Roots/origins of words - does anyone else do this?

Wiki says also from Latin bonus.

"Bonny" used to be used a lot in Northumbria. Especially "Bonny lad". I haven't heard it lately.
I always thought it came from the French for good - bon/bonne, and implied healthy and good-looking. Just a guess.

watermeadow: yes it is. See Poul Anderson's article "Uncleftish Beholding". This explains Atomic Theory in purely words derived from Old English. It is too long to be put here, and in any rate is under copyright, but you can read it at

groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=alt.language.artificial/ZL4e3fD7eW0/_7p8bKwLJWkJ

If you can write that, you could write almost anything

Can anyone tell me about the word Bonny, I live in Derbyshire, but arrived here when I was ten.
My son was 8lbs 11 at birth way back in 1966. I was greatly encouraged in the maternity hospital to add rusk to his milk and therefore he was quite a chubby baby, gorgeous with very blue eyes and white blond hair.
I ran into an old boyfriend who called my son “Bonny”. I was quite put out by this as I took it to mean fat.
Over the years I’ve heard it used to mean beautiful. Can anyone clarify.

I once taught basic English to an Italian Catholic priest who had spent five years in a Church in Holland and had had to learn Dutch.

He recognised many one-syllable words based on farming like boat and cow. When the word "dung" cropped up he said "Oh, no. I didn't need that word for my Sunday sermons!"

It's amusing how my Italian school-age students improve their translation abilities when they pass from basic grammar to literature: so many of those "BIG" words they read stem from Latin origin as against the short germacic/saxon etc., words which are mostly used while teaching basic grammar. They are usually delighted with themselves!

I teach English as a second language and find explaining structure of words intrigues my students no-end and also helps them memorise unusual words. When I ask them to explain the word "breakfast", they shrug and say something like "quick break" and are astonished when I explain it derives from the phrase "to break one's fast". Thus they also learn "fast" as a noun/verb.

The one I like best is when they want to know the difference between to overhear and to eavesdrop. They love the fact that eavedropping (which is naughty) involves standing under where the roof eaves drip in order to listen in at a person's window (in the days before gutters), whereas to overhear is merely accidental and innocent.

I find words and their derivation endlessly fascinating and always enjoy just looking through dictionaries. I understand a couple of foreign languages reasonably well, with a very basic smattering of one or two others so find the connections between foreign words and with English interesting.
If that makes sense.
A knowledge of Latin is very useful, but it wasn’t taught at my school. We were supposed to ‘know our place’ which was office, shop or factory, but that might require a different post.

The word bairn comes from the Old English word bearn, a “descendant,” and is related to the verb to bear, as in bearing children.

What's the origin of the word Windex?

It seems to be a brand name for a brand of window cleaner - so like most brand names, a made up word
Windolene, Dettol, Zoflora, Jim/Cif.
Or do you know otherwise Rosecarmel ?

JackyB You "have always said that everything goes back to one original word" In 1493, King James IV of Scotland wanted to know which was the earliest language, from which all others were descended, so he arranged for two newborn babies to be isolated with a deaf and dumb wet-nurse on the island of Inchkeith in the Forth where she was kept supplied with necessities, but the babies never met anyone else, hoping to find out what language they developed. It was reported that their first words were "eema" - so he deduced that the first language of mankind was Hebrew.

Of course, that was also the only noise that their deaf/mute nurse could make, which may have influenced their speech . I also wonder how the nurse coped with being isolated with two demanding babies on a small island until they were old enough to talk!

The first thing I thought of when I saw this thread was Michael Constantine- Origin of my thought: My Big Fat Greek Wedding-

What's the origin of the word Windex?

I’m intrigued by simple words, usually one syllable, for all the basic things our distant ancestors named.
They looked around and saw Sky, Sun, Moon, Star. Food, Drink, Water. Hurt, Dead. Come, Go, Walk,Run. Sleep, Wake. Head, Leg, Arm, Foot, Hand, Eye, Mouth, Nose. Cry, Speak, Shout, Sing. Leaf, Tree, Rock, Hill, Path, Home. Etc Etc.
I wonder if you could write a story using only these old words?

Bairn sounds like born or bore as in bore a child

The Scots and Northern England ‘bairn’ must surely come from the Swedish (and I dare say other Scandi) ‘barn’ (child - think it has the little circle thing over the a). Via Old Norse, presumably.

I keep a book of English place names in the car, and as long as dh is driving, I often look up names en route. If I’d ever done a degree in English (I preferred foreign lingos then ) I’d have loved to do a place-names module. So noticeable how many northern place names have Viking-origin elements.

The name of my own immediate SW London area is from a Celtic root! So relatively few of these in much of England, except of course for Cornwall.

Witzend, etymology is one of my favourite studies especially place names.

I also like to try to find connections between Sanscrit and modern languages. My latest fad is Romany and how close it is to Hindi and Sanscrit.

Oh yes preaching to the converted here Witzend. I love words languages grammar.... my students used to be amazed at how excited I could become by complex grammar in Italian or word order in German etc etc and were bemused to hear I kept a grammar book by my bed.....
I seem to remember years ago listening to something on the radio about an experiment where they people from remote part of Scandinavia meeting people from Hebridean or Shetland islands and being able to understand each other ?

I find it fascinating, too. I have subscribed to Dictionary.com's Word Of The Day which gives very detailed étymologies.

I have always said that everything goes back to one original word and, reading those explanations, I sometimes believe it. It's amazing which words are related and particularly interesting if you know German and Latin (and Greek)

Yes, I love it - and similarly, the origins of sayings. I am also fascinated by how language evolves. I have said before that my DH thinks I say a lot of olderAmericanisms - I grew up near an airbase and think I must have picked them up!

I love words and etymology. I wish I had paid far more attention when I did my degree in French and German. We studied language back to medieval times which I thought was a bit boring then.
The word kid/s is often frowned upon when talking about children, but it comes from German Kind/Kinder. Nothing to do with goats!

There are names ending in -thorpe (hamlet or small village) or -garth (orchard) from the Norsemen, or -chester or -caster (castle) from the Romans, or starting with pit- from the picts.

Those words should not have been crossed out! I was trying to add dashes at the start of words with various ending and forgot that a double dash would be misunterpreted- I'll try again.

You can trace the history of successive waves of invasion and colonisation by the words they brought into the language, particularly placenames.

There are names ending in thorpe (hamlet or small village) or --garth (orchard) from the Norsemen, or starting with pit from the picts, or --chester or --caster (castle) from the Romans.

I love finding out about words. We have such a rich language because we've adapted to immigration and conquest and seconded words to our language. We added even more words such as bungalow and shampoo due to the Empire. So we have a wonderful mix of Latin, Greek, French, Scandinavian, Anglo Saxon. Irish, Scottish and just about everywhere else.

I'm interested to know where words derived from, I've read 60% of our words are from French and therefore Latin based and the other 40% vestiges of Anglo Saxon. Along the way acquiring words from other cultures particularly when we were a presence in India, bungalow, jodhpur, thugee and others. I think I Googled what words are still in our language which would have been Celtic, there were a few although I imagine the Welsh language may have more. Similarly, and because there have been quite a few Danish or indeed Scandinavian tv series, there are words that are so recognisable, particularly those that are more prevalent in Scotland and northern England such as bairn, but then the Danes were more prolific in northern Britain when they settled here.