Medieval words you should start using TODAY

I've read through a whole dictionary of 13th century words so that you don't have to. In this video, I present to you the ones that I think we should bring back. It's a complete A to Z!

...except there's no Z.

...or X, actually.

But there is a Ȝ!

Enjoy.
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[DustinLaGriza]

The "O" word I've brought back in my own lexicon is "overmorrow", which is a much more succinct way of saying "the day after tomorrow"

[doltsbane]

Worm of the Stones makes perfect sense for a crocodile. Worm is actually wyrm, as in dragon, and crocodiles are covered in osteoderms, which are bony growths that look very much like stones sticking out of its skin.

[senshtatulo]

The words in H. Coleridge's dictionary were all used before the Great Vowel Shift (1400-1700), so the pronunciation when he wrote the book, as well as our modern pronunciation, would be quite different now compared to when the words were still in common use.

[svenmarkert]

As a native German speaker, I actually guessed the meaning of some of these words before you explained their meaning because of their similarity to the German equivalent. It is very interesting to see that these medieval words were so much closer to other Germanic languages and how the English language evolved to what it is today, barely recognizable as a Germanic language. Fascinating video, thanks so much for your research and pleasant presentation.

[Dollightful]

"Flumbardyng" is absolutely fantastic! I totally agree that we should bring these back 😁

[kingbeauregard]

I really like when you talk about all the Germanic cognates. When you got to "wedbreak", that got me thinking about how the German word for adultery is "Ehebruch", which also means "wed break" pretty literally. But that got me wondering about the word "Ehe", and it turns out it comes from Germanic roots that simply mean "law" or "custom". So a German married couple -- an "Ehepaar" -- they're just a law-pair.

[robinstevenson]

Rob - - A SUGGESTION ! - - Please do a series of episodes introducing many readers to some of the more "abstruse" and "esoteric" or "eclectic" (lesser-used, but very useful) words. This would be a real public service, and the etymology would be interesting too.

[ceptimus]

Salmon, in New York, are called lox, and often eaten with bagels. When Alistair Cooke was the Manchester Guardian's U.S. correspondent, a fisherman's strike resulted in a glut of unsold bagels. Cooke decided to write a whimsical article about the situation, and wired a potential headline, 'Lox lack brings bagel boom', to his editor in the UK for approval. His editor immediately wired back, saying, 'Unfortunately your headline was hopelessly scrambled during transmission: it read, "Lox lack brings bagel boom."'

[MarioRodriguez-owrl]

The origin of "russin" is quite original indeed. It comes from English word "ration". Irish language adopted this word as "roisín" or "raisín", meaning ration or snack (you can see this in Wiktionary). A "roisín maidine" was a luncheon (you can see this in Teanglann). And finally this word was brought back to Hiberno-English as "russin".
Additionally, it doesn´t mean that there were 3 meals in the evening. Dinner means main meal and in the past it was eaten at midday (or "lunchtime"), whereas supper always meant evening meal (with a soup made with leftovers of previous meals). Hence, this "russin" would be an afternoon snack between "a big lunch" called dinner and the evening supper.

[burmesecolourneedles]

"Worm of the stones" becomes more impressive when one considers that "worm" also meant dragon or monster.

[ntp]

As a German I love how many are similar to German words, even some you didn't mention, this was really fun to watch

[RobWords]

Thanks to those who flagged up the delicious word *LOX*, which is still in usage and means smoked or brined salmon.

Lox appears to have entered English from Yiddish in the 20th century, rather than being a remnant of our old word lax. The Yiddish word can, in turn, be traced back to Old High German.

Great _catch_ guys.

[alorachan]

I don't know how widespread it is, but 'lax' (salmon) still exists in a minor variant. The Yiddish word is 'laks' and in America a common use spelling is 'lox'. it's not uncommon to find "bagel and lox" on breakfast menus in delis and such, which is basically a bagel with some cream cheese (schmear), smoked salmon, thinly sliced red onion, and capers, maybe some fresh dill. So that one I think counts for still existing! :D

[mrcryptozoic]

I propose "welkin". It's so perfectly descriptive of a view of the entire visible sky but there's no substitute for it. If it came back, it could be generally used. I've seen a definition as "the vault of the sky"

[beeble]

Re russin, I think it would be good to do a video on names of mealtimes.

"Dinner" and "supper" are generally terms for the main evening meal but, when I was growing up in northern England, "dinner" was "school dinner", the cooked lunch served at school (as distinct from a "packed lunch", which is what you ate if you brought your midday meal with you from home). The evening meal was "tea"; "supper" was a snack in the late evening, and referring to the evening meal as "supper" was definitely a class signifier.

[jaspermolenaar]

So the myth about the land of Cokayne 12:28 is called Kokanje in Dutch or ‘Luilekkerland’ ( Schlaraffenland in German). It’s a medieval story about a land where everyone can be lazy and eat all day. Pieter Breughel made a famous painting about it. That fits with the extra meal..

[nairbvel]

If you're Jewish (or have eaten with Jewish friends), you're also going to be very familiar with the word "lox" -- which is "lax" with a longish soft A sound, and refers specifically to smoked salmon (sometimes brine cured). I've read elsewhere that in its various forms it might be one of the oldest surviving words in many languages. One of the most enjoyable parts of this video was seeing the links to German, French, Dutch, and other languages.

[jonadabtheunsightly]

My personal favorite is "maugre", a preposition I discovered a few years ago. It has the virtue of not really having any direct single-word synonyms, though we do have some phrases (e.g., "apart from").

American English already has the word "lox" for prepared salmon, on loan from Yiddish.

Attercop appears in Tolkien.

[Hvitserk]

As a Scandinavian, I love the Germanic connection many of these old words have, but it's also fun to see the connection to French. English is really an interesting construction in that way

[auroraeden]

Good News, Rob! The word 'Yoxing' is still in use in Northern England. At least it is in Cheshire. Pronounced 'Yosking' it refers to coughing violently while bringing up phlegm. Slightly adrift from the original meaning of hiccupping, but still in use just the same.