new society, new
socialist culture and in connection with the growth of technic and science. Such
words as soviet, bolshevik, leninism, the USSR, kolkhoz, udarnik, komsomol, sputnik,
lunokhod, spaceship, dictatorship, wall newspaper, five-year plan, the Kremlin,
perestrojka, glasnost.

4. Assimilation of loan words.

Assimilation is the process of changing of the adopted word; is partial or

complete agreement with the phonetical, graphical, morphological standards or a
given language and its semantic system.
Phonetical assimilation includes changes in the sounds, form and stress of the
loan words. E.g. cafe, rezume – diphthong [ei] instead of [i:] which was quite strange
to E. speakers; popularis (L.) – populaire (F.) – popular. The accent is usually
transferred to the first syllable in the words of foreign origin.
Grammatical assimilation comprises the change of grammatical categories and
paradigms by analogy of other English words: sputnik. Sometimes the affixes were
replaced by those that are commonly used in E.: Latin: -us - E.: -ous: E.g. barbarus
(L.) – barbarous (E.).
Lexical assimilation involves the changes in the semantic structure of loan
words and the formation of derivatives from loan words. Poly-semantic words are
usually adopted in only 1 or 2 of their meanings. In some cases one can observe the
specialization of meaning. Sometimes the borrowed word acquires a new meaning
which was not to be found in the former semantic structure. Some meanings become
generalized, some – more specialized. E.g. umbrella – from Italian ombra – “sun-
shade”, now – the protection from the sun and rain; cargo (Sp.) – load (вантаж
загалом), cargo (E.) – load that is transported by ship.
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Semantic loan words – when the word changes its lexical meaning under the
influence of other language.

Degrees of assimilation of loan words. The degree of assimilation depends

upon the length of period during of which the word has been used in the receiving
language, upon its importance for the communication purpose and its frequency. Oral
borrowings due to the personal contacts are assimilated more completely and more
rapidly than literary ones. According to the degree of assimilation loan words are
divided into:
1) completely assimilated loan words;
2) partially assimilated loan words (lack one of the types of assimilation);
3) unassimilated words (barbarisms).

1) are words which have undergone all types of assimilation. Such words are
frequent and stylistically neutral; they may occur as dominant words in
synonymic groups. They are morphologically analysable. E.g. street, wall,
finish (F.); husband (Sc.) .
2) can be subdivided into subgroups:
a) borrowings not assimilated semantically. They denote objects and
concepts peculiar to the country from which they came: sombrero,
toreador [tori do:], sari [sa:ri:], shah [ a:];
b) not assimilated grammatically: nouns borrowed from Latin or Greek
which keep their original plural forms: bacillus [b sil s] – bacilli;
phenomenon – phenomena; criterion – criteria; thesis – theses; basis –
bases.
c) not completely assimilated phonetically – they contain peculiarity in
stress, combination of sounds that are not standard for E.: character
(Gr.), chemistry, machine, camouflage, macaroni;
d) not completely assimilated graphically: ballet, debut [deibu:], bouquet
(Fr.) [bukei];
3) Barbarisms – loan words not assimilated at all, used by E. people in
conversation or in writing and for which they have E. equivalents: chiao –
good-bye; pto and contra – for and against.
Etymological doublets – two or more words derived from the same
etymological source. They differ in sound-form, meaning and current use.
E.g. shirt – skirt; to scatter – to shatter;
scrabby – shabby; jail – goal;
guard – ward; canal – chanel;
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gentle – genteel; cart – chart;

secure – sure; history – story.

(In Ukrainian and Russian we come across etymological doblets: злато – золото,
град – город.)
Hybrids are words in which stems or affixes are of different origin: Black-mail;
falsehood; ill-tempered.

RECOMMENDED SOURCES/ REFERENCES

1. Антрушина Г.Б. Лексикология английского языка / Г.Б. Антрушина,
О.В. Афанасьева, Н.Н. Морозова. – М.: Дрофа, 2007. – 287 с.
2. Гороть Є.І. Лексикологія сучасної англійської мови: Курс лекцій /
Є.І. Гороть. – Луцьк: РВВ «Вежа» Волин. держ.ун-ту ім. Лесі Українки,
2007. – 144 с.
3. Гороть Є.І. Notes on Modern English Lexicology / Нариси з
лексикології сучасної англійської мови / Є.І. Гороть, С.В. Бєлова. –
Луцьк: РВВ «Вежа» Волин. держ.ун-ту ім. Лесі Українки, 2008. – 372 с.
4. Кубрякова Е.С. Типы языковых значений: Семантика производного слова
/ Е.С. Кубрякова. – М.: Изд-во ЛКИ, 2008. – 208 с.
5. Манакин В.Н. Сопоставительная лексикология / В.Н. Манакин. – К.:
Знання, 2004. – 326 с.
6. Ніколенко А.Г. лексикологія англійської мови – теорія і практика /
А.Г. Ніколенко. – Вінниця: Нова Книга, 2007. – 528 с.
7. Jackson H. Words and their meaning / H. Jackson. – NY: Longman, 2005. –
279 p.