6 An overview of Latin loanwords in Old English

It is no easy matter to identify how many distinct words there are in our total surviving Old English records, for both theoretical and practical reasons. The Thesaurus of Old English (TOE) lists approximately 34,000 distinct word forms. This is much higher than the c.18,000 contained in the concise dictionary Clark Hall (1960), or the estimate in the region of 23,000 or 24,000 in Scheler (1977 14, 74).¹ Completion of the Dictionary of Old English (DOE), which is being prepared in Toronto on the basis of a near-complete corpus of the surviving texts, will give a much clearer picture of the size of the Old English lexicon, although many rather grey areas will remain, especially concerning how we regard words that appear with their Latin inflections in Old English sentences.

There has been no recent complete appraisal of all of the Old English words that may be of Latin origin. It would be a very large task and it is unlikely to be attempted before the completion of the DOE, which would certainly make the task somewhat easier. Earlier scholarship was rather more adventurous in attempting comprehensive listings. An influential and still very useful list which drew on most of the available earlier scholarship is found in Serjeantson (1935).² Her Appendix A lists just over 520 loanwords immediately from Latin. There are some inclusions that are very dubious, but many more omissions (including some doubtless accidental omissions of words that are actually mentioned in her main text but omitted from the appendix). Words which there are strong grounds for regarding as post-Conquest borrowings into Old English from Latin and/or French (i.e. words borrowed between 1066 and 1150) are largely omitted from her list, although there are varying opinions on some cases, and certainly some of the words she does include are first attested in manuscripts dating from after the Conquest. Scheler (1977 38) estimates a further 50 borrowings between 1066 and 1150, but the precise basis for this estimate is not clear. (We look at a few such cases in part V.)

Probably the number of fairly securely identified pre-Conquest Latin loanwords can be put at at least 600.³ I give in section 6.3 what is intended as a comprehensive list of words that have a reasonable likelihood of being early borrowings (although some are only doubtfully of Latin origin, and a few are not entirely securely attested as English words): these come to 261 in total. I then list a further 36 words for which early borrowing has often been suggested but is less certain. Finally, I give a very selective list of 137 examples of later loanwords. This third list could easily be extended very considerably with further secure examples of later borrowing, although, as we will investigate, it is extremely difficult to establish a definitive list of later borrowings.

If we take an estimate of at least 600 words borrowed (immediately) from Latin, and a total of around 34,000 words in Old English, then, conservatively, around 1.75% of the total are borrowed from Latin. If we include all compounds and derivatives formed on Latin loanwords in Old English, then the total of Latin-derived vocabulary probably comes closer to 4.5% (see further section 7.2 on this), although this figure may be a little too high, since estimates of the total size of the Old English vocabulary (native and borrowed) probably rather underestimate the numbers of compounds and derivatives.

This total includes some relatively common words and there is some penetration even among quite basic levels of the vocabulary. A good number of these borrowings survive into modern English, especially from among the earliest borrowings. It is also worth bearing in mind that the lexis of Old English overall showed an extremely large degree of transparency, having a great many large word families consisting of a root word plus very many analysable compounds and derivatives formed from this root word;⁴ even allowing for the fact that many Latin loanwords in Old English also have compound and derivative formations, it is still probably the case that the Latin contribution to the stock of root words in Old English is rather higher than 1.75%.

On the other hand, it is clear that many of the Latin-derived words, particularly the later ones, belonged only to specialist learned discourse, although our surviving records seldom tell us quite as much as we would like to know about the register or degree of currency of particular words.

As already mentioned, quite aside from the loanwords there are large numbers of loan translations and other instances of semantic borrowing, although this is an area where certainty is often elusive. See further section 8.3 on this.

We can divide the Latin borrowings fairly confidently into two broad groups, earlier borrowings and later borrowings, although there are many doubtful individual cases. Probably the dividing line between the two falls around the middle of the seventh century, but this can only be regarded as a very rough estimate, since it is before the period for which we have any substantial Old English written records.

Unlike the situation in most later periods of the history of English, when we are looking at Old English evidence the date of the first document in which a word is recorded is seldom a very sound guide to the date at which it was borrowed. If we encounter words first in texts from the second half of the eleventh or the twelfth century (i.e. from the time of the Norman Conquest or after), then we may attach some weight to this fact, and consider them late introductions to Old English, since we have a large body of earlier records against which to compare. However, even in this late Old English period there are anomalous cases of words first recorded in very late sources that must have existed much earlier. For example, pīn ‘pain, torture, anguish, punishment’ is attested in only one reasonably secure pre-Conquest example (from a severely damaged manuscript), but it was probably a relatively early borrowing, and derivative formations formed from it are much better attested in Old English sources.

As noted in section 3.6, our written records are very patchy until we reach the large body of English texts of the late tenth and early eleventh century which, directly or indirectly, reflect the great impetus in vernacular writing and learning arising from the Benedictine reforms of the late tenth century. With the exception of words with basic core meanings, omission from the literary record before the late tenth century gives no good indication that a word did not exist earlier. It should also be borne in mind that our knowledge of all dialects of Old English other than West Saxon is extremely limited, for all periods.

The evidence on which Latin borrowings can be divided into an early and a late group comes instead from internal, linguistic evidence, and especially from whether words show the effects of the major sound changes that took place (largely or entirely) before the date of our earliest surviving texts. If a borrowed word shows a phonetic environment in which a particular change would normally have occurred but fails to show this change, the normal assumption is that it was borrowed later than the period in which this change operated. If the word does show this change, then it is normally assumed that it was in the language by the time this change occurred. (There are complicating factors, especially as regards the latter assumption: see examples in section 8.1.) Sound changes that affected words in Vulgar Latin before they were borrowed into English are also of importance. In the past, the assumption has often been made that a more or less definite date can be assigned to a sound change and this can therefore be used as a firm dating criterion for word histories. However, more recent work on sound change stresses the extent to which most changes are very gradual, spreading slowly from word to word, and from community to community. In this perspective, drawing dating information from the presence or absence of various sound changes becomes a rather more tentative, at times even precarious, affair.

