The Story of English in 100 Words  12431

• A short history of English words[rtoc]

1. Roe – the first word (C5)
2. Lea – naming places (C8)
3. And – an early abbreviation (C8)
4. Loaf – an unexpected origin (C9)
5. Out – changing grammar (C9)
6. Street – a Latin loan (C9)
7. Mead – a window into history (C9)
8. Merry – a dialect survivor (C9)
9. Riddle – playing with language (C10)
10. What – an early explanation (C10)
11. Bone-house – a word-painting (C10)
12. Brock – a Celtic arrival (C10)
13. English – the language named (C10)
14. Bridegroom – a popular etymology (C11)
15. Arse – an impolite word (C11)
16. Swain – a poetic expression (C12)
17. Pork – an elegant word (C13)
18. Chattels – a legal word (C13)
19. Dame – a form of address (C13)
20. Skirt – a word doublet (C13)
21. Jail – competing words (C13)
22. Take away – a phrasal verb (C13)
23. Cuckoo – a sound-symbolic word (C13)
24. Cunt – a taboo word (C13)
25. Wicked – a radical alternation (C13)
26. Wee – a Scottish contribution (C14)
27. Grammar – a surprising link (C14)
28. Valentine – first name into word (C14)
29. Egg – a dialect choice (C14)
30. Royal – word triplets (C14)
31. Money – a productive idiom (C14)
32. Music – a spelling in evolution (C14)
33. Taffeta – an early trade word (C14)
34. Information(s) – (un)countable nouns (C14)
35. Gaggle – a collective noun (C15)
36. Doable – a mixing of languages (C15)
37. Matrix – a word from Tyndale (C16)
38. Alphabet – talking about writing (C16)
39. Potato – a European import (C16)
40. Debt – a spelling reform (C16)
41. Ink-horn – a classical flood (C16)
42. Dialect – regional variation (C16)
43. Bodgery – word-coiners (C16)
44. Undeaf – a word from Shakespeare (C16)
45. Skunk – an early Americanism (C17)
46. Shibboleth – a word from King James (C17)
47. Bloody – an emerging swear-word (C17)
48. Lakh – a word from India (C17)
49. Fopboodle – a lost word (C17)
50. Billion – a confusing ambiguity (C17)
51. Yoghurt – a choice of spelling (C17)
52. Gazette – a taste of journalese (C17)
53. Tea – a social word (C17)
54. Disinterested – a confusible (C17)
55. Polite – a matter of manners (C17)
56. Dilly-dally – a reduplicating word (C17)
57. Rep – a clipping (C17)
58. Americanism – a new nation (C18)
59. Edit – a back-formation (C18)
60. Species – classifying things (C18)
61. Ain’t – right and wrong (C18)
62. Trek – a word from Africa (C19)
63. Hello – progress through technology (C19)
64. Dragsman – thieves’ cant (C19)
65. Lunch – U or non-U (C19)
66. Dude – a cool usage (C19)
67. Brunch – a portmanteau word (C19)
68. Dinkum – a word from Australia (C19)
69. Mipela – pidgin English (C19)
70. Schmooze – a Yiddishism (C19)
71. OK – debatable origins (C19)
72. Ology – suffix into word (C19)
73. Y’all – a new pronoun (C19)
74. Speech-craft – an Anglo-Saxonism (C19)
75. DNA – scientific terminology (C20)
76. Garage – a pronunciation problem (C20)
77. Escalator – name into word (C20)
78. Robot – a global journey (C20)
79. UFO – alternative forms (C20)
80. Watergate – place-name into word (C20)
81. Doublespeak – weasel words (C20)
82. Doobry – useful nonsense (C20)
83. Blurb – a moment of arrival (C20)
84. Strine – a comic effect (C20)
85. Alzheimers – surname into word (C20)
86. Grand – money slang (C20)
87. Mega – prefix into word (C20)
88. Gotcha – a non-standard spelling (C20)
89. PC – being politically correct (C20)
90. Bagonise – a nonce-word (C20)
91. Webzine – an internet compound (C20)
92. App – a killer abb (C20)
93. Cherry-picking – corporate speak (C20)
94. LOL – netspeak (C20)
95. Jazz – word of the century (C20)
96. Sudoku – a modern loan (C21)
97. Muggle – a fiction word (C21)
98. Chillax – a fashionable blend (C21)
99. Unfriend – a new age (C21)
100. Twittersphere – future directions? (C21)

[/rtoc]

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