“Selfsame”, sometimes written “self-same”, means “identical, exact”. I see no grounds to keep on using the French and Latin words “identical” and “exact” when we have the lovely word “selfsame”.
© 2020 Bryan A. J. Parry
selfsame #Anglish #PlainEnglish
March 15, 2020
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Funnyman = Comedian #Anglish #PlainEnglish
February 16, 2020
As you can see from the above still from Netflix (if you zoom in), “funnyman” is another word for “comedian”. The word “comedian” is from the French comédien which at the time meant a comic poet. The Old English word was heahtorsmið “laughter-maker”. I really like how the OE word inholds the word “smith”. But perhaps new-words like “laughtersmith” or “laughtermaker” are just too far out for most folk to take onboard — although I have seen “mirth-maker”(!) But good news, we already have the ready-made, homeborn alternative: funnyman. “Funnyman” has actually been in use since the mid-nineteenth century, so it’s well-established.
© 2020 Bryan A. J. Parry
featured image from Netflix
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Bits 2 #Anglish #PlainEnglish
January 19, 2020
I was leafing through some old scraps of papers when I came across these sundry notes. These are just random snippets that are interesting. Enjoy!
Englandish English
* gain-, as in gainsay; use instead of contra-
* with-, as in withstand; use instead of contra-
* guesthouse = hotel, inn, poorhouse
* lionhearted = brave, courageous
* loam?loan? = utensil, implement, tool of any kind
* anent, about = regarding
* rub (n) = obstacle, impediment (both non-material and physical)
* roomy = spacious
* work = function
* working = functioning
* capital city in OE was heafodstol
My Mintings
* mindfood = mental stimulant
* mind-doctor = psychologist or psychiatrist: more likely, mind-healer for psychologist, mind-doctor for psychiatrist
* mind-healer = psychotherapist
* mind-making = commemoration
* mindtrip = hallucination
* mindtrippy = hallucinatory
* mindsickness/madness = mania
* formindsickness/madness = craze
* stample < stamp + -le freq. Similar in meaning to trample but stamping.
* the ego = the I
* ego(t)ism = I-ishness, selfishness
* ego(t)istic = selfish
* fertilise, conceive = seedblend, blend seeds
* fertilisation, conception = seed-blending
William Barnes’ Mintings
* sham- = pseudo-, faux-
* build up, heap up = accumulate
© 2016-2020 Bryan A. J. Parry
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Bible-speak #Anglish #PlainEnglish
December 26, 2019
The early Modern English of the King James Bible, the traditional Bible in English-speaking countries, is rather different to today’s English. See Matthew 6:1-2 below in the King James version.
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Now take a look at the same verses in the modern New International text.
‘Be careful not to practise your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. ‘So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
Sometimes, the older version has homeborn words (do alms) whereas the modern version has borrowed words (practise your righteousness). And other times, it’s the newer version which uses homeborn words and the older that borrows (Verily but Truly).
None-the-less, the King James version of the Bible, still so familiar to us despite de-Christianisation and “modernisation”, gives us many homeborn words to stand in stead of the borrowings; the main upside is that even though many of these older words are no longer (commonly) used, they stay well-known owing to their use in the Bible. These words are, as I put it, “buttressed” by their familiarity as part of scripture. Here are some other homeborn words from the same passage that you may wish to swap into your English, thanks to the Bible.
Swap in: take heed for pay attention; do alms for practise charity; blow/sound your trumpet for announce it loudly; have or get for receive.
What other passages from the Bible can you find where the older text gives us words of English birth?
© 2019 Bryan A. J. Parry
image from https://pastormikesays.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/bible.jpg
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Size, Temperature, Altitude, Age #PlainEnglish #Anglish #SaxonEnglish #PureEnglish
August 11, 2018
The words “size”, “temperature”, “altitude”, and “age” are all borrowed words: Old French sise (1300ad), Latin temperatura (1670), Latin altitudinem (1300s), and Old French aage (1200s). Why should words for such basic concepts be borrowed? This is particularly the case when we have words such as “length”, “height”, and “depth” derived from the adjectives “long”, “high”, and “deep”. Why shouldn’t adjectives such as “big”, “hot”, “high/tall”, and “old” give rise to analogous derived abstract nouns?
