Words from the cold North

The Nordic invasions: 10 words adopted by English

Image: Sami Matias Breilin

Romance languages, led by French, have had such a lasting influence on English that we sometimes forget that it is actually a Germanic language, and as such, a relative of the Nordic languages.

However, Nordic languages had left their mark on English centuries before the French-Normans even attempted to conquer England, and they continue to do so to this day. Let’s have a look at some words of Nordic origin that are ingrained in everyday English.

Image: R Mo

The terms for window used by Old English and Old Norse were both related to the word ‘eye’, but were different. In Old English, the common word was eagþyrl or ‘eye-hole’, while Old Norse used vindauga or ‘wind-eye’. V_indauga_ was one of the many words adopted into English during the Viking invasions and evolved into ‘window’ during the Middle English period.

Image: Mustafa Bashari

Did you know that the original English word for egg was æg, and it was pronounced like ‘eye’? The word as we know it now was adopted from Old Norse around the 14th century. For a while, egg coexisted with eyren, the plural of æg, but the Norse term was ultimately more popular.

Image: Ferdinand Stöhr

What do the words fjord, ford, and port have in common? They all come from the same Indo-European word meaning ‘crossing’, but through different languages. Old English ford retained the meaning of ‘a shallow river crossing’, while Latin portus was adopted as port (a harbor), and Old Norse fjǫrðr was adopted as fjord (an inlet or estuary that gave passage from the sea to the land).

Image: Maarten Duineveld

Nordic countries deal with much more snow than England, so the adoption of snow-adjacent vocabulary seems only logical. In addition to this, most of the English terms that start with sk- are of Norse origin. The word ski comes from the Old Norse skíth (meaning ‘snowshoe’), and it was adopted into English during the 18th-century. Related words such as slalom (a sloping track) are of the same origin.

Image: Ruslan Bardash

This word, from Swedish origin, was adopted in the 1950s, but it is actually a portmanteau. The original name was trampcykel med motor och pedaler or ‘pedal cycle with engine and pedals’. It seems that the name was a mouthful even for the Swedish, because the shortened version was coined by them.

Image: Hannah Busing

Nowadays, gang can have a negative connotation in some contexts, but it can also be used in a more neutral sense. This neutral use (gang as ‘group’) comes from Old Norse gangr or ganga, meaning ‘going’ or ‘journey’. Adopted into English, the meaning of gang shifted to ‘a group of people’.

Image: Christian Lue

People want the things that they don’t have, and that is the origin of this very important English verb. In Old Norse, vant was a neutral form of vanr, ‘deficient, lacking’. Vanta was ‘to be lacking’. Although the word was adopted by English with the meaning of ‘lacking’ something, its original notion was later extended to ‘needing’ and then ‘desiring’.

Image: Devon Janse van Rensburg

The origins of this term are Scandinavian, most likely the Swedish skúfa, meaning ‘to shove’ or ‘to push’. It was adopted into English in the 1500s to describe small, clumsy tussles and fights, though it later adopted also the meaning of moving in a confused or hurried way.

Image: Sixteen Miles Out

A much more modern term, hygge became popular in English in the last decade. This Danish word is impossible to translate, and it's used to describe a feeling of coziness, contentment, and comfort. Through its Old Germanic roots, hygge is related to the English hug.

Image: Emily Campbell

Did you know that geysers are named after an Icelandic geyser called Geysir? The name comes from the Icelandic verb geysa, meaning ‘to gush’ or ‘to go forward’. The Icelandic word for geyser is goshver, but Geysir was so famous that English adopted it as a generic name for all spouting hot springs in the 18th century.

See you later, big lizard

Is it a breeze to eat jerky in the ranch? Words borrowed from Spanish

If you ask an English speaker which common words originate from Spanish, the answer might be something like taco, tostada, or sombrero. They wouldn’t be wrong—but Spanish influence goes much deeper than that.

Spanish has entered the English vocabulary in many ways, and we now use Spanish-derived words to talk about weather phenomena, animals, food, or metals. Let’s take a look at some of these terms.

Alligators are infamously known as the protagonists of strange Floridian news. They are a species native to only the U.S. and China, so when Spanish explorers first encountered one in Florida, they likened it to what they knew—a big lizard—and called it el lagarto ("the lizard").

English speakers gradually adopted the term, first as allagarto or allagarta, and eventually as alligator.

This term was half-borrowed from Spanish, half-created by English speakers, who mixed the word tronada (meaning "thunderstorm," from tronar, "to thunder") with tornado (the past participle of tornar, "to turn").

In Spanish, tornado was originally only used as a verb, and its current use as a noun was actually borrowed back from English. A true full-circle moment.

Spanish settlers first came across platinum mixed with gold in Mexican and Colombian mines, mistakenly believing it to be a gold impurity. Due to its silver color, they named it platina ("little silver")—a diminutive that carried the idea of being "lesser than."

English later adopted the word platina, which eventually evolved into platinum.

Experts are divided on this one: some say breeze has Old English roots, but the most widely accepted etymology traces it to Spanish (and Portuguese) origin. The word briza (now brisa) originally referred to a "northeastern wind," but later came to describe any gentle, light wind. It was incorporated into English in the 16th century.

The suffix -ería is used in Spanish for places where something is done or sold. So, the cafetería is the place where coffee is prepared and served.

English speakers adopted the word from Mexican Spanish, but by the late 19th century, its meaning shifted from "coffee shop" to "self-service diner."

We’re not talking here about the object used to lock doors, but about the small island. Also spelled cay, this word comes from the Spanish cayo, which in turn derives from the Taíno cairi or caicu, meaning "island" or "land."

If you like to go camping in the wilderness, you know that jerky is a great snack to have. But did you know that its name comes from the Inca Empire via Spanish?

The Quechua word ch’arki (meaning "dried meat") was adopted into Spanish as charqui, and the term spread throughout the territories of the Spanish Empire. In U.S. regions with Spanish influence, the word eventually evolved into the modern English form: jerky.

We don’t know if the English didn’t have roach infestations before or simply didn’t have a name for this unwelcome critter, but the fact is that, around the 16th century, they borrowed the Spanish word cucaracha, which first appeared in English as cacaroch.

Folk etymology eventually connected the word to other animal names, and the spelling evolved into its current form: cockroach.

In Spanish, this bird is called **alcatraz**—a name you might recognize—which comes from the Arabic al-qattas ("the diver"), a term once used for both albatrosses and pelicans.

Originally, albatross was used in English for many large seabirds, but it’s believed that the Latin albus ("white") influenced its modern form and spelling.

The Spanish term rancho derives from the French word ranger (meaning "to line up" or "to arrange"), and one of its meanings is a stock farm or estate—distinguished from a hacienda, which refers to a plantation farm.

English first adopted the term ranchería (meaning a group of small farms or settlements) and later shortened it to ranch.

The term cowboy is a direct translation of the Spanish word vaquero (a mounted cowherd), with an alternate loanword being buckaroo, a phonetic adaptation of vaquero. Other cowboy-related terms of Spanish origin include rodeo (from rodear, "to round up" or "to gather"), lasso (from lazo, "noose"), and bronco (from bronco, meaning "rude" or "rough").

Fun fact: cowboy hats are sometimes called "ten-gallon hats," a corrupted form of either tan galán ("so handsome" or "fine") or galón (meaning "trim" or "braid" of the hat).