Another important criterion in assessing the date of borrowing is whether there are parallel borrowed forms in other Germanic languages. If all of the forms in other Germanic languages show the same linguistic features pointing to early borrowing, this can be a strong piece of corroborating evidence for early borrowing.

Semantic criteria are also often applied. Words to do with the detail of the life of the Church are unlikely to have been borrowed before the early seventh century at the earliest, although some basic words to do with Christianity (and especially its buildings and material culture, as well as the basics of belief) may have been known even to pagans. More elaborate claims are sometimes based on semantic criteria, for instance that plant names are likely to have been introduced in the context of monastic gardens: however, such approaches run the risk of oversimplification and of overestimating how much we know about precise cultural contexts, especially in the early period.

The context for most of the later borrowings is certain: they are nearly all words connected with the religious world or with learning, which were largely overlapping categories in the Anglo-Saxon world.⁵ Many of them are only very lightly assimilated into Old English, if at all. In fact it is debatable whether some of them should even be regarded as borrowed words, or instead as single-word switches to Latin in an Old English document, since it is not uncommon for words only ever to occur with their Latin case endings.

The earlier borrowings include many more words that are of reasonably common occurrence in Old English and later, for instance names of some common plants and foodstuffs, as well as some very basic words to do with the religious life. If we could pin down the time and place when these words were borrowed, this would cast real light on the darkest periods of Anglo-Saxon history. As we will see, though, internal linguistic evidence can in most cases give us only very limited insights. We can often establish with reasonable certainty that one word is an earlier borrowing than another. It is much more difficult to progress from this relative dating to an absolute dating, or in other words to establish clear points of connection between linguistic and non-linguistic history. It is generally even more difficult to establish the place and cultural context of a particular borrowing with any certainty: all too often there are multiple possibilities and it can be rash (and sometimes a real distortion of the evidence) to pick out one possible context to the exclusion of others.

One particularly difficult problem is determining whether words were borrowed after the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Lowland Britain, or before this, on the continent. In fact, it is probably wrong to think of a very sharply defined ‘before’ and ‘after’, since the process of settlement was a gradual one, and there were also continuing close contacts with the continent after this period. The linguistic evidence often leaves very considerable doubt as to whether a borrowing occurred on the continent as far back as late imperial times, or in England, perhaps as late as the introduction of Christianity or even later.⁶

A major focus of earlier scholarship, most notably Pogatscher (1888), was to attempt to distinguish between words borrowed while the Anglo-Saxons were still on the continent, and words borrowed after they came to Britain, largely on the basis of sound changes in Old English and in Latin. Serjeantson (1935) drew on this scholarship to divide her list of Latin loanwords into three chronological groupings, described as:

(A) Words from the Continental period, up to about 400, showing early borrowing by corresponding forms in other Germanic dialects, or by their phonological form (i.e. absence of early Romance changes, or presence of sound-changes which took place before or very shortly after the settlement of the English in this country).

(B) Words probably borrowed in Britain, 450–650. These are still loans from the spoken language.

(C) After 650. Late loan-words, including those of learned origin introduced through the written language (marked L).

(Serjeantson (1935) 271, 277, 281.)

There are echoes of this approach in most of the current handbooks on the history of English (albeit often unacknowledged), but the division between Serjeantson’s periods A and B is very problematic. Certainly, there are some words that are almost certainly very early borrowings, and there are some that can be confidently regarded as much later borrowings, probably attributable to very roughly the first half of the seventh century. However, recent scholarly surveys, especially Wollmann (1990a), have suggested strongly that there are too many very doubtful cases to divide the material into periods A and B as Serjeantson does. Indeed, as already noted, the settlement itself seems to many modern scholars a rather more fuzzy division than it seemed to most earlier scholars: even once the main period of settlement was over, continuing contacts with the continent may well have remained a significant factor, right up until the Conversion and beyond. The material awaits a thorough reappraisal: Wollmann’s survey looks at only a small number of words in depth, and aspects of his methodology have been criticized;⁷ Feulner (2000) provides a detailed account of the not insignificant number of words that are ultimately of Greek origin (see further section 8.2.1), establishing a very sound methodology for their investigation, but is often rather agnostic on some of the more disputed questions of dating. However, from the current state of the subject, it seems very unlikely that a confident assignment of all of the material to pre- and post-settlement phases of borrowing could again be attempted.

In the listing given here, I attempt only a broad division into (probable) earlier and later borrowings, roughly either side of ad 650,⁸ although in chapter 8 I return to some of the criteria by which at least some of the pre-ad 650 borrowings can be tied to a narrower dating with at least a reasonable degree of confidence.

This section offers what is intended to be a comprehensive list of early borrowings (before c.650), followed by a selection of the later borrowings.

For the later period, I have included words that are attested more frequently, or that show signs of greater phonological or morphological integration into Old English, as well as a sample of rarer, less thoroughly integrated words. I have listed all words that could potentially show any continuity with later English words (see further section 7.5.1 on these). Very many of the later borrowings appear to have been confined to learned contexts in Old English. For several (partly overlapping) reasons it is very difficult to count the number of such words in Old English accurately. The completion of the DOE will give a much clearer picture, as individual contexts and uses are re-examined carefully; it will doubtless also bring to light further loanwords omitted from earlier dictionaries and surveys. However, there are also difficult theoretical issues: many of these words appear sometimes with English inflections and sometimes with Latin inflections but embedded in English sentences, and there are some interesting and not yet completely resolved questions concerning what constitutes an Old English word in such contexts (see section 7.4).