Note that we talk about “length”, derived as it is from “long”, even for short things. Likewise, we have: “height” from “high”, even for short things; “depth” from “deep”, even for shallow things; and “width” and “breadth” from “wide” and “broad”, even for narrow things. Further note that the biggest or positive polarity is taken as the default, just as elsewhere in the language; there is “happy”, “sad”, and “unhappy”, but “unsad” is marked and odd-sounding.
Therefore, as weird or comical as these may sound at first, I think the following are the logical and sensible Saxon English alternatives to their Franco-Latinate counterparts:
- “size” becomes “bigness”
- “temperature” becomes “heat” or “hotness”
- “altitude” becomes “highness”
- “age” becomes “oldth” or “oldness” (I feel that “oldth” is just about passable, despite -th no longer being productive, whereas “bigth” and “heath” don’t work for me on an intuitive level, and “heighth” is an informal, dialectal, and humorous form of “height”)
I feel that “altitude” is different enough from “height” that we can’t always use the latter instead; “what’s the altitude of this plane” seems to work, but swapping in “height” seems not to. But as so often is the case, the Latinate word is used where the plainer, Saxon word could be: “What altitude are we flying at?” can be perfectly well said as “how high are we flying?” My proposal of “highness”, just like “bigness”, “heat/hotness”, and “oldth/oldness”, should only be used where the more basic word is inappropriate.
© Bryan A. J. Parry
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Skeletons #Anglish #PureEnglish #PlainEnglish
May 25, 2018
I quite like the sound of the word skeleton; it’s very “cellar door“-ish to me. It has a fairly quirky word-history. It comes from the Latin sceleton, which in turn comes from the Greek skeleton soma: literally, ‘dried-up body, mummy’. Therefore, being a Greco-Latin word, this project aims to replace it!
Early English forms were more English-sounding: skelton and skelet. These would make excellent bishop-shifted forms. But could we come up with a wholly English form instead?
First, let’s ask: what is the skeleton? It is the bony framework of the body. Therefore, a more Saxon name for it might be “bonework” or “bonywork”. Think network and such.
There are other extended meanings of skeleton, too. How might these be put into Saxon English?
- In the sense of “bare outline”, “skeleton” can be replaced with… bare outline!
- “Skeleton crew” therefore become bare outline crew, bare crew, or outline crew.
- “Skeleton in the closet” becomes “dead body in the cupboard” — closet also being a French word.
© 2018 Bryan A. J. Parry
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Wright #Anglish #PlainEnglish
April 30, 2018
Shipwright, cartwright, wheelwright, playwright (not “playwrite”!).
The word “wright” is related to wrought and work. A wright is, in short, a worker. But as you can tell from the above words, “wright” really implies a kind of craftsman or skilled worker, not just a regular slogger. This is clearly a useful word, but only pops up in these historic and set formations, and as a last name (Ian Wright! Wright! Wright!).
This nameword (noun) comes from the deedword/workword (verb) to work. But given the difference between a mere “worker” and the noble “wright”, we might wish to backform a new verb to wright, meaning to work in the specific sense of crafting or as a craftsman.
Let’s take this potentially useful nameword wright, and our new idea of the deedword to wright, and see how we can use them.
A carpenter (from the Latin root carpentum) is someone who works wood, but with the craft-like connotations. Woodworker is a nice formation; indeed, I try to smuggle this word into everyday talk. Woodcrafter or woodcraftsman work, too, altho I feel not as well. Workwood, like turnkey or sawbones, are also fairly neat Saxon alternatives to “carpenter”. But I think woodwright really gets to the craftsmanlike aspect in an unambiguous way. Old English had the form treowwyrhta, which is literally “tree-wright”.
What about the stone mason? “Mason” itself is Old French masson of unclear parentage; it may ultimately be from a German tongue or Latin matio. Surely, we could say stonewright instead. Indeed, the Old English word was stanwyrhta “stone-wright”. Personally, I really like the sound of this even more so than the above alternatives to “carpenter”.
Maybe “wright” could be regularly treated as the English equivalent to Greek tekton as found in architect. Therefore, perhaps architect could be buildingwright? The following words also work, but are more unwieldy: buildingcrafter and buildingcraftsman. Old English had the nice form heahcræftiga “high-crafter”, but maybe that wouldn’t be as self-clear as “buildingwright”.
© 2018 Bryan A. J. Parry
featured image from http://thecarpenterandthecook.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Carpenter.jpg
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