Origin of English Words. English words can be divided into native words and borrowed words.

A native word is
Words consist of morphemes. The term 'morpheme' is derived from Greek morphe 'form' + -eme. The Greek suffix
part of the original English vocabulary from Old English, while a borrowed word comes from another language and
-eme has been adopted by linguists to denote the smallest unit (cf. phoneme, sememe). The morpheme is the
adapts to English standards.
smallest meaningful unit of form. Morphemes cannot be segmented into smaller units without losing their
Words of Native Origin. Native words have three main layers:
constitutive essence. Morphemes occur in speech only as constituent parts of words but not independently.
1. Indo-European Origin: These ancient 2. Common Germanic Origin: These words
Morphemes may have different phonetic shapes. In the word-cluster please, pleasing, pleasure, pleasant the root words have equivalents in other have parallels in other Germanic
Indo-European languages and cover languages and cover categories like:
morpheme is represented by the phonetic shapes. essential concepts: • Body parts: head, arm
• Kinship terms: father, mother, brother • Time: summer, week
Morphemes may be classified from the semantic point of view and from the structural point of view. • Nature: sun, moon, water • Nature: storm, earth
• Animals and Plants: goose, cow, tree • Artefacts: house, iron
• Body parts: ear, eye, heart • Garments: hat, shoe
Semantically morphemes fall into two types: 1) root-morphemes and 2) non-root morphemes. • Physical properties: hard, red • Abstract concepts: care, hope
• Numerals and pronouns: one, I, you • Animals and plants: sheep, oak
Root-morphemes (or radicals) are the lexical nucleus of words. For example, in the words remake, glassful, • Basic verbs: do, be, sit • Verbs: bake, learn
• Adjectives and adverbs: grey, down
disorder the root-morphemes -make, glass- and -order are understood as the lexical centres of the words.

Non-root morphemes include inflectional morphemes and affixational morphemes. Inflections carry only
grammatical meaning and are thus relevant only for the formation of word-forms, whereas affixes are relevant for 3. English Words Proper: These unique words, like bird, boy, girl, have no equivalents in other languages.
Characteristics of Native Words. Native words often show:
building various types of stems¹. Lexicology is concerned only with affixational morphemes.
1. Lexical and grammatical flexibility: e.g., "watch" can be used in different contexts.
Affixes are divided into prefixes and suffixes. A prefix is a derivational morpheme preceding the root-morpheme 2. Polysemy: e.g., "watch" has multiple meanings, including a timepiece and the act of observing.
and modifying its meaning. A suffix is a derivational morpheme following the root and forming a new derivative in 3. Word-building ability: e.g., "watch" forms words like watch-dog, watchful.
4. Phraseological potential: e.g., "watch" forms phrases like "keep watch" and "watch one’s step."
a different part of speech or a different word class.

Structurally morphemes fall into three types: 1) free morphemes; 2) bound morphemes; 3) semi-bound
(semi-free) morphemes.

A free morpheme is defined as one that coincides with the stem or a word-form. For example, the root-morpheme
friend- of the noun friendship is naturally qualified as a free morpheme because it coincides with one of the forms of
the word friend.

A bound morpheme occurs only as a constituent part of a word. Affixes are bound morphemes for they always
make part of a word. For example, the suffixes -ness, -ship, -ize in the words darkness, friendship, to activize; the
prefixes im-, dis-, de- in the words impolite, to disregard, to demobilize.