Some general notes on these listings:

Some of the Old English words are marked with an asterisk. These fall into two groups. Firstly, words that are not directly attested in Old English, but whose existence is implied either by words that seem to be derivatives from them, or by later English words (or by both). In all such cases the asterisked form is followed by a comment in parentheses explaining what the evidence implying its existence is. See e.g. *cōfrian, *mūtian, *platian. Secondly, there are words whose existence depends on the interpretation of doubtful or disputed attestations. See e.g. *ċiċeling, *delfīn, *sīric.

Many borrowings occur in Old English in a variety of different word forms. These can reflect any of several different factors: (a) different chronological layers of borrowing from Latin; (b) remodelling of an existing borrowing after its Latin etymon, giving the appearance of the reversal of earlier sound changes; or (c) more or less contemporary borrowing of the same Latin word in forms that show different degrees of assimilation to the Old English sound system. In some, especially older, listings of loanwords there is a strong bias towards assuming that most such cases show different chronological layers of borrowing from Latin, and such variants are hence ascribed to different historical sub-periods; this is the approach frequently (although by no means consistently) taken in Serjeantson (1935). My approach here is different and more in line with that generally taken in the DOE: in most cases I list such forms side by side, without explicit comment, but normally with the earlier form(s) listed before later ones. For comment on some examples, see section 8.1. In a very few cases, where the later form differs from the earlier one in ways that could not be explained by substitution of one or two sounds from the Latin word, I have marked the later forms explicitly with ‘also (later)’ (see e.g. later antifon, antyfon beside earlier antefn, or later lātīn beside earlier læden). I have only listed borrowings entirely separately from one another when there is a very significant difference in meaning as well as word form, e.g. ynċe ‘inch’ and yntse ‘ounce’ (both < Latin uncia).⁹

To make the forms more transparent for readers less familiar with Old English, I have added macrons to indicate long vowels, and I have used dotted ċ and sċ to represent /tʃ/ and /ʃ/ respectively and ġ to represent /j/ (on the origins of these sounds, see section 8.1.1). However, it should be noted that these diacritics are ‘editorial’ interventions in the forms, often based on suppositions about the likely pronunciation of a word form, rather than on hard evidence. I have generally passed over questionable or doubtful cases silently.

The Latin forms given as etymons are mostly attested forms (rather than reconstructed ones), and I have selected the attested forms that are most similar to the form or forms that were probably borrowed into Old English. I have given asterisked (i.e. unattested, reconstructed) forms only sparingly, normally only in cases where the form that is usually assumed as the direct etymon of an Old English form differs very significantly from the attested forms. I have not indicated vowel length in any of the Latin forms, since to record only the classical Latin quantities could be misleading without detailed notes on the changes in quantity that are taken to underlie many of the borrowings into Old English. For similar reasons I have not periodized any of the Latin forms. I have not distinguished here those words that had come into Latin from other languages: see especially section 8.2.1 on words ultimately of Greek origin.

I have omitted borrowed names of peoples (and places), and transparent derivatives from these, e.g. rōmānisċ ‘Roman’ < Rōmāne ‘the Romans’.

I have grouped nouns into a series of semantic categories, although in some cases the assignment to a particular category is less secure than in others. I have given footnotes on some of the most difficult cases. Verbs and adjectives are listed separately.

Abbod, abbot ‘abbot’ [L abbat-, abbas]; abbodesse ‘abbess’ [L abbatissa]; antefn, also (later) antifon, antyfon ‘antiphon (type of liturgical chant)’ [L antifona, antefona];¹⁰  ælmesse, ælmes ‘alms, charity’ [L *alimosina, variant of elemosina]; bisċeop ‘bishop’ [probably L episcopus];¹¹  cristen ‘Christian’ [L christianus]; dēofol, dīofol ‘devil’ [perhaps Latin diabulus]; draca ‘dragon, monstrous beast; the devil’ [L draco]; engel, angel ‘angel’ [probably L angelus]; mæsse, messe ‘mass’ (the religious ceremony) [L missa]; munuc ‘monk’ [L monachus]; mynster ‘monastery; important church’ [L monasterium]; nunne ‘nun’ [L nonna]; prēost ‘priest’ [probably L *prebester, presbyter]; senoð, seonoð, sinoð, sionoð ‘council, synod, assembly’ [L synodus].

Læden ‘Latin; any foreign language’, also (later) lātīn ‘Latin’ [L Latina]; sċolu, also (later) scōl ‘troop, band; school’ [L schola].¹²

