Head·word /ˈhedˌwɜː(ɹ)d/ n. @headword

7 posts7 participants0 posts today

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · 23h

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

lǣwede, adj: lay, i.e. not learned, not of the church; by gradual change of meaning it became modern English ‘lewd’. (LAE-weh-duh / ˈlæː-wɛ-də)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · 1d

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

stǣger, f.n: staircase. (STAE-yer / ˈstæː-jɛr)
Image: Les livres de Salomon et les Prophètes, 13th century; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Latin 11560, f. 32r.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

Medieval manuscript illustration of a king ascending a flight of stairs, raising his left hand and holding his cloak with his right.

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · 2d

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

gold-fæt, n.n: thin plate of gold. (GOLD-VAT / ˈgɔld-ˌvæt)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · 3d

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

grymettung, f.n: roaring, bellowing; loud outcry, howling. (GRUE-met-tung / ˈgry-mɛt-tʌŋ)
Image: Rothschild Canticles; Flanders or the Rhineland, c. 1300; Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, MS 404, f. 115v.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

Medieval manuscript illustration of a large-headed, long-tailed black lion roaring at a frightened person whose hands are in the air.

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · 4d

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

ge-fēr-rǣden, f.n: companionship, fellowship, congregation, church; familiarity, friendship. (yeh-FAIR-RAD-en / jɛ-ˈfeːr-ˌræː-dɛn)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

**Alliterative/Endless Knot** @AllEndlessKnot@toot.community · 5d

Alliterative/Endless Knot @AllEndlessKnot@toot.community

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is TACO/TACK/TAIL #wotd #taco #tack #tail #TACOTrump

The acronym TACO, meaning Trump Always Chickens Out, and the phrase TACO Trade, referring to US President Trump’s practise of making tariff threats only to back down on them later, has inspired many jokes and memes involving the Mexican culinary dish of a tortilla filled with a topping called a taco about his habit of erratically changing tack and turning tail in retreat, and etymologically this might make sense. The culinary use of the word taco is a Mexican Spanish innovation, but it seems to come from an already existing Spanish word taco which had a range of meanings including “plug, peg, wadding”, which itself seems to have been borrowed from a Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *tag-, ultimately traceable back to the Proto-Indo-European root *dek- used in reference to such things as a “fringe, lock of hair, horsetail”. This Germanic root was also borrowed into Old French as tache “nail, fastening”, becoming Old Northern French taque “nail, pin, peg”, and finally borrowed into English as tack, which by the 15th c. was applied to the “ropes, cables, etc. fastening a ship’s sails”, and thus by metonymy to tack or to change tack came to mean “to change the direction of a boat”, and this nautical term came to be used figuratively to refer to other changes.

The PIE root *dek- came into English another way from the suffixed o-grade form *dok-lo- which became Germanic *taglaz and then Old English tægel or tægl “tail”, eventually becoming Modern English tail, with the phrase to turn tail coming from falconry.

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · 5d

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

fǣgþ, f.n: hostility. (FAETH / ˈfæːjθ)
Image: Cornutis in Liber de natura rerum; France (Abbaye de Saint-Amand), 13th century; Bibliothèque Municipale de Valenciennes, MS 320, f. 134v.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

Medieval manuscript illustration of a hostile-looking creature with two long horns, a toothy mouth, two hairy legs, a snake-like back and long tail.

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · 6d

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

forþ-weard, m.n: forward guard, pilot. (FORTH-WEH-ard / ˈfɔrθ-ˌwɛard)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · May 31

May 31

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

unriht-hǣmed, n.n: unlawful cohabitation, illicit intercourse, adultery, fornication. (UN-ri’ht-HAM-ed / ˈʌn-rɪxt-ˌhæː-mɛd)
Image: The Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg; France (Paris), mid 14th century; The Met Cloisters Collection 69.86, f. 6r.
Read my Mōnaþ-spell (monthly update) on Patreon: https://bit.ly/goldgifa
#OldEnglish #WOTD

Medieval manuscript marginalia of a naked man and woman standing close together behind a large shield, with leafy plants and flowers on either side.

