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Jul 19, 1066
Normans
The Normans transform England, both culturally and linguistically. For over 300 years French is the language spoken by the most powerful people - royalty, aristocrats and high-powered officials. French words
Thousands of French words become embedded in the English vocabulary, most of which are words of power, such as crown, castle, court, parliament, army, mansion, gown, beauty, banquet, art, poet, romance, chess, colour, duke, servant, peasant, traitor and governor. -
Aug 13, 1337
100 years war
New Latin Words Many thousands of Latin words come into the language, most of which are connected to religion, medicine, law or literature. These words include scripture, collect, immortal, history, library, solar, recipe and genius. -
Mar 1, 1476
Renaissance
New words
With these fresh findings come new words from across the globe, including atmosphere, explain, enthusiasm, skeleton and utopian (from Latin); bizarre, chocolate, explore, moustache and vogue (from French); carnival, macaroni and violin (from Italian) harem, jar, magazine and sherbet from Arabic); and coffee, yoghurt and kiosk (from Turkish); tomato, potato and tobacco (from Spanish) -
An age of dictionaries, grammars and rules and regulations
Derided words
Human knowledge continues to stretch into new areas, with discoveries in the fields of medicine, astrology, botany & engineering.Words hated by Johnson, and omited from his dictionary, include bang, budge, fuss, gambler, shabby, and touchy. -
Industrial Revolution
New words
Newly coined words include biology, taxonomy, caffeine, cityscape, centigrade, watt, bacterium, chromosome and claustrophobia. In the world of burgeoning capitalism, money can suddenly slump, inflate, boom and cause depressions. Victorian writers pen over 60,000 novels. -
Present Day
Familiar words
It is in this century that we get doodlebugs, gasmasks, gobstoppers, mini skirts and mods and rockers; we enjoy dim sum, cappuccino, chicken tikka masala and pizzerias; we talk of chavs, mingers and weirdos; and we are addicted to tellies, websites, cybercafes and compact discs. -
Anglo Saxons
Anglo Saxon Words Approximately one third of Anglo-Saxon vocabulary survives into modern English, including many of our most basic, everyday words: earth, house, food, sing, night and sleep. By the 7th century Latin speakers refer to this country as Anglia - the land of the Angles - a name that will later develop into England. -
St. Augustine
Latin words
Christian missionaries, led by St. Augustine, move through the land, converting the Anglo-Saxons from their Pagan beliefs to a Catholic Christian faith. Many of the new words derived from Latin refer to religion, such as altar, mass, school, and monk, but others are more domestic and mundane such as fork, spade, spider, tower, and rose. -
Vikings
Norse words
These raiders and settlers bring almost 2000 new words into the English vocabulary. Words derived from Norse include anger, awkward, cake, die, egg, freckle, muggy, reindeer, silver, skirt and smile. Many Northern English dialect words still bear traces of Scandinavian languages, as do many place names such as Whitby and Grimsby.
