@AnWulf: "Only Icelandic has a different word than a form of communication"

How do you mean "communication"? In German, we have a lot of ways to say and to mean this.

Something out of left field....

Þuma (thumb), scytelfinger (index finger, lit. wagging finger), middelfinger (middle finger), lǽcefinger (ring finger, lit. leech finger--how seemly!), eárefinger (little finger, pinky, lit. ear finger)

@AnWulf: "His height, his strength, and his wit are traits wanted by many."

Old English has 'mearcung' which means "characteristic". Feature and Trait fit in with 'characteristic'. We could get rid of these words that are needless and overmuch > quality, feature, characteristic, trait, attribute, property, and sign. Maybe others, too!

Teutonic words are sharper in meaning. A "man of mark" is a man of worthy, noble character.

"His height, his strength, and his wit are marks wanted by many."

Garçonnière: F. garçon "boy, servant, waiter" (oblique form of gars (12.c) "lad, boy") < Old French garçun< VL (g)w(a)racio(n) < Frankish *warkkjo, *wrakkjo(n) + -ière (fem. suffix meaning 'location')

rendezvous >> F. (lit. present yourselves) >> Anglo-French could be "render yourselves" >> English "show yourselves"...literally, of course.

meet-up, get together, hangout, forgather, tryst (O.N. treysta, traust), asf.

AnWulf: "If you need a word for pierce that is still in the wordbook, try "thirl", I like the ME spelling of thurl ... þurl better, but thirl is still in the wordbook. "

Yeah, "thirl" is used everyday in the word NOSTRIL (nos(u) + thyrel = nose hole)!

LOL! ;-)

@jayles >> "It is nonsense to be 100% purist; no language is. It is a matter of keeping the borrowings within reasonable bounds."

YES! Although it's not Norman...the word "trait" came into English about the end of the 1400's. Trait < Mid.Fr. trai(c)t(s)--- (pp. of F. traire) < L. tactus < L. trahere "to pull, draw, drag, or move out".

Words from the same Latin root are > treat, tract, trace (pl. of trait, 'trais'), tractor, attract, contract, subtract, portrait (F. 'trait-pour-trait'), asf.

Funny, French "cheval de trait" = English "draught-horse". So, why not neatly English trait by "calquing" it?

@jayles: "I am shielding English from outlandish inflows."

LOL...ROFLMAO! >> how's that for "outlandish inflows" from the Technology Age that have sickened English!

I have read that in in South-West Lincolnshire, England, the folks say things like, "He has happened a bad accident" (A bad accident happened to him); "He happened a misfortune last back-end." Sounds awkward to me, too.

Also, while looking this up, I found a word to put in stead of "occur": Hap!

"Karma is a theory of causation: because this happed that happened."

"What accident hath happed Hieronimo?"

It's great, since it can be used with "happen". As for "happened accident", I guess you are right. Although it would be good to have something like this to mean "an accident that had already happed." Maybe a "happed accident". I am for getting rid of "accident" altogether, and simply saying "mishap".

Alphabet = O.E. ābēcēdē (lit. saying the 1st four letters), stæfrǣw(e), stæfrōf "letter set".

@jayles: "...but not "a decided question"; "a happened accident"."

These are understandable...it might sound a little awkward...it is said that a "question has already been decided upon"...why not make it shorter? >> that question has been decided >> that is a decided question.