List of English words of Brittonic origin
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Few English words are known to come directly from Brittonic. More can be proven to derive from Gaulish, which arrived through Norman French, often strengthened in form and use by Church/state Latin.
This list omits words of Celtic origin coming from later forms of Brittonic and intermediate tongues:
- See Gaulish (e.g. ambassador, bound, car, carpenter, piece), via Norman/Old French
- Other Continental Celtic (e.g. down, iron, leather, rich), via GermanicDouglas Harper, "Online Etymology Dictionary" – [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=down down (n.2)], retrieved Mar. 1, 2014.
- See List of English words of Welsh origin a list which includes Cornish (e.g. coracle; crag; corgi (type of dog), likely flannel; likely gull (type of bird), iron, lawn, wrasse (type of fish))
- See Gaelic (e.g. keening, bog, bother, hubbub, glen, clan)
- See Breton (chiefly local terms in archaeology: dolmen, menhir)
List
Academia recognises beyond all reasonable doubt "fewer than ten" Brittonic loan-words in English that are neither historic nor obsolete.David N. Parsons, '[https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-968X.2011.01276.x Sabrina in the thorns: place-names as evidence for British and Latin in Roman Britain]', Transactions of the Royal Philological Society, 109.2 (July 2011), 113–37 (p. 120). The following list derives mainly from surveys of possible Brittonic loanwords in English by Richard Coates, Dieter Kastovsky, and D. Gary Miller. Etymologies from the Oxford English Dictionary are included to indicate the view of this authoritative (but not necessarily definitive) source, distinguishing between the first, second, third and online editions. Words that are the most widely accepted as Brittonic loans are in bold.
| class="wikitable sortable"
!Word !Possible Brittonic etymology !OED etymology !Type |
| ass
|Old British *assin or Old Irish *assan,Campbell, A. 1959. Old English Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 220. but more likely from Irish.Coates, Richard, ‘Invisible Britons: The View from Linguistics’, in Britons in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. by Nick Higham, Publications of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies, 7 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2007), pp. 172–91 (pp. 177-80). |Celtic (OED1) |historic (widely used in the Bible instead of donkey) |
| bannock
|Etymologised by the OED as from Gaelic bannach, ? < Latin pānicium < pānis bread."bannock, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2017. Web. 1 September 2017 But possibly Old Brittonic *bannoc.Kastovsky, Dieter, ‘Semantics and Vocabulary’, in The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume 1: The Beginnings to 1066, ed. by Richard M. Hogg (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 290–408 (pp. 318-19). |Gaelic (OED1) |historic |
| basket
|On one theory, it is from Latin bascauda "kettle, table-vessel," said by the Roman poet Martial to be from Celtic British and perhaps cognate with Latin fascis "bundle, faggot," in which case it probably originally meant "wicker basket." But OED frowns on this, and there is no evidence of such a word in Celtic unless later words in Irish and Welsh, sometimes counted as borrowings from English, are original.{{cite web|title=Basket|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/basket|publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=18 August 2024}} |Unknown (OED Online) |common |
| beck
|Agricultural implement with two hooks. Etymologised in the OED as from a 'Celtic root bacc- |French (OED1) |technical |
| bin
|Often considered to be from Old Brittonic *benna, but possibly a borrowing from Gallo-Roman. |Probably Celtic (OED1) |common |
| brat
|Possibly from a Brittonic root meaning "cloak, cloth" (Old Welsh *breth or *brath), cognate with Old Irish bratt. However, the OED and recent scholars see the English word as coming from Irish."brat, n.1." OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2017. Web. 1 September 2017.Breeze, Andrew. 1995. ‘Irish brat ‘cloak, cloth’: English brat ‘child’.’ Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 47, 89-92. In Old English, bratt meant "cloak", but later came to mean "ragged garment", then "beggar's garment", and then "beggar's child", whence it attained its current meaning of "unruly child".Douglas Harper, "Online Etymology Dictionary" - [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=brat brat (n.)], retrieved Nov. 16, 2016.{{cite podcast|url=http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2013/09/06/episode-30-the-celtic-legacy/|title=Episode 30: The Celtic Legacy|website=History of English Podcast|date=September 6, 2015|access-date=November 17, 2016}} "Brat" is still used in parts of Northern England to refer to a rough working apron.[http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba48/ba48lets.html Issue no 48, October 1999], British Archaeology. Retrieved November 17, 2016. |Irish bratt (OED1) |common, pejorative |
| brock
|From Brittonic *brocco-s, meaning "badger". |Celtic (OED1) |technical |
| carr
|From carreg such as in Welsh, meaning 'rock'. |Old Northumbrian (OED1) |technical, local |
| coomb
|From Old Brittonic *kumba, meaning "valley". Frequently used as a place-name element in southwestern England. |Probably Brittonic (OED1) |local |