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · May 30

May 30

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

un-sceþþigness, f.n: innocence, harmlessness. (UN-SHETH-thi-ness / ˈʌn-ˌʃɛθ-θɪ-nɛs)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · May 29

May 29

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

uppe-weardes, adv: upwards. (UP-puh-WEH-ar-duss / ˈʌp-pə-ˌwɛard-əs)
Image: Caligula Troper; England (Worcester?), 2nd half of 11th century; British Library, Cotton MS Caligula A XIV, f. 18r.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

Medieval manuscript illustration of Christ disappearing into the heavens, with only his feet and legs visible; angels observe from heaven and a crowd of people from the ground.

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · May 28

May 28

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

weorþ-mynd, m/f.n: honour, glory, favour, fame. (WEH-orth-muend / ˈwɛɔrθ-mynd)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · May 27

May 27

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

hrēogan, v: to get rough (of weather). (HRAY-oh-gahn / ˈhreːɔ-gan)
Image: The Huth Apocalypse; Old French, late 13th century; British Library, Add MS 38118, f. 22v.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

Medieval manuscript illustration of a hooded man holding his arms up in front of him facing a tall horned devil with wings on its rear and a smaller two-winged dragon; blood pours down from a storm cloud overhead.

**Alliterative/Endless Knot** @AllEndlessKnot@toot.community · May 26

May 26

Alliterative/Endless Knot @AllEndlessKnot@toot.community

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is HABEAS CORPUS/PROHIBIT/MIDRIFF #wotd #HabeasCorpus #prohibit #midriff

Two random things about conservatives: they can’t define habeas corpus and they often want to prohibit bare midriffs, and strangely that’s etymologically appropriate. Habeas corpus, the legal principal that a detained person must be brought before a court to make sure their detention is lawful, is a Latin phrase that literally means “(you should) have the person”. Habeas, the 2nd person singular present subjunctive form of the verb habere “to have”, can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European root *ghabh- “to give or receive”, which is also the source of English give (but surprisingly not have). When combined with the prefix pro- “away, forth” Latin habere becomes prohibere “to hold back, restrain, hinder, prevent”, with the past participle prohibitus that came into English in the 15th c. as prohibit. Latin corpus meaning “body” comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *kwrep- “body, form, appearance” (which as a verbal root probably had the meaning “to appear”), and this root also came into the Germanic languages as the Proto-Germanic root *hrefiz- which became Old English hrif “belly”, a word which only survives today in the compound word midriff.

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · May 26

May 26

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

sārig, adj: feeling grief, sorry, sorrowful, sad; expressing grief, mournful, sad, bitter. (SA-rih / ˈsaː-rɪj)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · May 25

May 25

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

turf, f.n: turf, sod, piece of earth with grass on it; the grassy surface of the earth. (TURF / ˈtʌrf)
Image: Luttrell Psalter; England (Lincolnshire), c. 1320-1340; British Library, Add MS 42130, f. 176v.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

Medieval manuscript illustration of a grassy knoll with dogs chasing rabbits out of their holes; on top of the knoll two rabbits face one another, forelegs outstretched.

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · May 24

May 24

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

irfe, n.n: inherited property, property that passes to an heir. (IR-vuh / ˈɪr-və)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · May 23

May 23

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

snaca, m/f.n: snake, reptile, perhaps even a scorpion. (SNAH-ka / ˈsna-ka)
Image: Boa in the Aberdeen Bestiary; England, c. 1200; Aberdeen University Library, MS 24, f. 69r.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

Medieval manuscript illustration of a two-legged, two-winged dragon-like creature with a very long neck and even longer tail, coiled around in circles.

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · May 22

May 22

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

murcnung, f.n: complaint, murmuring. (MURK-nung / ˈmʌrk-nʌŋ)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

**Old English Wordhord** @OEWordhord@mastodon.social · May 21

May 21

Old English Wordhord @OEWordhord@mastodon.social

ge-nēalǣcing, f.n: an approach. (yeh-NAY-ah-LATCH-ing / jɛ-ˈneːa-ˌlæː-tʃɪŋ)
Image: The Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg; France (Paris), mid 14th century; The Met Cloisters Collection 69.86, f. 13r.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

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