Old English Language

Regenerative Culture Language & Oral Tradition
#5

[quote=“chase, post:3, topic:883”]More you say?

Old english “tréowð”, modern english “truth”, could also mean “fidelity” or “agreement” (bringing in the spirit of e-prime, ai thingk). In a different form (“tréow”, mdrn.eng. “true”), it makes the compound “tréowcynn”, which translates literally as “true kin” or “faithful kin”. From the word in that compound, also came “tree(s)”, making the meaning of it actually “the true and faithful one(s)”.[/quote]

holy shit! more more more!

also, what resources do you use in your english explorations (besides wikipedia)?

#6

[quote=“Willem, post:5, topic:883”]holy shit! more more more!

also, what resources do you use in your english explorations (besides wikipedia)?[/quote]
http://home.comcast.net/~modean52/oeme_dictionaries.htm - modern to old and old to modern english dictionary. Not comprehensive, but a good start. Also, try to get your hands on an Etymological Dictionary, for the roots and origens of Modern English words. The one ai have is pretty old, but still mostly acurate. One reads the name as “Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English” By Eric Partridge. Ai dont know if there are newer editions, but mine is 1983.:frowning: Books on Old English, history of English and Mideaval literature (works in the original language, with translations to modern) are very prevalent in my house.

Well, more more more! is pretty difficult after a while, but ai will to try.

Husband - O.En. “húsbonda” (literally “house-bind”, or “one who binds the house (and hense the people in it) together”)… though ai think this name is more aplicable to wimmin, it reflects the patriarchal culture of then and now…

Wife - from O.En. “wíf” (meaning the same as Mod.En. “woman”, Middle En. “wimman”, a compound of “wíf” and “man”, meaning the same as Southern American dialect “women-folk”)… just thought it was interesting…

Man - from O.En. “man” or “mon” (same as Mod.En. “human”, still used in that sense, but politically incorrect. the word was masculine gender, hence the confusion and the sense shift. loss of O.En. “wér”, an adult male, surviving in werwolf - “man-wolf”)… just an explanation… you can see my word choises arent quite the pick-o-the-field anymore…

O.En. “frið” (pronounced [f+r+“i” of “in”+“th” of “thank”] - no modern decendants (meaning "safety and or peace felt when in company with ones own group)… thats a good one…

Old English, interestingly enough, had a word for guardian spirit, spirit guide, etc. (according to http://www.englatheod.org/, though ai havnt found it elswhere): “fæcce”, Mod.En. “fetch”… possibly erroneous, since ai found it on a modern “pagan” website, though ai doubt it comes from nothing…

#7

I really like this one, thanks. Looking up the etymology of words is always cool. I am so not an English geek :).

#8

[quote=“chase, post:6, topic:883”][quote author=Willem link=topic=822.msg9807#msg9807 date=1208981605]

holy shit! more more more!

also, what resources do you use in your english explorations (besides wikipedia)?
[/quote]
http://home.comcast.net/~modean52/oeme_dictionaries.htm - modern to old and old to modern english dictionary. Not comprehensive, but a good start. Also, try to get your hands on an Etymological Dictionary, for the roots and origens of Modern English words. The one ai have is pretty old, but still mostly acurate. One reads the name as “Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English” By Eric Partridge. Ai dont know if there are newer editions, but mine is 1983.:frowning: Books on Old English, history of English and Mideaval literature (works in the original language, with translations to modern) are very prevalent in my house.[/quote]

Great. Thanks!

Man - from O.En. "man" or "mon" (same as Mod.En. "human", still used in that sense, but politically incorrect. the word was masculine gender, hence the confusion and the sense shift. loss of O.En. "wér", an adult male, surviving in werwolf - "man-wolf")... just an explanation.... you can see my word choises arent quite the pick-o-the-field anymore...

Yes, I’ve heard of this fun one before. :slight_smile: Wer-man and Wif-man.

