Adventures in Ye Olde Englishe

Note: That’s totally inaccurate there and I don’t really care. It made me smile.

So, when writing Wynnewood, I’m always enjoying a little fun in the Old English to Modern English dictionary I found online. Some are interesting.  For example:

ability: cræft  (Doesn’t that look an awful lot like “Craft”?)
acquire: begietan  (Can’t you see the “begats” in an Old English Bible?  And Adam begietan Seth…)
alien: ellorgæst  (which is only interesting when you realize that ghost is gast)
angel: engel; gast  (if it’s not a ghost, it might be an angel… maybe that’s where the “unawares” comes in?)
autumn: hærfæst  (that looks a lot like harvest… and hear fast.)
band: heap  (Ok, so now we know where modern rock music originated, eh?)
beforehand: foran to  (Foran to this and foran to that…)
between: betweox  (Think now we know where betwixt came?  I think betwixt came between betweox and between.  Either that, or it’s a hint about botox… it comes between flesh and skin… betwixt… betweox… I like it.)
bloom: blowan  (Yep, when flowers are in bloom, the pollen is blowan… er blowing.)
bottle: flasce  (Looks like flask to me!)
cathedral: mynster  (Westminster etc anyone?)
cheerful: bliðe   (Now that may not seem interesting, but you see, that funny d is pronounced “th.”  So, bliðe is the same as our blithe… which means happy or… YEP!  Cheerful.  Cool, eh?)
chew the cud: eodorcan  (Ok, what I find interesting is that this made the list.  I mean, why?  These are things that keep me awake at night when I should be writing.)
child: bearn, n.; cild; lytling  (Ok… all of these make sense, right?  I mean, “bearn” sounds a lot like the Scotch “Barin” right?  Cild is child without the h, and lytling… littling…. )
delight: dream  (I hope they have another word for nightmares…)
divine: godcund  (Almost looks like god send…)
famine: hungor  (well now..  imagine that)
god: god  (surprise surprise… Jesus did say he was the same yesterday, today, forever…)
grace: ar  (really????)
grain: corn  (now isn’t that interesting.  Corn.  So when we read about corn in England it wasn’t talking about corn corn, just grain known as corn but it’s grain, not necessarily corn– which is what I seem to remember learning in school.  Corn is of the Americas…  Gotta check that out.)
hell: hell  (dead, god, hell…  I’m seeing a trend here… SCARY)
hook: angel  (Hmmmmmm possibly where we get our word angler– fisherman?)
love: frendscipe  (Looks like friendship to me!  Phileo!)
monster: sceadugenga  (Interesting… sceadu means dark/shadow/etc… so dark genga… as in maybe genghis khan?)
near: neah   (This is probably from southern England.  “I’ll nevah go neah you when youah dressed like that…”)
nightcrawler: sceadugenga  (Ok, tell me… why is the word for a worm the same as for a monster?  I think whoever made up that word had a phobia of worms.)
northwards: norð  (Nordic?  Eh??  Eh???)
orthodox: rihtgeleaffull  (rightly+ full)
overcome: ofercuman  (There are lots of words like this… sounds almost the same but have “an” or something at the end.  Makes me feel like writers got lazy and left off endings to save time.  YAY FOR WRITERS.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)
pray: gebiddan  (“Gee, I’m bid-dan you here, Lord…”)
pugnacious: aglæca  (Ok, this isn’t something fascinating or anything… but what on earth made them choose a word like pugnacious to include in this dictionary?)
righteous: rihtwis  (I assume it’s God that you’re riht wis?)
snare: grin  (Ok, isn’t that cute.  To snare a guy or girl, you grin?  Cute.)
soldier: beorn, m.; cempa; fyrdrinc; guðrinc, m; hererinc, m; hildemecg, m; hilderinc, m; hiredmann; hyse, m.; lindwigend; rinc; scealc, m; sceotan; secg  (Is it just me, or is it just kind of weird to see SO MANY options for soldier?)
soul: gast; sawol  (again, angel, ghost, spirit, and now soul?  Anything intangible that is live is a ghost.  Interesting.

Some of them amuse me.  For example:

