Jazz Up Your Lesson
OLD ENGLISH
It is common knowledge that the English we speak today is very different from the English Queen Victoria, William Shakespeare or Geoffrey Chaucer spoke. So here are a few examples of the words that were used centuries ago but can still ring a bell.
What you can do with them, apart from reading and getting to know them, is playing a “Be Smart” game.
The rules are the following:
1. The students are divided into several groups (3–7), with approximately 3–5 people in each.
Each group is given a card with the same word taken from the table.
2. The task of each group is to write down on a sheet of paper an explanation of what the word might mean, based on their background knowledge so that other teams believe that this is the real definition of the word.
3. The sheets of paper are collected.
4. The leader of the game mixes them up and reads all definitions including the real one.
5. The task of the teams is to vote for the correct variant.
6. In case the team picked up and voted for the correct answer – they get 1 point.
7. In case team A voted for team’s B variant as the correct one – team B gets 2 points.
8. The game may be played any number of rounds (usually about 5) and at the end the points of every team are calculated and the winner is declared.
| 1. Frigerifick | An adjective borrowed directly from Latin, perhaps as late as the mid 1600s, that denoted cooling, freezing, or cold-producing. Frigerific was used originally in scientific writings and later in general literature. The word frigidarium – a cooling room adjacent to a Roman bath – was borrowed from Latin, as were companion words, the temperate tepidarium and the hot caldarium. |
| 2. Angnaegl | In Old English, as early as the 10th century, the lowly foot corn: “ang” meant “painful”, while “naegl” referred to the nail-head shape of a corn. By the 15th century, corn began to replace angnail, aided no doubt by physical resemblance of a dried kernel to this unpleasantry. An “h” was later added to angnail, and its meaning to the one now current, that of “frayed cuticle”. By the 18th century, when a corn-sick patient described his ailment to a corn doctor, there would be no confusion. |
| 3. Bibulous | In the 17th century, “absorbent, like a sponge”. It comes from the same root as imbibe and was later used figuratively to mean “addicted to alcohol”. In the 17th century, a bib was a cloth associated with the drinking of wine worn to keep “tears of the tankard” from dripping on the tippler’s waistcoat. Bybbe (from Latin “bibo”, to drink) denoted the clever subterfuge of taking small, frequent sips of liquor at brief intervals so that a great deal could be absorbed without the appearance of excess. Bibacity denoted an outrageous capacity for drink. |
| 4. Smell-feaste | Mannerless belly god, or glutton, of the period between 1540 and 1700 who appeared, uninvited, to share in a feast. Books of etiquette were first published in the 13th century in an effort to such boorish types of dining behaviour as this. Partially gnawed bones, the books recommended, should be thrown on the floor, not put back on the serving platter. They also discouraged scratching fleas, lice, or one’s groin at the table, as well as slottering – the making of snorting, animal-like sounds while chewing. |
| 5. Sandsman | Middle English expression for messenger, literally a “man who was sent”. Anglo-Saxon used the similar sandismene, which was later anglicized to sandaroon. Until 1653, when a primitive postal system was first organized in Paris, all correspondence was delivered by a courier. Fearful of how the new service might affect them, the messengers deposited mice in the new letterboxes. From this collection of liaisons eventually came sandman, a messenger of slumber sent to lull children to sleep. |
Here are some more examples of the English our great-great-grandparents used to speak… You can enjoy guessing what these words mean while playing the “Be Smart” game (the rules are in the previous page)
| 1. Bridelope | Earliest English word for a marriage custom dating back to A.D.950, first known as brydlopa. The related bridal-run was an ancient tradition in which the bride was both symbolically and physically swept off on horseback to her husband’s home by him and a helper (who was later known as the best man). The Anglo-Saxon word wedd, “to gamble, wager”, first referred to the livestock or other payment that the groom made to the bride’s father as a more civilized alternative to abduction. |
| 2. Phenakistoscope | Literally a “deceptive viewer” from Greek, this toy consisted of patterns painted on a thin oval piece of wood and spun before a mirror to produce an animated sequence. It was marketed in 1832 by its inventor, Joseph Plateau, whose research proved important in the creation of motion pictures. A man more than 2 millennia Plateau’s senior with a remarkably similar name, the Greek philosopher Plato, created what may be the earliest recorded cinema in his allegory of the cave, from The Republic, in which chained prisoners watch a moving shadow show created by their captors in lieu of real action. |
| 3. Isabelline | Adjective used until the second half of the 19th century to indicate a grayish-yellow parchment colour. It is found in an inventory of Queen Elizabeth’s wardrobe, which included “one rounde gowne of Isabella-color satten.” The most likely explanation of the word’s origin involves a story that Archduchess Isabella of Austria in the late 1500s solemnly vowed not to change her small clothes (underwear) until Ostend, a city to which her father, Philip II, was laying siege, was taken. To her dismay and that of her friends, the battle continued for another 3 years. |
| 4. Toonioperty | One whimsical version of the many early forms of “opportune” are now obsolete. Others included the adjectives opportunate and opportuneful, the 17th century opportunous, and the relatively recent opportuness. These derivatives shared the common prefix “op”, “before”; the root “portus” denotes a port. At one time the nearing of the mouth of a harbour was considered a fortuitous time, since the vessel had successfully avoided the many hazards of a sea voyage. |
| 5. Vampyrarchy | Derisive description from the 1820s for a parasitic group of politicians. Vampire entered English in the 1730s from such Slavonic words as the Bulgarian vampire. Myths about vampires were abundant in Europe, especially its Eastern regions. In earlier times, pronouncing someone dead was so often the result of guesswork that a device called a Bateson’s Belfry was sometimes installed in coffins; it could be rung from 6 feet under if the deceased awoke unexpectedly after premature burial. |
| 6. Ordeal | Anglo-Saxon legal term for “the judgment of God”. Trial by ordeal was administered in many ways, depending on the defendant’s social status. Some were tested by immersing their hands in hot water. If blisters appeared, their testimony was considered flawed, which led to the modern expression “being in hot water”. Suspected witches were subjected to a practice known as “swimming the witch”, since the medium of water was used in baptismal rites. Water would reject a real witch, it was believed, causing her to float. |