| crag
|According to the OED 'apparently of Celtic origin: compare Irish and Gaelic creag, Manx creg, cregg, Welsh craig rock. None of these, however, exactly gives the English crag, cragg |Celtic (OED1) |common |
| doe
|Possibly from a Brittonic root *da-,Douglas Harper, "Online Etymology Dictionary" - [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=doe doe (n.)], retrieved Mar. 1, 2014. but could also be from Latin. |Latin dāma (OED1) |technical |
| dun
|According to the OED, 'perhaps < Celtic: compare Irish and Gaelic donn brown, Welsh dwn |Celtic (OED1) |common |
| gavelock
|A kind of spear. Cf. 'Old Norse gaflak, gaflok neuter javelin (perhaps adopted < English), Welsh gaflach (said to mean ‘bearded arrow’), Irish gabhla lance, Old Northern French gavelot (12th cent.), gaverlot, gavrelot, garlot (= Central French javelot, Italian giavelotto ) javelin, whence Middle Dutch gavelot, gaverloot, Middle High German gabilôt |Celtic (via Old French?) (OED1) |technical |
| gull
|Probably from Brythonic Celtic; compare Welsh gwylan "gull," Cornish guilan, Breton goelann; all from Old Celtic *voilenno-. Replaced Old English mæw.{{cite web|title=Gull|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/gull|publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=18 August 2024}} |Welsh or Cornish (OED Online) |common |
| hog
|Possibly from Brittonic *hukk.D. Gary Miller, External Influences on English: From Its Beginnings to the Renaissance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 19–20. Given by the OED as a Celtic loan, related to Cornish "hoch"; Welsh "hwch," a pig or a sow, its connotation being a large instance. |Celtic (OED Online) |common |
| peat
|Probably from a Celtic root *pett- (source also of Cornish peyth, Welsh peth "quantity, part, thing," Old Irish pet, Breton pez "piece").{{cite web|title=Peat|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/peat|publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=18 August 2024}} |Unknown (OED Online) |common |
| sark
|Derived by Andrew Breeze from the Brittonic ancestor of Welsh seirch 'armour, trappings' (itself from Latin sarcīre 'patch').Andrew Breeze, 'Old English Syrce "Coat of Mail": Welsh Seirch "Armour" ', Notes and Queries, 40.3 [238] (1993), 291-93. |Germanic *sarki-z (OED1) |historic |
| tor
|'Generally held to be Celtic', per the OED, which cites Old Welsh twrr ‘heap, pile’ and Gaelic tòrr ‘hill of an abrupt or conical form, lofty hill, eminence, mound, grave, heap of ruins’.;"tor, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2017. Web. 1 September 2017. possibly via Latin turris (tower) such as Glastonbury Tor. Especially used in Devon.{{Citation | title = Etymology online | url = http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=Tor&searchmode=none | contribution = Tor}}. |Celtic (OED1) |technical, local |
| wan
|Possibly from Brittonic *wanno- and related to Welsh gwan, which has a similar meaning to the English word. |Unclear (OED Online) |common |
| yan, tan, tethera etc.
|And variants. Most common in northern England, and ultimately from Brittonic *oinā, *deŭai, *tisrīs, etc., though heavily corrupted over time. Whether this is a legitimate Brittonic survival or a later borrowing from Welsh and Cornish remains open to scholarly debate. |Unclear |local |
In extinct uses, seven main others are proposed, mainly by Andrew Breeze, seen in Old English. Though less controversial than others, some of the seven have been disputed:
; funta: 'fountain, spring.' Latin fontana and Church Latin (still used) font loaned into Brittonic and borrowed from either/both into Old English. Used in nine sets of settlements across counties west of London and east of Gillingham, Dorset: (Bedfont, (the) Chalfont(s), Mottisfont, Fonthill Bishop, Fontmell Magna, Fontwell, Teffont and Urchfont). Phrase the 'fount of all wisdom/knowledge' is cognate, seen to endure as a shorthand, poetic form of fountain.{{cite web|title=fountain|publisher=Etymonline|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/fountain}}
; luh: 'pool', in use in the Northumbrian dialect of Old English. The modern English cognate, 'loch', is taken from Scottish Gaelic.{{cite web|title=loch|publisher=Etymonline|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/loch}}
; milpæþ: 'army road', the first element of which is possibly from the Brittonic ancestor of Welsh mil 'thousand, army'.Andrew Breeze, 'Exodus, Elene, and The Rune Poem: Milpæþ "Army Road, Highway" ', Notes and Queries, 38.4 [236] (1991), 436-38.
; prass: 'pomp, array', perhaps from the Brittonic ancestor of Welsh pres 'soldiers in array'.Andrew Breeze, 'Maldon 68: Mid Prasse Bestodon
; stor: 'incense, wax'.Breeze, Andrew. 1998. ‘A Brittonic etymology for Old English stor ‘incense’.’ Anglia 116, 227-30. However, the Oxford English Dictionary regards it as a Latin loan.
; toroc: 'bung.' Highly disputed. Possibly not even an English word–or an English word but not of Celtic origin.
; wassenas: 'retainers', possibly from Brittonic.Andrew Breeze, 'Old English Wassenas "retainers" in Godpatrick's Writ', Notes and Queries, 39.3 [237] (1992), 272-75.
See also
References
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External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110719095347/http://www.hildegard.tristram.de/media/tristram_manchester_30-07-07.pdf Why Don't the English Speak Welsh? - Hildegard Tristram]