Are you a lexophile, just a regular lover of words? Do you love a play on words like? Like, “Someone who is tired but won’t go to sleep is resisting a rest?” Well here are some Old English words we recommend you add to your vocabulary. Sprinkle them in and you’ll find yourself craving more words!
15 Old English words you need to know
- Elflock – this is when someone’s hair just gets all matted up, and it clearly took the work of special elves to make it so crazy.
- Ætgifan – This is a lovely word meaning a food giver. Lovely word right?
- Skinker – Okay, this is just a fun word to describe someone who pours liquor or other alcoholic beverages. Better than a wench, right?
- Fortnight – I love this over “bi-monthly” because rather than wondering if it is twice a month or every two months, you just know that a fortnight is a two week period.
- Churl – This is a person who brings you down because they’re just rude and full of misery.
- Dyrum – Love someone, have a beloved? Here you go! A word to include in your next poem to them, To my Dyrum…
- Skinflint – Do you know someone who just won’t ever give up any money? While the common “old” word is a miser, you can be even more scholarly and use this word to describe them.
- Mumpsimus – This hasn’t been commonly used for a few centuries but is useful to describe someone who just won’t get over a preconceived notion about someone or something, even when it has been proven false.
- Trumpery – Something deemed useless.
- Caldast – This is just a lovely word for cold cereal.
- Uhtcearu – Ever wake up before dawn and your mind can’t shut off? That’s what uhtcearu means!
- Thole – Something making you suffer? When you endure it, you can use the word “thole” to describe your endurance.
- Beobread – We all are learning the importance of bees, and why we need to pay attention to what insecticides are used, but did you know that beobread is the Olde English word for the pollen of flowers collected by bees and mixed with honey for the food of the larvae. Tell that to your tree-hugger friends!
- Awiht – This is a lovely pronoun similar to “anything” or “any part” similar to aught/ought.
- Bearn – While not entirely odd, this is another word you can use to say someone’s child.
Even if you don’t add these to your dictionary, they work great in scrabble!
Well, they are interesting. I only knew fortnight. If I used them, no one would know what I said.
All of these words are good to know. I’ve watched many movies that used the word “fortnight,” now I know what it means. Thanks for sharing.
I used to love learning new words, so this is a fun list!
Trumpery made me chuckle.