armor: herepad  (Is that an obscure way of saying, “pad here” under the armor?)
baptism: fulwiht  (I think the Old English were immersionists… what thinkest thou?)
bath: gecamp  (I think this is meant to be cryptic– “gee, you sound like you’ve been camping.”)
bladder: bielg  (Yep, my bladder full feels like bilge… er bielg)
bold: bald  (Yeah… you have to be bold when you’re bald I suppose…)
bread: hlaf  (what, half loaf already?)
cattle: neat  (Ok, seriously?  How on earth did cattle come from the word neat?  I mean they aren’t the tidy kind of neat nor are they the “cool” kind of neat, so where on earth did that come from anyway?  Well, maybe it’s because people like my mom love the word heifer.  She thinks that word is “neat.”  And, that brings us back to cattle.  I get it now.  Heifer is to neat as neat is to cattle.  *blinks*)
close: nearo  (Sorry, this one sounds like pidgin Spanish to me.  Close… near… nearo boyo to the telephono… right-o?  No wait, the last is British… definitely)
confidant: runwita  (ummmm so I’ll tell you my secrets and you’ll just run with a what?)
cup: druncfæt  (Ok, so your fate is to get drunk if you use a cup?)
damn(v): awiergan  (I think if people are going to condemn people <damn> to hell, I think they should use more erudite language… awiergan!  Yeah….)
desolate: feasceaftig  (Looks like lifting feces… I’d be desolate too!)
dead: dead  (Apparently, no matter some things transcend age… like death.  Wonder what the word for taxes is…)
decay: brosnian  (Hmmmm isn’t there an actor… Pierce something?  Might want to rethink that last name…)
densely: nearolice  (I can’t stop laughing.  It’s like an Irishman saying, “That forest was so thick it was like a forest so near o’ lice.)
dirt: greot  (Perhaps where grit came from?)
dumb: dumb  (like dead some things never change.)
edit: endebyrdan  (Yep, they edited that word all right.  WAY TO GO BRITS!)
event: gelimp  (are they saying that events are where you get limps?  I’ll avoid events of old English origins)
fast: fæst  (It looks like feast with a typo.  Snort)
grasp: gripe  (sounds about right… you grasp someone’s something, they’re sure to gripe!)
hostile: gram  (Some grandmas do get a little… cranky as they age…)
hunter: hunta  (and now we’ve returned to our old English roots.  You hear the kids in the ghettos… “Yo, dude, that guy is da hunta…”
if: gif  (They knew that computer images were coming and decided to adjust it early…)
innocent: bilewit  (Ok, so innocent means you have grotesque humor?)
inside: inne  (And now we know how belly buttons got their monikers…. yours is an inne, mine’s an outte…)
judge: deman   (Ok, this one is great.  I can’t stop laughing.  Now, deman could mean that a judge is a demon… that’s close.  It could also mean, “De man!” as in “he’s de man!”  Then it’s similar to demean… as in he’s demeaning as de man who is a demon.  Oh wait, it’s the verb form as in “don’t judge me.”  Oh well.)
lumber: healwudu  (Lumber is “heal, would you?” or is it, “Heal wood ugh”  hmmmmmm)
lust: lust  (interesting the words that don’t change… kind of like human nature…)
misdeed: misdæd  (If you commit a misdeed, you might be missed because you’re now dead…)
mist: ge-nip (As in, “gee, it’s nippy!”)
money: sceatt  (Yeah, my money scats too)
nobly: manlice  (Ok… seriously?  NOBLY… MANLICE?  Snort)
nostril: nosþyrl  (Cannot stop laughing.  It looks like a brand name for nose spray)
ocean: mereflod  (Don’t worry about that little pond called the ocean that separates continents… it’s a mere flood!)
paradise: neorxenawang  (sounds like torture to me… anything but paradise.  Is it a typo?)
preach: bodian  (It’s not bodian well for the congregation…)
remember:  gemyndgian  (I’d never remember gemyndgian for remember)
rich: fæt  (pronounced “Faht”  You know, like how the British say fat.  Just sayin’.)
rowing: rewett  (I’ll bet you’ll rew (rue) ett (it) if you’re rowing for too long!)
sea: brim; flot, n; geofon, m/n; holm; holm; hwælweg; sæ  (brim makes sense, flot is float… geofon… well geo being earth… ok fine.  Holm…. ok… I get it.. but hwælweg?  It sounds like scallywag!  Sea– hwælweg… sometimes these are just weird.)
seaman: flota  (and here I thought a “flota” was a guy who got sent to “swim with the fishes” in Jerzee.)
sinner: manshliht  (That just looks like obscene language… which, for sinner I guess makes sense)
stand up: astandan  (Now, isn’t that brilliant.  If you stand up, you’re astandan… DUH)
step forth: ætsteppan  (Again… pretty simple.  It’s “ætsteppan”)
sweep away: aswipan  (See!  To sweep something away you’re “aswipan”)
take out: ateon  (They were centuries before their time.  We take out… and we’ve ate on something… usually our car seat)
teach: læran  (Now, isn’t that fascinating?  Homeschool moms will all tell you that you learn as much as you teach… Seems like maybe the Old English were early homeschoolers)
teacher: lareow; magister, m  (Look at magister… is that where we get magistrate?  We learn from a magistrate?  And is Magistrate from “magi”?  Wise one?  Wow.)
vain: idel  (oh boy!  Ouch.  Vain is similar to idol.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm)
warrior: beadurinc, m.; beorn, m.; cempa; dreng, m.; dryhtguma; folcwiga; fyrdrinc; garbuend; guðrinc, m; hæle, m hæeþ, m hildemecg, m; hilderinc, m; hiredmann; hyse, m.; lindwigend magorinc; rinc; scealc, m; sceotan; secg  (do you see a pattern here?  I think it was one very war-like time!)
well-known: cuð  (I can’t stop laughing.  Cud.  Seriously?  Well-know?  Cud?  Poor cows.)
whistling: hwistlung  (I think that’s hysterical.  Whist-lung… yeah… that’s about where the whistle originates… the lung)
write: awritan  (yep.  When I write, I’m a-writin’… so there you go)

WHEW!  Fascinating stuff, eh?