Bēte ‘beet, beetroot’ [L beta]; billere denoting several water plants [L berula]; box ‘box tree’, later also ‘box, receptacle’ [L buxus];¹³  celendre, cellendre ‘coriander’ [L coliandrum]; ċerfille, ċerfelle ‘chervil’ [L caerefolium]; *ċiċeling ‘chickpea’ [L cicer]; ċīpe ‘onion’ [L cepe]; ċiris-(bēam) ‘cherry tree’ [L *ceresia, cerasium]; ċisten-, ċistel-, ċist-(bēam) ‘chestnut tree’ [L castinea or castanea]; coccel ‘corn cockle, or other grain-field weed’ [L *cocculus < coccum]; codd-(æppel) ‘quince’ [L cydonium, cotoneum, or cotonium]; consolde ‘(perhaps) daisy or comfrey’ [L consolida]; corn-(trēo) ‘cornel tree’ [L cornus]; cost ‘costmary’ [L costum]; cymen ‘cumin’ [L cuminum]; cyrfet ‘gourd’ [L cucurbita]; earfe plant name, probably vetch [L ervum]; elehtre ‘(probably) lupin’ [L electrum]; eofole ‘dwarf elder, danewort’ [L ebulus]; eolone, elene ‘elecampane’ (a plant) [L inula, helenium]; finol, finule, finugle ‘fennel’ [L fenuculum]; glædene a plant name (usually for a type of iris) [L gladiola]; humele ‘hop plant’ [L humulus]; lāser ‘weed, tare’ [L laser]; leahtric, leahtroc, also (later) lactuce ‘lettuce’ [L lactuca]; *lent ‘lentil’ [L lent-, lens]; lufestiċe ‘lovage’ [L luvesticum]; mealwe ‘mallow’ [L malva]; *mīl ‘millet’ [L milium]; minte, minta ‘mint’ [L mentha]; nǣp ‘turnip’ [L napus]; nefte ‘catmint’ [L nepeta]; oser or ōser ‘osier’ [L osaria]; persic ‘peach’ [L persicum]; peru ‘pear’ [L pirum, pera]; piċ ‘pitch’ (the resinous substance) [L pic-, pix]; pīn ‘pine’ [L pinus]; pipeneale ‘pimpernel’ [L pipinella]; pipor ‘pepper’ [L piper]; pirie ‘pear tree’ [L *pirea]; pise, *peose ‘pea’ [L pisum]; plūme ‘plum; plum tree’ and plȳme ‘plum; plum tree’ [both perhaps L pruna];¹⁴  pollegie ‘pennyroyal’ [L pulegium]; popiġ, papiġ ‘poppy’ [L papaver]; porr ‘leek’ [L porrum]; rǣdiċ ‘radish’ [L radic-, radix]; rūde ‘rue’ [L ruta]; syrfe ‘service tree’ [L *sorbea, sorbus]; ynne- (in ynnelēac) ‘onion’ [L unio].

Assa ‘ass’ [L asinus, perhaps via Celtic];¹⁵  capun ‘capon’ [probably L capon-, capo]; cat, catte ‘cat’ [L cattus]; cocc ‘cock, rooster’ [L coccus]; *cocc (in s¯æcocc) ‘cockle’ [perhaps L *coccum]; culfre ‘dove’ [perhaps L *columbra, columbula]; cypera ‘salmon at the time of spawning’ [L cyprinus]; elpend, ylpend ‘elephant’, also shortened to ylp [L elephant-, elephans]; eosol, esol ‘ass’ [L asellus]; lempedu, also (later) lamprede ‘lamprey’ [L lampreda]; mūl ‘mule’ [L mulus]; muscelle ‘mussel’ [L musculus]; olfend ‘camel’ [probably L elephant-, elephans, with the change in meaning arising from semantic confusion]; ostre ‘oyster’ [L ostrea]; pēa ‘peafowl’ [L pavon-, pavo]; *pine- (in *pinewincle, as suggested emendation of winewincle) ‘winkle’ [perhaps L pina]; rēnġe ‘spider’ [L aranea]; strȳta ‘ostrich’ [L struthio]; trūht ‘trout’ [L tructa]; turtle, turtur ‘turtle dove’ [L turtur].

Ċȳse, ċēse ‘cheese’ [L caseus]; foca ‘cake baked on the ashes of the hearth’ (only attested with reference to Biblical contexts or antiquity) [L focus]; must ‘wine must, new wine’ [L mustum]; seim ‘lard, fat’ (only attested in figurative use) [L *sagimen, sagina]; senap, senep ‘mustard’ [L sinapis]; wīn ‘wine’ [L vinum].

Butere ‘butter’ [L butyrum, buturum];¹⁶  ċeren ‘wine reduced by boiling for extra sweetness’ [L carenum]; eċed ‘vinegar’ [L acetum]; ele ‘oil’ [L oleum];¹⁷  fēfer or fefer ‘fever’ [L febris]; flȳtme ‘lancet’ [L fletoma].¹⁸

Ancor, ancra ‘anchor (also in figurative use)’ [L ancora]; cæfester ‘muzzle, halter, bit’ [L capistrum, perhaps via Celtic];¹⁹  ċæfl ‘muzzle, halter, bit’ [L capulus]; ċearricge (meaning very uncertain, perhaps ‘carriage’) [perhaps L carruca];²⁰  punt ‘punt’ [L ponton-, ponto]; sēam ‘burden; harness; service which consisted in supplying beasts of burden’ [L sauma, sagma]; strǣt ‘road; paved road, street’ [L strata].

Camp ‘battle; war; field’ [L campus];²¹  cocer ‘quiver’ [perhaps L cucurum].²²

Cucler ‘spoon’ [L coclear]; culter ‘coulter; (once) dagger’ [L culter]; fæċele ‘torch’ [L facula]; fann ‘winnowing fan’ [L vannus]; forc, forca ‘fork’ [L furca]; *fossere or fostere ‘spade’ [L fossorium]; inseġel, insiġle ‘seal; signet’ [L sigillum]; līne ‘cable, rope, line, cord; series, row, rule, direction’ [probably L linea]; mattuc, meottuc, mettoc ‘mattock’ [perhaps L *matteuca]; mortere ‘mortar’ [L mortarium]; panne ‘pan’ [perhaps L panna]; pæġel ‘wine vessel; liquid measure’ [L pagella]; pihten part of a loom [L pecten]; pīl ‘pointed object; dart, shaft, arrow; spike, nail; stake’ [L pilum]; pīle ‘mortar’ [L pila]; pinn ‘pin, peg, pointer; pen’ [probably L penna]; pīpe ‘tube, pipe; pipe (= wind instrument); small stream’ [L pipa]; pundur ‘counterpoise; plumb line’ [L ponder-, pondus]; seġne ‘fishing net’ [L sagena]; sicol ‘sickle’ [L *sicula, secula < secare ‘to cut’]; spynġe, also (later) sponge ‘sponge’ [L spongia, spongea]; timple instrument used in weaving [L templa]; turl ‘ladle’ [L trulla].

