Dingo the Dissident

THE BLOG OF DISQUIET : Qweir Notions, an uncommonplace-book from the Armpit of Diogenes, binge-thinker jottings since 2008 .

Friday 30 March 2012

The Visigoths

swept down Western France
and right down Spain
but gave no words to us
that I'm aware of.

The Franks
pushed into North and Eastern France
and gave us: frankly,
France, French,
Francis (and Franciscan),
frankness, franchise,
franklin, franking,
Frankfurt (but not frankfurters),
franc (the coin) and frankincense.

It was the Frenchified Norsemen
from Normandy who brought
these and many Franko-French
words into otherwise
Germanic English -

and hardly a trace remains of Visigothish.

1 comment:

Wofl said...

There seems to be just one word in modern Spanish which comes from the Visigoths :

• agasajar = to flatter:
from agasajo (see agasajo below) + the verbal suffix -ar

• agasajo = entertainment, kind reception, friendliness, flattery:
from a- + Old Spanish gasajo "reception" from Visigothic gasalja "companion, comrade", from ga- with, together (from the Indo-European root (*)kom + sal- "room, lodging").