School of Foreign Languages

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

UNIT 2: ETYMOLOGY OF ENGLISH WORDS

 English Lexicology

Introduction

1. History of the English Language

2. Origin of English Words

3. Assimilation of borrowings

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 1. History of the English Language

The earliest European vernacular epic

Composed between 700-750 AD

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 1. History of the English Language

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 1. History of the English Language

call, take, die, law, sky,

state, government, alligator, bedroom,
skill, skirt, shirt, skin,
power, crime, lesson critic, eyeball,
downstairs

above, bed, blood, bard, beak, bald, candle, mill,

clean, cold, rain clan, flannel, down, port, street, wall
cradle
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 1. History of the English Language

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 1. History of the English Language

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 2. Basic Concepts in Lexicology
2.2. The Nature of the Word

Claravall (2016)

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 1. History of the English Language

The native element The borrowed element

I. Indo-European clement
II. Germanic clement
III. English Proper element (not III. Scandinavian (8th -11th c. A. D.)
earlier than 5th c. A. D.)
I. Celtic (5th - 6th c. A. D.)
II. Latin
1st group: 1st c. B. C.
2nd group: 7th c. A. D.
3rd group: the Renaissance period
IV. French
1. Norman borrowings: 11th - 13th
c. A. D.
2. Parisian borrowings (Renaissance)
V. Greek (Renaissance)
VI. Italian (Renaissance and later)
VII. Spanish (Renaissance and later)
VIII. German
IX. Indian
X. Russian
And some other groups.

The Etymological Structure of English Vocabulary

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 2. Origin of the English Words
2.1. Native Words

The NATIVE WORDS word which belong to the original English stock

• The native word in English comprises a large number of high-

frequency words like the articles, prepositions, pronounces,

conjunctions, auxiliaries, and words denoting the everyday objects

and ideas.

• The native element can be divided into three subgroups

Indo- European

English proper

Germanic element
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 2. Origin of the English Words
2.2. Borrowed Words

The BORROWED WORDS or LOAN WORDS

• words taken over from other language

• modified in phonetic shape, spelling, paradigm, meaning

according to standard of the English language

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 2. Origin of the English Words
2.3. International Words

INTERNATIONAL WORDS: are words of identical origin

that occurs in several languages as a result of

simultaneous or successive borrowings from one ultimate

source (philosophy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology)

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 3. Assimilation of borrowings
3.1. Definition

The term assimilation of borrowed words is used to

denote a partial or total conformation to a phonetic,

graphical and morphological standards of the receiving

language and its semantic system

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 3. Assimilation of borrowings
3.2. Classification

According to the degree of assimilation

1. Complete assimilation

• Latin borrowing: cheese (caseus), street (strata), wall (vallum –

rampart)

• Scandinavian: husband (husbondi – master of the house), fellow

(felagi – one who lays down money in a joint enterprise)

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 3. Assimilation of borrowings
3.2. Classification

2. Partial assimilation

• Borrowed words are not assimilated semantically because they denote

objects and notions peculiar to the country from which they come

e.g. sari, kimono, burqa

• Borrowed words are not assimilated grammatically: e.g.: nouns borrowed

from Latin or Greek which keep their original plural form: bacillus – bacilli,
crisis- crises, formula – formulae, phenomenon – phenomena

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 3. Assimilation of borrowings
3.2. Classification
2. Partial assimilation (Cont.)

• Specialisation: A loan word never brings into the receiving language the
whole of its semantic structure if it is polysemantic in the original language.

burg vs. castle

• Completely assimilated loan words conform to morphological patterns of

the English paradigms:

eggs, gates, laws

acted, corrected, disturbed

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 3. Assimilation of borrowings
3.2. Classification
2. Partial assimilation (Cont.)

• Borrowed words that are not assimilated phonetically

The French borrowed words keep the accent on the final syllable:
machine, cartoon, police

some sounds are not in native words: / Ʒ / : camouflage, prestige, canal,

sabotage, cache, memoir

Different phonetic patterns: incognito, macaroni, opera, tomato, potato,

tobacco

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 3. Assimilation of borrowings
3.2. Classification
2. Partial assimilation (Cont.)

• Borrowed words that are not assimilated graphically

- Words are borrowed from French in which the final consonant is not
pronounced

e.g. ballet, buffet, bouquet, brioche

- Words borrowed from French, some has mark: cafe, cliché

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 3. Etymology and Stylistics

What are the Latin equivalents of these Germanic words?

cow folk understand

calf want need

deer buy laughable

pig belly behead

sheep brotherly

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 3. Etymology and Stylistics

Can you figure out these words and their Germanic/Latin equivalent?

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 3. Etymology and Stylistics

Can you figure out these words and their Germanic/Latin equivalent?

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 Exercises
Exercise 1: Explain the origin of the following words:
father, brother, mother, dog, cat, sheep, wolf, house, home, life, earth, man, apple,
bread, live, go, give, begin, come, quick, strong, long, wide, to, for, two, three, well,
much, little.

Exercise 2: Give Adjectives of Latin origin corresponding to the following nouns:

e.g.: lip - labial
1. Mouth eye tongue nose tooth body
head ear hand
2. horse ox sheep
3. sight mind life youth
4. mother father brother woman husband
5. house town moon sun sea book
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 Exercises

Exercise 3: Classify the following words according to their origins

Ox, cow, beef, calf, veal, sheep, mutton, pig, bacon, deer, venison, chase, hunt,
begin, commence, baker, tailor, weaver, butcher, shoemaker, painter, fish-man,
mason, shepherd, lord, baron, lady, count.

Exercise 4: What is the difference between the words in the following pairs?
To wish – to desire, to love – to adore, to go on – to proceed

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