Ċeafor-(tūn), cafer-(tūn) ‘hall, court’ [L capreus]; ċealc, calc ‘chalk, plaster’ [L calc-, calx]; ċeaster, ċæster ‘fortification; city, town (especially one with a wall)’ [L castra]; ċipp ‘rod, stick, beam (especially in various specific contexts)’ [probably L cippus]; clifa, cleofa, cliofa ‘chamber, cell, den, lair’ [perhaps L clibanus ‘oven’]; clūse, clause ‘lock; confine, enclosure; fortified pass’ [L clausa]; clūstor ‘lock, bolt, bar, prison’ [L claustrum]; cruft ‘crypt, cave’ [L crupta]; cyċene ‘kitchen’ [L coquina]; cylen ‘kiln, oven’ [L culina]; *cylene ‘town’ (only as place-name element) [L colonia]; mūr ‘wall’ [L murus]; mylen ‘mill’ [L molina]; pearroc ‘enclosure; fence that forms an enclosure’ [perhaps L parricus]; pīsle or pisle ‘warm room’ [L pensilis]; plætse, plæce, plæse ‘open place in a town, square, street’ [L platea]; port ‘town with a harbour; harbour, port; town (especially one with a wall or a market)’ [L portus]; post ‘post; doorpost’ [L postis]; pytt ‘hole in the ground; well; excavated hole; pit; grave; hell’ [perhaps L puteus]; sċindel ‘roof shingle’ [L scindula]; solor ‘upper room; hall, dwelling; raised platform’ [L solarium]; tīġle, tīgele, tigele ‘earthen vessel; potsherd; tile, brick’ [L tegula]; torr ‘tower’ [L turris]; weall ‘wall, rampart, earthwork’ [L vallum]; wīċ ‘dwelling; village; camp, fortress’ [L vicus].

Amber ‘vessel, dry or liquid measure’ [L amphora, ampora];²³  binn, binne ‘basket, bin; manger’ [L benna]; (for box ‘box, receptacle’ see under Plants); buteruc ‘bottle’ [perhaps from a derivative of L buttis]; byden ‘vessel, container; cask, tub; tub-shaped geographical feature’ [probably L *butina]; bytt ‘bottle, flask, cask, wine skin’ [L *buttia]; ċelċ, cælic, calic ‘drinking vessel, cup’ [L calic-, calix]; ċist, ċest ‘chest, box, coffer; reliquary; coffin’ [L cista]; cuppe ‘cup’, also copp ‘cup, beaker; gloss for Latin spongia sponge’ [L cuppa]; cȳf ‘large jar, vessel, or tub’ [L *cupia < cupa]; cȳfl ‘tub, bucket’ [L cupellus]; cyll, cylle ‘leather bottle, leather bag; ladle; oil lamp’ [L culleus]; ċytel, ċetel ‘cooking-vessel (usually of metal), kettle, cauldron’ [L catillus]; disċ ‘dish, bowl, plate’ [L discus]; earc, earce, earca, also arc, arce, arca ‘ark (especially Noah’s ark or the ark of the covenant), chest, coffer’ [L arca]; gabote, gafote kind of dish or platter [L gabata]; ġellet ‘jug, bowl, or basin’ [L galleta]; læfel, lebil ‘spoon, cup, bowl, vessel’ [L labellum]; orc ‘pitcher, crock, cup’ [L orca]; pott ‘pot’ [perhaps L pottus]; sacc, also sæcc ‘sack, bag’ [L saccus]; sester ‘jar, vessel; a measure’ [L sextarius]; spyrte ‘basket’ [probably L sporta, *sportea].

Dīner, dīnor type of coin, denarius [L denarius]; mīl ‘mile’ [L milia]; mydd ‘a measure’ [L modius]; mynet ‘a coin; coinage, money’ [L moneta]; oma ‘a liquid measure’ [L ama]; pund ‘pound (in weight or money); pint’ [L pondo]; trimes ‘unit of weight, a drachm; name of a coin’ [L tremissis]; ynċe ‘inch’ [L uncia]; yntse ‘ounce’ [L uncia].

Ċēap ‘purchase, sale, transaction, market, possessions, price’ [L caupō or caupōnārī: see section 4.3]; toll, also toln, tolne ‘toll, tribute, rent, duty’ [L toloneum]; trifet ‘tribute’ [L tributum].

Belt ‘belt, girdle’ [L balteus]; bīsæċċ ‘pocket’ [L bisaccium]; cælis ‘foot-covering’, also (later) calc ‘sandal’ [L calceus]; ċemes ‘shirt, undergarment’ [L camisia]; ġecorded ‘having cords, corded (or perhaps fringed)’ [L corda]; cugele ‘(monk’s) cowl’ [L cuculla]; fifele ‘broach, clasp’ [L fibula]; mentel ‘cloak’ [L mantellum]; pæll, pell ‘fine or rich cloth; purple cloth; altar cloth; rich robe’ [L pallium]; pyleċe ‘fur robe’ [L pellicia]; seolc ‘silk’ [perhaps L sericum]; sīde ‘silk’ [L seta]; *sīric ‘silk’ [perhaps L sericum]; socc ‘light shoe’ [L soccus]; swiftlēre ‘slipper’ [L subtalaris].

Meatte, matte ‘mat; underlay for a bed’ [L matta]; mēse, mīse ‘table’ [L mensa]; pyle, pylu ‘pillow, cushion’ [L pulvinus]; sċamol, sċemol, sċeomol, sċeamol ‘stool, footstool, bench’ [L *scamellum]; strǣl, strēaġl ‘curtain; quilt, matting, bed’ [L stragula]; strǣt ‘bed’ [L stratum].

