Abstract
The way words can be passed from language to language is a topic that has aroused both scholarly and popular interest for centuries. In this chapter we examine two case-histories involving items that move from one language to another and then back again several centuries later. We track the etymological trails and consider the implications of such patterns for the views of both the specialist scientific community and the general public concerning the effects of linguistic borrowing at the lexical level.
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Notes
- 1.
References here are to the online version of the OED: https://www.oed.com.
- 2.
Note here the use of nef “nose” as a way of counting people for tax purposes, so the poll tax is a “nose tax”.
- 3.
- 4.
Professor Peter Battle informs us that Sheffield Wednesday never had a player called Oxby. However, he does go on to say ‘Bernard Oxley played 13 games for Wednesday in season 34–35, scoring 3 goals. He scored the winning goal twice; against Birmingham on Christmas Day 1934 and against Manchester City on 5th January.’ Hence the example does in all likelihood refer to Oxley.
- 5.
- 6.
lists can be consulted at the following links: Denmark: https://dsn.dk/noid/nyordslister. Norway: https://www.sprakradet.no/. Sweden: http://www.sprakochfolkminnen.se/sprak/nyord/nyordslistor.html.
- 7.
For instance the report at: http://cphpost.dk/?p=1031.
Abbreviations
- DOB :
-
Det Danske Ordbog, available at https://ordnet.dk/ddo
- NAOB :
-
Det Norske Akademis Ordbok, available at https://www.naob.no/
- OED :
-
Oxford English Dictionary, available at https://www.oed.com/
- SAOB :
-
Svenska Akademiens Ordbok, available at https://www.saob.se/
References
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Börjars, K., Vincent, N. (2020). What’s the Score?. In: Allan, K. (eds) Dynamics of Language Changes. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6430-7_11
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