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Fri 7 Jul, 2006 02:01 am
Hi
As the title suggests, I'm looking for a comprehensive list of words of Celtic origin still used in modern English. It has always surprised me how few there seem to be, seeing as English has always had such a voracious appetite for devouring words from other languages. I have only managed to find a few so a fuller list would be terrific.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Here are some for you............
ass (borrowed earlier by the Celts from the Latin asinus)
bannock
bard
blarney
bucket
car
cart
clock
colleen
crag
crock
crockery
cross (the original Germanic gives us crutch)
curse
dolmen
down
druid
flannel
gaol
gob
iron
mattock
noggin
rix for king (cf. regal Reich rex bishopric)
slogan
slogan
town > tun (fortified hill)
truant
whiskey
And, although long, there is a section in this which deals with celtic words....
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15755/15755-8.txt
There are very few Celtic words in English and most of them are place names, particularly river names, in England, which shows how pervasive the combined effect of the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans was.
The only sort of thing I can think of off hand are names -- generally, here in New England -- adopted from Celtic words. There is a resort called Cranmore in New Hampshire. Cran is from the Celtic word for tree and more means big, which was originally "mawr" in Welsh, or P-Celtic.
Lord E -- I thought there was a debate as to whether iron was Germanic or Celtic.
Since some of the posters here are knowledgeable about the Celts, I have another question.
Jean Markale, retired Sorbonne professor, in his book, "The Cathedral of the Black Madonna, wrote that the former name for Mount Sainte Michel was Mount Belenos, after the Romano-Gallic name for the Celtic god Bel or Belenos.
Does anyone know about this?
plainoldme wrote:Since some of the posters here are knowledgeable about the Celts, I have another question.
Jean Markale, retired Sorbonne professor, in his book, "The Cathedral of the Black Madonna, wrote that the former name for Mount Sainte Michel was Mount Belenos, after the Romano-Gallic name for the Celtic god Bel or Belenos.
Does anyone know about this?
No, I don't.
This refers to it, but doesn't refer exactly to the former name.
http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/beli.html
plainoldme wrote:Since some of the posters here are knowledgeable about the Celts, I have another question.
Jean Markale, retired Sorbonne professor, in his book, "The Cathedral of the Black Madonna, wrote that the former name for Mount Sainte Michel was Mount Belenos, after the Romano-Gallic name for the Celtic god Bel or Belenos.
Does anyone know about this?
You're probably right.
Mount Saint Michel was called Mont Tombelaine aka Tombe-Belen.
Look here
Thanks, guys. Those sites dedicated to St. Michael are all hills -- either natural or artificial. It is pretty obvious that Michael has something to do with seeing afar, perhaps, in seeing the rising sun.
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