What is the oldest word in English that hasn't changed?

The English Word That Hasn't Changed in Sound or Meaning in 8,000 Years - Nautilus. The word lox was one of the clues that eventually led linguists to discover who the Proto-Indo-Europeans were, and where they lived. Photograph…

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What is the oldest unchanged word in the English language?

According to a 2009 study by researchers at Reading University, the oldest words in the English language include “I“, “we“, “who“, “two” and “three“, all of which date back tens of thousands of years.

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What is the oldest English word still in use?

Scientists at the University of Reading have discovered that 'I', 'we', 'who' and the numbers '1', '2' and '3' are amongst the oldest words, not only in English, but across all Indo-European languages.

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What is the oldest word ever made?

The Oldest Word in the World. It is believed the first spoken word was “Aa,” which meant hey. “Aa” is thought to have first been spoken by an australopithecine in Ethiopia over a million years ago.

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What is the English word that hasn't changed in 8000 years?

The English Word That Hasn't Changed in Sound or Meaning in 8,000 Years. One of my favorite words is lox,” says Gregory Guy, a professor of linguistics at New York University.

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What's the Earliest English Word?

39 related questions found

Did English exist 1,000 years ago?

Old English – the earliest form of the English language – was spoken and written in Anglo-Saxon Britain from c. 450 CE until c. 1150 (thus it continued to be used for some decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066).

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What is the English word 2000 only?

Therefore, 2000 is written as Two thousand in words.

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What was the 1st English word?

Scientists at the University of Reading have discovered that 'I', 'we', 'who' and the numbers '1', '2' and '3' are amongst the oldest words, not only in English, but across all Indo-European languages.

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What is the oldest word for water?

The word water comes from Old English wæter, from Proto-Germanic *watar (source also of Old Saxon watar, Old Frisian wetir, Dutch water, Old High German wazzar, German Wasser, vatn, Gothic ???? (wato), from Proto-Indo-European *wod-or, suffixed form of root *wed- ('water'; 'wet').

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What is the oldest word for love?

The word 'love' was once '*leubh', a word used by the Proto-Indo-Europeans approximately five thousand years ago to describe care and desire. When 'love' was incorporated into Old English as 'lufu', it had turned into both a noun to describe, 'deep affection' and its offspring verb, 'to be very fond of'.

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What's the newest word?

Our Favorite Merriam-Webster Dictionary Additions for 2022
  • Because (conjunction) ...
  • TBH (abbreviation) ...
  • Fluffernutter (n) ...
  • Amirite (interjection) ...
  • Copypasta (n) ...
  • Deplatform (v) ...
  • Whataboutism (n) ...
  • FTW (abbreviation)

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What was the last English word invented?

Zyzzyva has achieved notoriety for being the last word in several English-language dictionaries. Casey is commonly credited with naming the genus, although the etymology of the word is unclear. One theory is that the word was inspired by Zyzza, a former genus of leafhoppers.

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When was English first spoken?

English is a West Germanic language that originated from Ingvaeonic languages brought to Britain in the mid-5th to 7th centuries AD by Anglo-Saxon migrants from what is now northwest Germany, southern Denmark and the Netherlands.

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What is the longest English word without a?

Cambridge Dictionary

Fun Fact about English #4: The longest English word without a true vowel (a, e, i, o or u) is "rhythm" ?.

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What English words are not used anymore?

7 English words that nobody uses anymore (but totally should)
  • Facetious. Pronounced “fah-see-shuss”, this word describes when someone doesn't take a situation seriously, which ironically is very serious indeed. ...
  • Henceforth. ...
  • Ostentatious. ...
  • Morrow. ...
  • Crapulous. ...
  • Kerfuffle. ...
  • Obsequious.

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What is the Old English word before?

From Middle English before, bifore (adverb and preposition), from Old English beforan, from be- + foran (“before”), from fore, from Proto-Germanic *furai, from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“front”).

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What is the British accent of water?

In British English, they don't when it's at the end of a word. Water, -er, -er. It's a very closed sound. So to make the sound, the tongue lifts up and it pulls back a little bit.

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Who talked English first?

English originated in England and is the dominant language of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and various island nations in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

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When did kids say their first word?

Babies communicate using sounds and gestures. In the first year of life, babies go from babbling to playing with sounds, copying sounds and putting sounds together. First words might start at around 12 months. Babies start understanding and responding to words in the first year of life.

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What is the word longest word?

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest word entered in the most trusted English dictionaries. The definition is "a lung disease caused by inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust."

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Does English have 1million words?

It has been estimated that the vocabulary of English includes roughly 1 million words (although most linguists would take that estimate with a chunk of salt, and some have said they wouldn't be surprised if it is off the mark by a quarter-million); that tally includes the myriad names of chemicals and other scientific ...

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How do you write 7000 in English?

7000 in words is Seven Thousand.

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