Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/143

114 old, it had been used for ostendere: this is just the converse of what has happened in the case of the old sceáwian.

The word þeáu had hitherto been applied to the mind only; it is now used of the body; though this new sense did not become common in England until three hundred years later. We still talk of thews and sinews; Spencer used the word in its old sense.

Layamon forms an adjective from the Old English hende, in Latin prope. He says, in Vol. I. page 206:

‘An oðer stret he makede swiðe hendi.’

But he usually employs this adjective in the sense of courteous, and in this sense it was used for hundreds of years.

I give a list of many Norse words used by Layamon, which must have made their way to the Severn from the North and East; we shall find many more in Dorsetshire a few years later.

Club, from the Icelandic klubba Draht (haustus), from the Icelandic drattr Hap (fortune), from the Icelandic happ, good luck Hit, from the Icelandic hitta Hustinge (house court), from the Norse hus and thing Raken (rush), from the Swedish raka, to riot about Riven, from the Icelandic rîfa (rumpere) Semen (beseem), from the Norse sama, to fit To-dascte (dash out), from the Danish daske, to slap

Layamon has the word nook (angulus) which may