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List of English words of Old Norse origin


Words of Old Norse origin have entered the English language, primarily from the contact between Old Norse and Old English during colonisation of eastern and northern England between the mid 9th to the 11th centuries (see also Danelaw). Many of these words are part of English core vocabulary, such as egg or knife. There are hundreds such words, and the list below does not aim at completeness.

To be distinguished from loanwords which date back to the Old English period are modern Old Norse loans originating in the context of Old Norse philology, such as kenning (1871), and loans from modern Icelandic (such as geyser, 1781). Yet another (rare) class are loans from Old Norse into Old French, which via Anglo-Norman were then indirectly loaned into Middle English; an example is flâneur, via French from the Old Norse verb flana "to wander aimlessly".


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