O.En. "frið" (pronounced [f+r+"i" of "in"+"th" of "thank"] - no modern decendants (meaning "safety and or peace felt when in company with ones own group)..... thats a good one...

Alright, I’ve officially reclaimed this one, thanks to you. I will use it from now on. I haven’t had a word for this, and it has annoyed the SH*T out of me!

Old English, interestingly enough, had a word for guardian spirit, spirit guide, etc. (according to http://www.englatheod.org/, though ai havnt found it elswhere): "fæcce", Mod.En. "fetch".... possibly erroneous, since ai found it on a modern "pagan" website, though ai doubt it comes from nothing....

Have you heard of “wight”, which essentially means “nature being”, or “other-than-human-person”? See http://www.animism.org.uk/wights.htm

#9

Ai have heard of wight, but not sure ai want to use it. Unless it replaces “being”, you dont need it, simply because better words can be used for all cases: gost = one who has no physical body, spirit, soul; folk, kindred = birdfolk, manfolk, deerfolk, all my kindred, etc. Easyer, no?

#10

I was just looking around, and I found a connection between friend and freedom, both of which originate in terms meaning beloved, love:

Really interesting and definitely more tribal and re-wilded concept of freedom, relating those who are free to those we know or those who love and are loved. Very cool :).

#11

Been reading The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram after seeing mention of it on Anthopik… sounds like they don’t want the deer or fish to know what they are up to! :slight_smile:

  • mike
#12

Ha! In Norwegian we have the word ‘‘koselig’’ which i would say corresponds exactly to ‘‘frið’’. ‘‘Dette føles koselig!’’ (this feels koselig!) It’s a kind of intimate, affectionate word. I often used it when i felt good as a child. It’s actually formed from the verb ‘‘Ã¥ kose’’ which means ‘‘to cuddle’’

[/quote]

Been reading The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram after seeing mention of it on Anthopik… sounds like they don’t want the deer or fish to know what they are up to! :slight_smile:

  • mike
    [/quote]

:smiley:

#13

Ha! In Norwegian we have the word ‘‘koselig’’ which i would say is kind of similar to ‘‘frið’’. ‘‘Dette føles koselig!’’ (this feels koselig!) It’s a kind of intimate, affectionate word. I often used it when i felt good as a child (like, sitting in a dimly light room at night together with my family). It’s actually formed from the verb ‘‘Ã¥ kose’’ which means ‘‘to cuddle’’ (don’t mistake ‘‘koselig’’ for ‘‘cosyness’’ though)

Been reading The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram after seeing mention of it on Anthopik... sounds like they don't want the deer or fish to know what they are up to! ^_^
  • mike

;D :slight_smile:

#14

i found a nice definition on teh intarwebz.

Today is the day where I prepare myself for autumn. From now until spring equinox the most important word in any Norwegian's vocabulary - well, the female ones at least - is koselig, which is related to cosy, but really untranslatable. Usually means tea, candles, woollen socks, books, huddling (and cuddling) under blankets, biscuits (or skilllingsboller and kransekakestenger) and rain and darkness outside
#15

cool!

#16

Usually means tea, candles, woollen socks, books, huddling (and cuddling) under blankets, biscuits (or skilllingsboller and kransekakestenger) and rain and darkness outside

I always wondered if their was a word for that feeling, that’s awesome.

#17

From the link:

I'm indebted to Jenny Blain (Sheffield Hallam University, author of Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic (Routledge, 2002) for introducing me to the word wight.

She tells me that wight can be a synonym of “beings” or “persons”, but, more usefully, that it refers to “sentient beings for which we don’t have other words”. Derived from an old English word (with cognates in Old Norse), wiht, the word seems much more useful that the word “spirit”. Too many people, anthropologists included, add the word “spirit” where it really isn’t needed. If trees, rocks, clouds or animals are persons, then it doesn’t help to speak of them as “tree spirits”, etc., unless you want to confuse people into thinking you are making claims about some spiritualised, metaphysical or non-empirical reality. It is only useful to speak of “tree persons” and so on because we need to educate ourselves and other heirs/victims of modernism to find different ways to perceive and relate to other-than-human persons.

