William Barnes was a 19th-century English poet and philologist who tried to persuade people to use Anglo-Saxon words, rather than words imported into English from French, Latin, Greek or other languages.
He is cited many times in the Oxford English Dictionary, but mainly for Dorset dialect words, which he used in hundreds of poems. Otherwise, he is cited at the entries for push-wainling (a Barnes invention for ‘baby’s pram’), rede-craft (logic), and sundriness (diversity).
In his book on grammar, Outline of English Speechcraft, he replaces Latin-based words for grammatical terminology with Old English equivalents. So, a verb becomes time-taking, a noun a thing-word or thing-name, an adverb is an under-markword, plural is somely number, genitive is the offspring case, and subjunctive is hinge-mood.
Other nice words he offers Old English alternatives for include:
bendsome, for flexible
doingsome, for active
matter-lore, for chemistry
nipperlings, for forceps
sound sweetness, for euphony
thoroughshining, for diaphanous
unbreathpenned, for inarticulate
unfrienden, for alienate
wortlore, for botany
Dialect poetry is difficult for us to accept these days, but by golly Barnes can do something with it! And he was a village schoolteacher too, wasn't he? Just imagine being a young child taught by someone of his sympathies and skills!
Posted by: Picky | February 07, 2013 at 02:08 PM
Thanks, Picky. Yes, his poetry and use of language are certainly something.
Posted by: Virtual Linguist | February 07, 2013 at 10:18 PM