Glossary

Acronym: A word formed from the initial letters of other words (laser, Aids).

Anglo-Latin: The form of Latin used in England in the Middle Ages, which developed some of its own forms, often influenced by the users’ own language.

Anglo-Norman (French): The form of French used in England by the Norman elite. They had brought over their own Norman dialect, and it then developed further changes in England.

Avestan: An ancient Indo-European language spoken in the area of what is now Iran, in which the sacred writings of the Zoroastrians are preserved.

Back formation: A word formed from an existing word, which looks as if it is the source of the earlier word, such as edit from editor.

Base: See root.

Combining form: A word-element that can be combined with others to form words such as the semi- of semi-detached, the trans- of transatlantic. See list under Word Building.

Comparative: In adjectives and adverbs, forms such as bigger (= more big). Usually formed by adding -er. Biggest (= most big) is called the superlative form.

Diminutive: A form of a word that shows it refers to something smaller than usual—piglet is the diminutive of pig.

Ecclesiastical Latin: The distinctive form of Latin used by the Church (particularly the Bible and in the Middle Ages) which has differences from the Classical Latin of Rome.

Figurative: Language which should not be understood literally, but which sets out to create an image.

Folk etymology: See word entry asparagus.

Gaulish: The extinct Celtic language spoken in Gaul (the equivalent of modern France), before it was replaced by Latin and then French.

Germanic: The ancestral language of Northern Europe which later developed into the modern North Germanic languages of Scandinavia and the West Germanic languages including German, Dutch, and English.

Indo-European: The group of related languages that include most of those spoken in Europe and many of the western Asian languages including those of northern India. They are all descended from a lost, ancient language called Proto-Indo-European (often shortened to Indo-European). See the Introduction.

Jargon: Special terms used in the language of a profession or group which are difficult for outsiders to understand.

Late Latin: The Latin spoken ad c.300–700, by ordinary uneducated people into the Early Middle Ages, which often differed from the language of the educated and from Classical Latin. The term overlaps with Vulgar Latin and Popular Latin.

Low German: The dialect of much of Northern Germany, distinct from High German spoken in the south and the usual written form. It is closely related to Dutch and sometimes used to include Dutch and other related dialects.

Metathesis: The swapping round of sounds in a word, such as saying pacific instead of specific.

Middle (Dutch, Low German, etc.): The form of the language spoken in the Middle Ages. The exact dates covered vary from language to language.

Modern Latin: Includes the language spoken from c.1500 onwards. Often used of scientific coinages.

Old French: The language spoken in France from about ad 800 until Middle French developed about 1350–1400.

Participle: A word formed from a verb and used as an adjective (a sitting duck) or a noun (good eating). In English they can be also be used to form tenses (is going, has been). The present participle regularly ends in –ing, the past participle in –ed. In Latin the present participle often ends in a vowel plus –ns, the past in -(t)us. See the Introduction for more on Latin.

Romance: The group of Indo-European languages that developed from Late Latin. Modern Romance languages include French, Italian, Spanish, and Romanian.

Root: A root or base is the underlying form from which a word has been made, and from which other words descend. This may be only one or two stages back (see stem) or may go all the way back to Indo-European.

Sanskrit: An ancient language of northern India, in which many Hindu scriptures are written. It provides many important clues as to the history of Indo-European.

Stem: The basic part of a word from which other parts are formed. Run is the stem of running and runner.

Strong verb: A strong verb is one which changes its middle vowel to indicate a change in tense (sing, sang, sung) rather than adding an ending (ask, asked). It was a grammatical pattern brought over by the Anglo-Saxons, so most strong verbs are Germanic.

Superlative: See comparative.

Synonym: A word that means the same as another.

Variant: A different form or spelling of a word.

Vulgate: The Latin translation of the Bible made by St Jerome in the 4th century and the main version of the Bible in western Europe throughout the Middle Ages (see ecclesiastical latin).

West Germanic: See germanic.

Yiddish: A language originally spoken by Jews in central and eastern Europe. It is based on German, but has many characteristics of Hebrew and Slavic languages.