A history of the English Language

Eordswela,
which is as much as the wealth, or riches of the earth, yet let 
us not bewail the losse of them for 10 this, for we shall finde divers Latin 
Appendix B 404

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words, whose Etymology is as remarkable, and founded upon, as much 
reason, as in the word 
intricate,
which (coming from 
Tricæ
i.e. those 
small threads about Chicken legs, that are an encombrance to them in their 
going) signifieth entangled; and it is worth the taking notice, that although 
15 divers Latin words cannot be explained, but by a Periphrasis as 
Insinuation
is a winding ones self in by little and little, yet there are 
others, both French and Latin, that are match’t with Native words equally 
significant, equally in use among us, as with the French 
Denie,
we parallel 
our 
gainsay,
with the Latin 
resist
our 
withstand,
with 20 
Interiour, 
inward,
and many more of this nature: So that by this means these 
forrainers instead of detracting ought from our tongue, add copiousnesse 
and vari[e]ty to it, now whether they add, or take from the ornament of it, 
it is rather to be referr’d to sence and fancy, then to be disputed by 
arguments. That they come for the most part from a 25 language, as civil 
as the Nation wherein it was first spoken, I suppose is without 
controversy, and being of a soft and even sound, nothing savouring of 
harshnesse, or barbarisme, they must needs mollifie the tongue with 
which they incorporate, and to which, though of a different nature, they 
are made fit and adapted by long use; in fine, let a man 30 compare the 
best English, now written, with that which was written three, or four ages 
ago, and if he be not a doater upon antiquity, he will judge ours much 
more smooth, and gratefull to the ear: for my part that which some 
attribute to 
Spencer
as his greatest praise, namely his frequent use of 
obsolete expressions, I account the greatest blemish to 35 his Poem, 
otherwise most excellent, it being an equal vice to adhere obstinately to 
old words, as fondly to affect new ones. 
Appendix B 405

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Index 
Numbers refer to pages
Aarsleff, Hans, 275, 276, 294, 350 
A.B.C. for Children, An, 209 
Abrahams, Roger, 382 
Academy, 261–71, 364–65; 
objections to an, 269 
Accademia della Crusca, 263 
Acronyms, 305 
Adams, Eleanor N., 286 
Adams, John, 365 
Adams, Valerie, 347 
Addison, Joseph, 234, 268, 273, 288 
Ade, George, 313 
Adela, 118 
Adenet le roi, 134 
Adjective, 51, 58, 160, 241 
Adjectives from French, 173 
Adolph, Robert, 294 
Ælfric, 88–89, 286 
Aeolic, 27 
Æthelberht, 83–84 
Æthelred the Unready, 94, 109 
Afghan, 25 
Afghanistan, 25 
Africa, the English in, 290; 
English language in, 321–25; 
words from, 291 
African Americans, 352, 354, 356, 382 
African American Vernacular English, 315, 319, 359, 382 
African languages, influence of, 323–25, 329–30, 383 
Afrikaans, 321 
Afrikanerisms, 321
Age of Pericles, 27 
Agincourt, battle of, 141 
Agricola, 46, 47 
Aidan, 84 
Aitchison, Jean, 16 
Aitken, A.J., 348 
Akerlund, Alfred, 293 
Akkadian, 35 

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Alabama, 354 
Albanian branch, 27 
Albert, H., 141 
Alberti, L.B., 204 
Alcuin, 71, 85 
Aldhelm, 85 
Alemannic, 34 
Alford, Dean, 336 
Alfred, King, 50, 71, 87, 93–94 
Algeo,John, 17, 396 
Allen,Cynthia L., 241 
Allen, Harold B., 400 
Allophone, definition of, 401 
Alston,R. C., 17, 294 
America, the English in, 289; 
settlement of, 351 
American Council of Learned Societies, 399 
American Dialect Society, 398 
American dialects, 376ff.