I would like to start offering my reader short lists of words with an interesting etymological background. Here you have the first one:
bag - from Old Norse 'baggi' (Norwegian 'bag', ironically re-imported from English).
bank - from Old Norse 'banki' (Norwegian 'bank').
gun - from Old Norse 'gunn' [was, battle] (proper name in Norwegian).
hell - from 'Hel', the god of the underworld in Norwegian mythology ('hell' in modern Norwegian is 'helvete').
keel - from Old Norse 'kjör' (Norwegian 'kil').
slaughter - from Old Norse *slahtr [butchering, butcher meat], slatra [to slaughter] (Norwegian 'slakting' means 'to kill').
raft - from Old Norse 'raptr' [log] (the Norwegian word 'rafting' has been re-imported from English).
bag - from Old Norse 'baggi' (Norwegian 'bag', ironically re-imported from English).
bank - from Old Norse 'banki' (Norwegian 'bank').
gun - from Old Norse 'gunn' [was, battle] (proper name in Norwegian).
hell - from 'Hel', the god of the underworld in Norwegian mythology ('hell' in modern Norwegian is 'helvete').
keel - from Old Norse 'kjör' (Norwegian 'kil').
slaughter - from Old Norse *slahtr [butchering, butcher meat], slatra [to slaughter] (Norwegian 'slakting' means 'to kill').
raft - from Old Norse 'raptr' [log] (the Norwegian word 'rafting' has been re-imported from English).
I thought bank came from Italian.
ReplyDeleteI'm not referring to the financial institution but to the edge of a river. It is believed that circa 1200, it enters into English from a Scandinavian source: Old Norse 'banki', Old Danish 'banke'...
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