@dogreed: "I thought this was a website about English, which is an actual living language, not an imaginary one."

This website is about English, whether from yesteryear, today, or tomorrow. What seems lost on you is that we find true English words to put in the stead of French and Latin ones (sometimes Greek, too). Words from Old, Middle, and Latter-Day English are in play. Read the thread as AnWulf put forth.

@jayles: "Q: is "headstrong" pejorative or not???"

I am a little late here, but I say NO. I guess it may be some-what softer to say "greatly willful": folks like this know who they are anyway. You won't be slighting them in the least bit.

German [auf dem] hōh(e)n uover = hōh(e)n(u)over > hōnover > han(n)over

O.English [ǣt thǣm] hēa(h)n ōfer = hēanō(f)er > hēanō(f)r > hēanōr

Oops...>> bad overbringing >> '[auf] dem hōh(e)n', "on the high"; also, OE thǣm = German dem.

@AnWulf:

HEAN (HENE) seems to survive in town names like Hinton Blewett, Sommerset, England. In the Domesday, it was "Hantone" < from hean "poor" + tun "enclosure".

Hidden knowledge >>> the town name Heanor (in Derbyshire, England) is akin to Han(n)over [Niedersachsen, Germany]

"German Hohn, verhöhnen? for hosp .. hosc ... "

Hohn (scorn, mock, ridicule) < OHG hōna/hōni "mock", OE hēan " low, mean, wretched, depressed, abject, humble, poor, miserable, humiliated; despicable < PGmc. *haunijō, *haunaz (cf. MLG/MHG hōn, Gothic haun(s), ON hāδ, OFris hāna, Dutch hoon)

OE words from hēan:

hēanlic > ignominious, abject, poor
hēanmōd > downcast, depressed, sad
hēannes > treading down
hēanspēdig > poor

It can be muddled with the nominative/accusative plural of hēah 'high', which is also spelled hēan, as in hēa(h)nes ("highness") as so on and so forth.

Overweening > O.E. oferwenian, overwēnan > over + wenan; WEEN "think, hope, intend, expect, suppose"; also, "doubt" < M.E. wene < Old English wēn, wēna < O.E. wēnan "to think" < O.S. wānian, O.N. væna, O.Fris. wena, O.H.G. wanen, Ger. wähnen & Wahn, Goth. wēnjan "to expect, suppose, think" < PGmc. *wēniz, *wēnōn; *wēnijanan.

@AnWulf:

SHELL, SHEATH, SHED, asf., all have the same root, as do O.E. shīde(n), sceādan, scādan, MDu. schiden, MHG schiden, German scheiden, asf.

Oh, and sh*t(e) is from the PGmc root, too! ;-)

@AnWulf: "I'm trying to chase one down now ... shiden (v) to cut/separate ... from Du/Ger (scheiden). I'm trying to see how it was conjugated ... "

Old English sceādan (sceādan), scādan "to cut, divide" < P.Gmc. *skaithanan (cf. Goth, skáiđan, OS. skēdan, skēđan, OHG. sceidan, German scheiden* (small 's' please*)

Sceādan > Present: ic sceāde, þū sceādst, hē sceādþ, wē sceādaþ, gē sceādaþ
hīo sceādaþ; Past: ic sceēd; sceēd, þū sceēde; sceēde, hē sceēd; sceēd, wē sceēdon; sceēdon, gē sceēdon; sceēdon, hīo sceēdon; sceēdon

Scādan > Present: ic scāde, þū scādst, hē scādþ, wē scādaþ, gē scādaþ, hīo scādaþ; Past: ic scēd, þū scēde, hē scēd, wē scēdon, gē scēdon, hīo scēdon

English has its words SHED and SHEATH from this Old English word.