Ġimm ‘gem, precious stone, jewel; also in figurative use’ [L gemma]; meregrot ‘pearl’ [L margarita, but showing folk-etymological alteration after an English word for ‘sea’ and (probably) an English word for ‘fragment, particle’]; pærl ‘(very doubtfully) pearl’ [perhaps L *perla].

Cāsere ‘emperor; ruler’ [L caesar]; fullere ‘fuller’ [L fullo]; mangere ‘merchant, trader’ [L mango]; mæġester, also (later) māgister or magister ‘leader, master, teacher’ [L magister]; myltestre ‘prostitute’ [L meretrix, with remodelling of the ending after the Old English feminine agent noun suffix -estre]; prafost, also profost ‘head, chief, officer’ [L praepositus, propositus]; sūtere ‘shoemaker’ [L sutor].

Pīn ‘pain, torture, anguish, punishment’ [L poena];²⁴  regol, reogol ‘rule; principle; code of rules; wooden ruler’ [L regula]; sċrift ‘something decreed as a penalty; penance; absolution; confessor; judge’ [L scriptum].

*Cōfrian ‘to recover’ (implied by acōfrian in the same meaning) [L recuperare]; *cyrtan ‘to shorten’ (implied by cyrtel ‘garment, tunic, cloak, gown’ and (probably) ġecyrted ‘cut off, shortened’) [L curtus, adjective]; dīligian ‘to erase, rub out; to destroy, obliterate’ [L delere]; impian ‘to graft; to busy oneself with’ [L imputare]; *mūtian (implied by bemūtian ‘to exchange’ and mūtung ‘exchange’) [L mutare];²⁵ *nēomian ‘to sound sweetly’ or *nēome ‘sound’ [L neuma, noun];²⁶  pinsian ‘to weigh, consider, reflect’ [L pensare]; pīpian ‘to play on a pipe’ [L pipare]; pluccian ‘to pluck’ [perhaps L *piluccare]; *pundrian (implied by apyndrian, apundrian ‘to weigh, to adjudge’) [L ponderare, if not a derivative of OE pundur]; pynġan ‘to prick’ [L pungere]; sċrīfan ‘to allot, prescribe, impose; to hear confession; to receive absolution; to have regard to’ [L scribere]; seġlian ‘to seal’ [L sigillare]; seġnian ‘to make the sign of the cross; to consecrate, bless’ [L signare, if not  <  OE seġn]; *-stoppian (implied by forstoppian) ‘to obstruct, stop up’ [perhaps L *stuppare]; trifulian ‘to break, bruise, stamp’ [L tribulare]; tyrnan, turnian ‘to turn, revolve’ [L turnare].²⁷

Cirps, crisp ‘curly, curly haired’ [L crispus]; cyrten ‘beautiful’ [perhaps L *cortinus]; pīs ‘heavy’ [L pensus]; sicor ‘sure, certain; secure’ [L securus]; sȳfre ‘clean, pure, sober’ [L sobrius]; byxen ‘of box wood’ [probably L buxeus].

Candel, condel ‘candle, taper’, (in figurative contexts) ‘source of light’ [L candela]; ċēas, ċēast ‘quarrel, strife; reproof’ [L causa]; ċeosol, ċesol ‘hut; gullet; belly’ [L casula, casella]; copor ‘copper’ [L cuprum]; derodine ‘scarlet’ [probably L dirodinum]; munt ‘mountain, hill’ [L mont-, mons]; plūm-, in plūmfeðer ‘(in plural) down, feathers’ [L pluma]; sælmeriġe ‘brine’ [L *salmuria]; sætern- (in sæterndæġ ‘Saturday’) [L Saturnus]; seġn ‘mark, sign, banner’ [L signum]; tasul, teosol ‘dice; small square of stone’ [L tessella, *tassellus]; tæfl ‘piece used in a board game, dice; type of game played on a board, game of dice; board on which this is played’ [L tabula].

Also, possibly, two important suffixes: -ere, forming agent nouns [probably L -arius; if so, borrowed very early]; -estre, forming feminine agent nouns [perhaps L -istria].

Ancra, ancor ‘anchorite’ [L anachoreta, perhaps via Old Irish anchara];²⁸  ærċe-, erċe-, arce- ‘arch-’ (in titles) [L archi-]; relic- (in relicgang (probably) ‘bearing of relics in a procession’) [clipping of L reliquiae or OE reliquias]; reliquias ‘relics’ [L reliquiae].

Græf ‘stylus’ [L graphium]; stǣr (or stær) ‘history’ [probably ultimately L historia, perhaps via Celtic];²⁹  traht ‘text, passage, commentary’ [L tractus]; trahtað ‘commentary’ [L tractatus].

Æbs ‘fir tree’ [L abies]; croh, crog ‘saffron; type of dye; saffron colour’ [L crocus];³⁰  fīċ ‘fig tree, fig’ [L ficus]; plante ‘young plant’ [L planta]; sæðerie, satureġe ‘savory (plant name)’ [L satureia]; sæppe ‘spruce fir’ [L sappinus]; sōlsēċe ‘heliotrope’ [L solsequium, with substitution of a derivative of OE sēċan ‘to seek’ for the second element].

Stropp ‘strap’ [L stroppus or struppus]; trefet ‘trivet, tripod’ [L tripes].³¹

Port ‘gate, gateway’ [L porta];³²  portiċ ‘porch, portico, vestibule, chapel’ [L porticus].

Cæpse ‘box’ [L capsa]; sċrīn ‘chest; shrine’ [L scrinium]; sċutel ‘dish, platter’ [L scutella]; tunne ‘cask, tun, barrel’ [L tunna].³³

Orel, orl ‘robe, garment, veil, mantle’ [L orale, orarium]; purpure, purpur ‘deep crimson garment; deep crimson colour (imperial purple)’ [L purpura];³⁴  saban ‘sheet’ [L sabanum];³⁵  tæpped, teped ‘cloth wall or floor covering’ [L tapetum, tappetum].

