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Early Modern English (sometimes abbreviated EModE [1] or EMnE) or Early New English (ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middle English, in the late 15th century, to the transition to Modern English, in the mid-to-late 17th century.
A aggravate – Some have argued that this word should not be used in the sense of "to annoy" or "to oppress", but only to mean "to make worse". According to AHDI, the use of "aggravate" as "annoy" occurs in English as far back as the 17th century. In Latin, from which the word was borrowed, both meanings were used. Sixty-eight percent of AHD4's usage panel approves of its use in "It's the ...
Cairn Capercaillie Claymore Trousers Bard [1] The word's earliest appearance in English is in 15th century Scotland with the meaning "vagabond minstrel".The modern literary meaning, which began in the 17th century, is heavily influenced by the presence of the word in ancient Greek (bardos) and ancient Latin (bardus) writings (e.g. used by the poet Lucan, 1st century AD), which in turn took the ...
American English has always shown a marked tendency to use nouns as verbs. [13] Examples of verbed nouns are interview, advocate, vacuum, lobby, pressure, rear-end, transition, feature, profile, spearhead, skyrocket, showcase, service (as a car), corner, torch, exit (as in "exit the lobby"), factor (in mathematics), gun ("shoot"), author (which disappeared in English around 1630 and was ...
English words of French origin can also be distinguished from French words and expressions used by English speakers. Although French is derived mainly from Latin , which accounts for about 60% of English vocabulary either directly or via a Romance language , it includes words from Gaulish and Germanic languages , especially Old Frankish .
Word-Hoard: An Introduction to Old English Vocabulary. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-03506-3. Pollington, Stephen (2010). Wordcraft: New English to Old English Dictionary and Thesaurus. Anglo-Saxon Books. ISBN 978-1-898281-02-3. "Oxford English Dictionary Online (paid membership)". Archived from the original on 2006-06-25
Celtic words are almost absent but do exist, such as the word galore which came about in the 17th century and stems from the Irish, "go leor" which means plenty, or to sufficiency. [10] There are also dialectal words, such as the Yan Tan Tethera system of counting sheep.
In the 17th century, Latin words were often used with their original inflections, but these eventually disappeared. As there are many words from different languages and English spelling is variable, the risk of mispronunciation is high, but remnants of the older forms remain in a few regional dialects, most notably in the West Country. During ...