Semi-bound (semi-free) morphemes are morphemes that can function in a morphemic sequence both as an affix
and as a free morpheme. For example, the morphemes well and half on the one hand occur as free morphemes that
coincide with the stem and the word-form in the utterances to sleep well, half an hour, on the other hand well and
half occur as bound morphemes in the words well-known, half- done.
 Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding derivational affixes to different types of bases.
Word-formation is the process of creating new words in a language through specific structural and semantic
Affixation includes suffixation and prefixation.
patterns. There are two main types of word-formation: word-derivation and word-composition.
1. Word-Derivation: The basic ways of forming words in word-derivation are affixation and conversion. Suffixation is the process of forming new words by adding suffixes, which usually modify the base's meaning and
sometimes change its part of speech. For example, "friend" (concrete noun) becomes "friendship" (abstract noun).
o Affixation: Adding prefixes or suffixes to a base word to form a new word (e.g., heartless from Suffixes can be classified in several ways:
heart). Based on the Lexico-grammatical Character of the Base:
● Deverbal (added to verbs): -er (speaker), -ing (reading), -ment (agreement), -able (suitable)
o Conversion: Changing the form of a word (e.g., to slave from a slave). ● Denominal (added to nouns): -less (endless), -ful (armful), -ist (novelist)
2. Word-Composition: Word-composition is the formation of a new word by combining two or more stems ● Deadjectival (added to adjectives): -en (widen), -ly (rapidly), -ish (whitish), -ness
● (brightness)
which occur in the language as free forms, e. g. door- handle, house-keeper.
● Noun-forming: -age (breakage), -ance (assistance), -dom (kingdom), -ness (tenderness)
In addition to the main methods, there are several minor word-formation processes: Based on the Part of Speech formed:
● Adjective-forming: -able (bearable), -ic (poetic), -ive (active), -ous (courageous)
• Shortening: Creating a word by cutting off part of an existing word. This can be: ● Numeral-forming: -fold (twofold), -teen (fourteen), -ty (sixty)
● Verb-forming: -ate (facilitate), -fy (terrify), -ize (equalize)
1. Initial (e.g., phone from telephone).
● Adverb-forming: -ly (quickly), -ward (upward), -wise (likewise)
2. Medial (e.g., fancy from fantasy). Based on Semantic Meaning:
● Monosemantic: one meaning, e.g., -ess (female, as in "tigress")
3. Final (e.g., veg from vegetables). ● Based on Denotational Meaning:
4. Both initial and final (e.g., flu from influenza). ● Polysemantic: multiple meanings, e.g., -hood (condition, group)
● State or Action: -er (baker), -ant (assistant)
• Blending: Combining parts of two words into a new one. This can be: ● Appurtenance: -an (Victorian), -ese (Chinese)
● Diminutiveness: -ie (birdie), -let (cloudlet)
1. additive type that may be transformed into a phrase consisting of complete stems combined by Based on Stylistic Reference:
the conjunction and, e.g. smog sm(oke) and (f)og; ● Neutral: -able (agreeable), -ing (meeting)
2. restrictive type that can be transformed into a phrase, the first element of which serves as a ● Bookish or Technical: -oid (asteroid), -tron (cyclotron)
modifier for the second, e.g.: telecast - television broadcast.
• Acronymy: Forming words from the initial letters of a phrase. Types include:
1. Acronyms read as words (e.g., UNESCO).
2. Acronyms read letter by letter or alphabetic reading (e.g., BBC).
• Sound-Interchange: Changing the phonemic structure of a word to form a new one. It includes:
1. Vowel-interchange (e.g., food to feed).
2. Consonant-interchange (e.g., advise to advice).
3. Combination of both (e.g., life to live).
• Sound Imitation (Onomatopoeia): Words that imitate natural sounds (e.g., buzz, splash).
• Back-Formation: Creating a new word by removing a real or supposed suffix (e.g., butle from butler).
• Distinctive Stress: Changing the stress in a word to create a new meaning (e.g., increase (n) vs.
increase(v)).
 The Etymology of English Words
In the 1st century B.C., Europe was largely under Roman rule. Germanic tribes, considered
"barbarians" by the Romans, lived primitively as cattle-breeders with languages containing Indo
European and Germanic elements. Contact with the Romans through trade introduced new foods and
concepts, leading to the adoption of Latin words such as butter (Lat. butyrum), cheese (lat. caseus), and
various fruits and vegetables like cherry (Lat. cerasum) and pea (Lat. pisum). Other borrowings
included cup (Lat. cuppa), kitchen (Lat. coquina), and wine (Lat. vinum).

In the 5th century A.D., Germanic tribes, including the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, migrated to Britain,
encountering the native Celts. The Celts, unable to withstand the invaders, retreated to areas like
Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall. However, Celtic influence remained in English through words like
bald, down, glen, and cradle. Place names, especially rivers (Avon, Exe, Esk), also retained their Celtic
roots, as did London, derived from Celtic Llyn (river) + dun (fortified hill). Latin words like street (Lat.
strata via) and wall (Lat. vallum) entered the Germanic languages via Celtic intermediaries, further
enriching the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary.

The 7th century A.D. marked the Christianization of England, bringing a new wave of Latin
borrowings from the church. These words were primarily related to religion, such as priest (Lat.
presbyter), bishop (Lat. episcopus), monk (Lat. monachus), nun (Lat. nonna), and candle (Lat.
candela). Educational terms also emerged, as the first schools in England were church-run, with
teachers being priests and monks. Examples include school (Lat. schola), scholar (Lat, scholaris), and
magister (Lat. magister).