Cystan ‘to get the value of, exchange for the worth of’ [L constare]; dihtan, dihtian ‘to direct, command, arrange, set forth’ [L dictare]; glēsan ‘to gloss, explain’ [L glossare (verb) or glossa (noun)]; lafian ‘to pour water on, to bathe, wash’ [L lavare]; *pilian ‘to peel, strip, pluck’ (see section 8.1.2) [L pilare]; plantian ‘to plant’ [L plantare, or < OE plante]; *pyltan ‘to pelt’ (implied by later pilt, pelt) [perhaps L *pultiare, alteration of pultare]; sealtian ‘to dance’ [L saltare]; trahtian ‘to comment on, expound; to interpret’ [L tractare, if not < OE traht].

Cūsc ‘virtuous, chaste’ [L conscius, perhaps via Old Saxon kusko].

Coron-(bēag) ‘crown’ [L corona]; diht ‘act of directing or arranging; direction, arrangement, command’ [L dictum]; *pill (perhaps shown by pillsāpe soap for removing hair, depilatory) [perhaps L pilus ‘hair’].

I have given only a selection of words here and the numbers of words in each semantic category should not be taken as being representative.

Acolitus ‘acolyte’ [L acoluthus, acolitus]; altare, alter ‘altar’ [L altare]; apostata ‘apostate’ [L apostata]; apostol ‘apostle’ [L apostolus]; canon ‘canon, rule of the Church; canon, cleric living under a canonical rule’ [L canon]; capitol ‘chapter, section; chapter, assembly’ [L capitulum]; clauster ‘monastic cell, cloister, monastery’ [L claustrum]; cleric, also (earlier) clīroc ‘clerk, clergyman’ [L clericus]; crēda, crēdo ‘creed’ [L credo]; crisma ‘holy oil, chrism; white cloth or garment of the newly baptized; chrismatory or pyx’ [L chrisma]; crismal ‘chrism cloth’ [L chrismalis]; crūc ‘cross’ [L cruc-, crux]; culpa ‘fault, sin’ [L culpa]; decan ‘person who supervises a group of (originally) ten monks or nuns, a dean’ [L decanus]; dēmōn ‘devil, demon’ [L daemon]; dīacon ‘deacon’ [L diaconus]; discipul ‘disciple; follower; pupil’ [L discipulus]; eretic ‘heretic’ [L haereticus]; graþul ‘gradual (antiphon sung between the Epistle and the Gospel at Mass)’ [L graduale]; īdol ‘idol’ [L idolum]; lētanīa ‘litany’ [L letania]; martir, martyr ‘martyr’ [L martyr]; noctern ‘nocturn, night office’ [L nocturna]; nōn ‘ninth hour (approximately 3 p.m.); office said at this time’ [L nona (hora)]; organ ‘canticle, song, melody; musical instrument, especially a wind instrument’, also orgel- (in orgeldrēam ‘instrumental music’) [L organum]; pāpa ‘pope’ [L papa]; paradīs ‘paradise, Garden of Eden, heaven’ [L paradisus]; passion ‘story of the Passion of Christ’ [L passion-, passio]; prīm ‘early morning office of the Church’ [L prima]; prior ‘superior officer of a religious house or order, prior’ [L prior]; sabat ‘sabbath’ [L sabbata]; sācerd ‘priest; priestess’ [L sacerdos]; salm, psalm, sealm ‘psalm, sacred song’ [L psalma];³⁶  saltere, sealtere ‘psalter, also type of stringed instrument’ [L psalterium], sanct ‘holy person, saint’ [L sanctus]; stōl, stōle ‘long outer garment; ecclesiastical vestment’ [L stola]; tempel ‘temple’ [L templum].

Accent ‘diacritic mark’ [L accentus]; bærbære ‘barbarous, foreign’ [L barbarus]; biblioþēce, bibliþēca ‘library’ [L bibliotheca]; cālend ‘first day of the month; (in poetry) month’ [L calendae]; cærte, carte ‘(leaf or sheet of) vellum; piece of writing, document, charter’ [L charta, carta]; centaur ‘centaur’ [L centaurus]; circul ‘circle, cycle’ [L circulus]; comēta ‘comet’ [L cometa]; coorte, coorta ‘cohort’ [L cohort-, cohors]; cranic ‘chronicle’ [L chronicon or chronica]; cristalla, cristallum ‘crystal; ice’ [L crystallum]; epistol, epistola, pistol ‘letter’ [L epistola, epistula]; fers, uers ‘verse, line of poetry, passage, versicle’ [L versus]; gīgant ‘giant’ [L gigant-, gigas]; grād ‘step; degree’ [L gradus]; grammatic-cræft ‘grammar’ [L grammatica]; legie ‘legion’ [L legio]; meter ‘metre’ [L metrum]; nōt ‘note, mark’ [L nota]; nōtere ‘scribe, writer’ [L notarius]; part ‘part (of speech)’ [L part-, pars]; philosoph ‘philosopher’ [L philosophus]; punct ‘quarter of an hour’ [L punctum]; tītul ‘title, superscription’ [L titulus]; þēater ‘theatre’ [L theatrum].

