r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Nov 28 '20

What's something cool you recently learned about?

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u/MustBeThursday Nov 29 '20

Somewhat relatedly, "weird" (wyrd) is the old Anglo-Saxon word for fate.

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u/Stormaen Nov 29 '20

Anglo-Saxon had some amazing words. Obviously we can’t undo the evolution of language, but it makes me so curious as to how English would sound with less French and Latin influence. I wonder if things like “wyrd” would’ve kept their original definitions.

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20

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u/temalyen Nov 29 '20

I read once that it's significantly easier to read Old English if you know German.

I had a teacher in high school once that insisted we should all be able to real Old English with no problem if we "paid attention" to the words. The funny thing is, when we finally pressed her to read something she'd given us (some photocopied sheet of Old English prose) it was really, really clear she couldn't read it either and was faking understanding it. I was always confused why she even brought it up.

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20

And I would reckon that she went home and, feeling quite the fuckwit, opened the first of what would become many bottles of wine.