Kindred means relatives, I think, and wiht means the more general “people”. Which I don’t know. That begs the question, does one discriminate, animistically, between people/persons, and one’s relations? Hmm. Yeah, I think I do. Hmm. It makes me think, though.

#18

Yeah that makes a lot of sense chase and Willem (and Graham Harvey), good stuff!

I think you definitely should in a specific sense discriminate between ones relations/kindred and people/persons but not in a general sense, if that makes sense!

#19

ooooh, I like this word a lot! Reminds me a little of a word I learned in German, gemütlich/Gemütlichkeit.

#20

Well willem, to belatedly answer your question, the word kindred doesnt have to mean YOUR kin, just SOMEONES kin. Also people use it as an all purpose group word, like its derived word “kind” ie, the compound “mankind” (elements: human+people). In OE, the word “cynne” (modern “kin”) could be tacked onto practically any word to make the notion of a “race” of, say stones, or what have you. Though it almost exclusively refered to animals, especially groups of people.

#21

Reviving this thread now. “chase” was my old account, fyi.
Since I was last on this forum, I have done quite a bit more work on rewilding English from a base of English culture.
The word “love” can mean so many things that I thought I would find Old English words with subtle differences and make them new again. Lust- gal (pronounced like slang for “girl”); love for family (also means “forgiveness”) - liss (rhymes with “bliss”); love of friend/non-sexual companion - kathe (rhymes with “bathe”); finally, romance - luv.
Relation words : gad (rhymes with “sad”) “society”, from the same base as “gather”; “close relative” - knirs (like combining “knit” and “fierce”); “chief(tess)” - theeden (same word as Theoden, king of Rohan in the Lord of the Rings) , theedess; tribal council (“council of the wise”) - wittenmeet (OE - witangemot); general or tribal council (“the people’s council”) - folkmeet (varient - folkmoot, OE: folkmot); tribe (those adopted and blood-relations who organize politically and live together) - theed (see “chief” to compare meanings); niece - nift (rhymes with “shift”), nephew - nev, paternal uncle - fadera (first vowel like in “father”), maternal uncle - ahm, maternal aunt - mudrie, paternal aunt - fada (first vowel like “and”).
Most languages divide the color spectrum differently. Old English was no exception. Some English colors that are different from Anglo-latin Creole (thats the one we speak): black, dark gray - swart or swarthy; gray-blue, purple, slate - wan (vowel is like “a” in “water”); light blue - blie.
Native English animal names: deer - roha (pronounce the “h”, making it like Spanish “roja”); eagle - arn (rhymes with “barn”); badger - brock (rhymes with “sock”); snake - worm; the following are more or less like I would have them: fowl (bird), hound (dog), hawk, finch, raven.

#22

I’m so bummed that my browser is messing up whatever this word is and I can’t figure out how to set it to recognize more characters than just regular english alphabet. is it pronounced like fry-of-inth? where is the accent?

Have you heard of "wight", which essentially means "nature being", or "other-than-human-person"? See [url=http://www.animism.org.uk/wights.htm]http://www.animism.org.uk/wights.htm[/url]

I knew the word “wight” from Lord of the Rings. Check it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrow-wight

#23

Dang, I can sympathise to not being able to read something cause your browser cant handle non-standard characters. The word is “frith”, rhyming with “sith” (as in Starwars)
Were you meaning to bring back up the word “wight”? I actually think its an OK word, but lacks descriptive power. If one is concerned with speaking generally (see what I did there?) and inclusively, I recommend its use, but I prefer to note the individuality of kinds of wights by giving their names when talking about them. Sort of the difference between saying “thank you whoever helped me” and “thank you, the one who helped me.” Does that make sense?

#24

Wow awesome thread haven’t looked at this in years. Missed all of oakcorn’s love stuff!