Alwe ‘aloe’ [L aloe]; balsam, balzam ‘balsam, balm’ [L balsamum]; berbēne ‘vervain, verbena’ [L verbena]; cāl, cāul, cāwel (or cawel) ‘cabbage’ [L caulis]; calcatrippe ‘caltrops, or another thorny or spiky plant’ [L calcatrippa]; ceder ‘cedar’ [L cedrus]; coliandre, coriandre ‘coriander’ [L coliandrum, coriandrum]; cucumer ‘cucumber’ [L cucumer-, cucumis]; cypressus ‘cypress’ [L cypressus]; fēferfuge (or feferfuge), fēferfugie (or feferfugie) ‘feverfew’ [L febrifugia, with substitution of Old English fēfer or fefer for the first element]; laur, lāwer ‘laurel, bay, laver’ [L laurus]; lilie ‘lily’ [L lilium]; mōr- (in mōrberie, mōrbēam) ‘mulberry’ [L morus]; murre ‘myrrh’ [L murra, murrha, myrrha]; nard ‘spikenard (name of a plant and of ointment made from it)’ [L nardus]; palm, palma, pælm ‘palm (tree)’ [L palma]; peonie ‘peony’ [L paeonia]; peruince, perfince ‘periwinkle’ [L pervinca]; petersilie ‘parsley’ [L petrosilenum, petrosilium, petresilium]; polente (or perhaps polenta) ‘parched corn’ [L polenta]; pyretre ‘pellitory’ (a plant) [L pyrethrum]; rōse (or rose) ‘rose’ [L rosa]; rōsmarīm, rōsmarīnum ‘rosemary’ [L rosmarinum]; safine ‘savine (type of plant)’ [L sabina]; salfie, sealfie ‘sage’ [L salvia]; spīce, spīca ‘aromatic herb, spice, spikenard’ [L spica]; stōr ‘incense, frankincense’ [probably L storax];³⁷  sycomer ‘sycamore’ [L sycomorus]; ysope ‘hyssop’ [L hyssopus].

Aspide ‘asp, viper’ [L aspid-, aspis]; basilisca ‘basilisk’ [L basiliscus]; camel, camell ‘camel’ [L camelus]; *delfīn ‘dolphin’ [L delfin]; fenix ‘phoenix; (in one example) kind of tree’ [L phoenix]; lēo ‘lion’ [L leo]; lopust ‘locust’ [L locusta]; loppestre, lopystre ‘lobster’ [probably L locusta]; pandher ‘panther’ [L panther]; pard ‘panther, leopard’ [L pardus]; pellican ‘name of a bird of the wilderness’³⁸ [L pellicanus]; tiger ‘tiger’ [L tigris]; ultur ‘vulture’ [L vultur].

Ātrum, atrum, attrum ‘black vitriol; atrament; blackness’ [L atramentum]; cancer ‘ulcerous sore’ [L cancer]; flanc ‘flank’ [L *flancum]; mamme ‘teat’ [L mamma]; pigment ‘drug’ [L pigmentum]; plaster ‘plaster (medical dressing), plaster (building material)’ [L plastrum, emplastrum]; sċrofell ‘scrofula’ [L scrofula]; tyriaca ‘antidote to poison’ [L tiriaca, theriaca].

Pāl ‘stake, stave, post, pole; spade’ [L palus]; (perhaps) paper ‘(probably) wick’ [L papirus, papyrus]; pīc ‘spike, pick, pike’ [perhaps L *pic-]; press ‘press (specifically clothes-press)’ [L pressa or French presse: see section 7.1].

Castel, cæstel ‘village, small town; (in late manuscripts) castle’³⁹ [L castellum]; foss ‘ditch’ [L fossa]; marman-, marmel- (in marmanstān, marmelstān) ‘marble’ [L marmor].

Purs, burse ‘purse’ [L bursa].

Cubit ‘cubit, measure of length’ [L cubitum]; mancus ‘a money of account equivalent to thirty pence, a weight equivalent to thirty pence’ [L mancus]; talente ‘talent (as unit of weight or of money)’ [L talentum].

Cæppe, also (in cantel-cāp ‘cloak worn by a cantor’) cāp ‘cloak, hood, cap’ (with uncertain relationship to cōp in the same meaning) [L cappa]; tuniċe, tuneċe ‘undergarment, tunic, coat, toga’ [L tunica].

Centur, centurio, centurius ‘centurion’ [L centurion-, centurio]; cōc ‘cook’ [L *cocus, coquus]; consul ‘consul’ [L consul]; fiþela ‘fiddler’ (also fiþelere ‘fiddler’, fiþelestre ‘(female) fiddler’) [probably L vitula].

Mīlite ‘soldiers’ [L milites, plural of miles].

Acordan ‘to reconcile’ [perhaps L accordare, although more likely a post-Conquest borrowing from French]; acūsan ‘to accuse (someone)’ [L accusare]; ġebrēfan ‘to set down briefly in writing’ [L breviare]; dēclīnian ‘to decline or inflect’ [L declinare]; offrian ‘to offer, sacrifice’ [L offerre]; *platian ‘to make or beat into thin plates’ (implied by platung ‘metal plate’ and ġeplatod and aplatod ‘beaten into thin plates’) [L plata, noun]; predician ‘to preach’ [L predicare, praedicare]; prōfian ‘to assume to be, to take for’ [L probare]; rabbian ‘to rage’ [L rabiare]; salletan ‘to sing psalms, to play on the harp’ [L psallere];⁴⁰  sċrūtnian, sċrūdnian ‘to examine’ [L scrutinare]; *spendan ‘to spend’ (recorded in Old English only in the derivatives spendung, aspendan, forspendan) [L expendere]; studdian ‘to look after, be careful for’ [L studere]; temprian ‘to modify; to cure, heal; to control’ [L temperare]; tonian ‘to thunder’ [L tonare].

Fals ‘false’ [L falsus]; mechanisċ ‘mechanical’ [L mechanicus].

Fals ‘fraud, trickery’ [L falsum]; rocc (only in stānrocc) ‘cliff or crag’ [L rocca]; sott ‘fool’, also adjective ‘foolish’ [L sottus]; tabele, tabul, tabule ‘tablet, board; writing tablet; gaming table’ [L tabula].