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What came first?

In true Easter spirit our Word for Wednesday this week is the word ‘egg’. Eggs have been a consistent food source since the beginning of humanity. Throughout the history of the English language, the word ‘egg’ saw a handful of spellings before we settled on the Old Norse, ‘egg’. Let’s take a look at a few variations: Old English: ‘oeg’ or ‘eai’ Middle English ‘eye’ or ‘eyren’ The borrowed Norse ‘egg’ first saw popular use in northern England in the mid-fourteenth century and by the fifteenth century anyone wanting to buy ‘eyren’ might not have been understood at all. Interestingly, the word egg has a few other contexts other than its common noun form. You can ‘egg someone...

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25 Norse words used in Yorkshire English

Being born and raised in York, England and looking forward to my holiday visiting friends in Sweden, I started to think about the words that connect our cultures. Many of these words are still used in Yorkshire and are of Old Norse origin. Here are a few examples: Barn (pronounced Bairn) - a young child Beck - a stream Berserk - going mad Brigg - a bridge Cleg - a horse fly Crake - a crow (my parents live in a village called Crayke) Dale - a valley Fell- a hill or mountain Flags - paving stones Flit - to move house ( Are you flitting? ) Foss - waterfalls or rapids - (there is a River Foss in York) Gat - got Gate - Street - Micklegate is a street in York Gawp - look Hey up (s...

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