The Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons and Jutes) that later produced English traded and fought with the Latin-speaking Roman Empire. Therefore, even before these tribes arrived in Britain, many words representing ordinary things (some originally from Greek) entered these Germanic vocabulary through Latin: anchor, butter, camp, cheese, box, chef, copper, devil, plate, fork, gem, inch, kitchen, mile, mill, mint (coin), noon, pillow, pound (weight).
Christian missionaries who came to Britain in the 6th and 7th centuries brought Latin religious terms into English: abbot, altar, apostle, candle, clerk, mass, priest, monk, nun, pope, priest, school and church.
During this period, the Catholic church monopolized the intellectual property rights of Anglo-Saxon society; In this process, they have a great influence on the development and expansion of Old English. Catholic monks mainly wrote or copied texts in Latin, which was the common language of medieval Europe. However, when monks occasionally write in vernacular, they translate Latin words by finding suitable old English equivalents. In this process, a Germanic word is often adapted and given new meanings. This is the "gospel" of Latin evangelicals in old English. Previously, this old English word only meant "good news", but its meaning was expanded in old English to adapt to the religious background. The same thing happened to the pagan word blē tsian in the ancient Germanic language, which means "sacrifice and sacrifice through bloodshed". It was adapted by an ancient English scribe and named "Blessing".
Whenever we can't find a suitable substitute for old English, we can choose a Latin word to replace it, and many Latin words have entered the old English dictionary. These words include: bishop from Latin episcopus, teped "carpet from Latin tapetum, and sigel brooch from Latin sigillum. Although an appropriate old English term already exists, other words still appear, which leads to the enrichment of old English vocabulary: culcer and l? Fel "spoon" comes from the Latin coclearium and the old English SPN and hl next to the lip. Del (modern English ladle); Old English forca comes from Latin furca“fork "next to old English gafol and old English scamol" chair, stool "from Latin scamellum, next to local STL, benc and setl. Altogether, about 600 words were borrowed from Latin in Old English. Usually, Latin words are strictly limited in meaning and are not widely used by the general public. Latin words are often literary or academic terms, which are not common. Most of them didn't live to medieval English.
Norman Conquest 1066 gave Britain a two-class society, with Anglo-Norman nobles and English-speaking lower classes. From 1066 to 1399 when Henry IV of England ascended the throne, the English royal family used a Norman language, which gradually became pure due to contact with French. However, the Norman rulers did not try to suppress English except that they did not use English at all in their courts. 1204, the Anglo-Normans lost their mainland territory in Normandy and completely became British. By the time Middle English became the dominant language in the late14th century, the Normans had contributed about 10000 words to English, 75% of which are still in use today. The continued use of Latin by churches and academic centers has brought a steady, though drastically reduced, influx of new Latin words.
During the English Renaissance, about1500–1650, about10,000 to12,000 words entered the English dictionary, including lexicon. Some examples include: disorder, suggestion, anachronism, democracy, dexterity, enthusiasm, imagination, youth, harmfulness and complexity. Many of these words are directly borrowed from Latin, whether in classical or medieval form. Conversely, late Latin also includes loanwords from Greek.
The beginning of the era of scientific discovery in17th century and18th century created the demand for new words to describe newly discovered knowledge. Many words are borrowed from Latin, while others are created from Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes, and the elements of Latin words can be freely combined with those of all other languages, including local Anglo-Saxon words. Some words that entered English at this time are: instrument, water, carnivore, component, particle, data, experiment, formula, incubation, machinery, mechanics, molecule, nucleus, organic matter, ratio, structure, spine.
In addition to a large number of historical loanwords and new words, Latin words continue to be created in English today-see classic compound words-especially in the technical field. Many more subtle results include: many double words-two or more cognates from Germanic and Latin sources (or Latin sources), such as cow/beef；; Many etymologically unrelated terms are used to represent closely related concepts, especially German nouns with Latin adjectives, such as bird/avian or hand/manual；; Complex etymology caused by indirect borrowing (through romance) or repeated borrowing; And usage of the dispute.
It is not always easy to tell when a word entered English or in what form. Some words have entered English from Latin more than once, sometimes through French or another romantic language, and sometimes directly from Latin. Therefore, we have pairs like fragility/fragility, army/armada, crown/crown, ratio/rationality and circle/circle. The first word in each pair comes directly from Latin, while the second word comes from French (or Spanish, in the case of Armada) into English. In addition, some words have entered English twice from French, and as a result, they have the same origin, but different pronunciations reflect the changes of French pronunciation, such as chief/chef (the former is borrowed from Middle English and the latter is modern). Many loanwords explain other word pairs and phrases with similar roots but different meanings and/or pronunciations: canal/channel, poor/paulper, coy/quiet, disc/disk/dish/desk/dais/disc.