Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/232

 given to our vocabulary: bowl, broth, brew, knead, dough, loaf, hat, comb, house, home, borough, king, earl, buy, ware, worth, and cheap (barter), sea, sound, island, cliff, flood, strand, ship, steer, sail, stay, storm, shower, hail, whale (“for any large sea-beast’’), seal, mew (sea-gull), and words indicating the points of the compass, etc.

We assume that as the primitive Aryans had only one word for metal, ore, given to copper, their knowledge of the metals was slight. But now we come to a period, previous to the separation of the Anglo-Saxons from the other Teutonic tribes, when such words abounded as, gold, silver, tin, lead, iron, and steel. That metal-work was a new art, is suggested by the legends coming from that time, showing that the forgers and blacksmiths were given magical and even sinister powers by the popular imagination.

There were such words as, leech (a healer), lore, write (from reissen) to cut or scratch letters in tablets of bark or wood, and book