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Latin influence in English

Latin influences on the Germanic language of English

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Early Middle Ages

The Germanic tribes who were eventually the progenitors of the English language traded and fought with the Latin-speaking Roman Empire. Several words for common objects entered the tribes' vocabulary from Latin even before they reached Britain: camp, candle, cat, cheese, cook, fork, gem, inch, kitchen, mile, mill, mint [coin], noon, pillow, pound [unit of weight], radish, tile, street, wall, wine.

Christian missionaries coming to Britain in the 6th or and 7th century brought with them Latin religious terms—of which, again, some ultimately derived from Greek. Many of the technical terms in Christianity came from New Testament Greek and from the works of Greek-speaking fathers of the Church.

At this time, Christian monks wrote and copied text mainly in Latin, the prevalent lingua franca in medieval Europe. When monks did write in the vernacular, Latin words were translated using suitable Old English equivalents. A Germanic word was often adopted and given a new shade of meaning, as with Old English gōdspell ("gospel") for Latin evangelium (from Greek for "good news"). Previously, the Old English word simply meant "good news", but this meaning was extended to fit into a religious context. The same occurred with the Old Germanic pagan word blētsian, which meant "to sacrifice, consecrate by shedding blood". It was adapted by Old English scribes and Christianized to become the word bless. Similarly fullwiht (literally, "full-being") and the verb fullian came to mean "baptism" and "to baptise" respectively, though they may have referred to a rite of passage.

When a suitable Old English substitute could not be found, a Latin word would be chosen instead; many Latin words entered the Old English lexicon in this way. Such words include Old English tepid "carpet" from Latin tapetum, and sigel "brooch" from Latin sigillum; culcer and læfel "spoon" from Latin coclearium and labellum beside Old English spōn and hlædel (Modern English ladle); forca from Latin furca "fork" along with Old English gafol; scamol "chair, stool" from Latin scamellum beside native stōl, benc and setl. All told, approximately 600 words were borrowed from Latin during the Old English period. Often, the Latin word was tightly restricted in sense, and was not widely used by the general populace. Latin words tended to be literary or scholarly terms and were not very common. The majority of them did not survive into the Middle English Period.

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