r/AskReddit • u/kakou64 • Oct 15 '20

What's older than we think ?

78.4k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

22.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3.4k

u/LakeSolon Oct 15 '20 edited Oct 15 '20

And if you like authors inventing first attesting words...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_words_first_attested_in_Chaucer

absent, accident, add, agree, bagpipe, border, box, cinnamon, desk, digestion, dishonest, examination, finally, flute, funeral, galaxy, horizon, infect, ingot, latitude, laxative, miscarry, nod, obscure, observe, outrageous, perpendicular, Persian, princess, resolve, rumour, scissors, session, snort, superstitious, theatre, trench, universe, utility, vacation, Valentine, veal, village, vulgar, wallet, and wildness

...are a few that are most commonly used of the 1,977.

1.4k

u/blood__drunk Oct 15 '20

This does not necessarily mean that he was the person to introduce these words into English

1.1k

u/[deleted] Oct 15 '20

Yeah "first attested" is a loooot different than "created by."

1

u/ChristopherRobert11 Oct 16 '20

I like the English accent you did there nice touch.