Episode 52: Bloody Axes and a Battle Royal
The History of English Podcast
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Old English Words to Define the Process of Dying
The anglo saxons borrowed the word die from the vikings, presumably because it resembled the native words death and dead. Another old english word to describe the process of dying was stervan, which survives as the word starve. It can describe some one dying from lack of food, but usually is used simply to mean hungry. The word ill was borrowed from the vkings with a similar meaning. Originally had more of a sense of evil, hurtful or bad. But overtime, it developed a sense of being sick. And just like in the last episode, we see lots of english and norse pears. We have english sick and norse ill. We have English
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