@AnWulf: "Anglo-Saxon has a verb weorthian ... to make worthy / to honor ... I haven't found a modern verb form for it."

O.E. weorþian or weorðian "to honor, to endow,adorn" < O.E. weorþ "worth, deserving, esteemed, honored, price, value, dignity" < PGmc. *werþaz (cf. Old Saxon werþ, Old Norse verðr, German Wert, Gothic wairþus, wairþ "price") = English 'worth'.

Instead of COLOR:

HUE, "a color; a shade of a color; tint; blee" < Old English hīw, akin to Old Norse hȳ < PGmc.*hiwjan

EX1. "...the rosy hue of hindsight..."
EX2. "...all the hues of the rainbow..."

BLEE (Archaic), "color; hue; likeness; complexion; shape" < O.E. blēo(h) < PGmc. *blījan, *blīwan. From the same root as English blithe (O.E. blīþe "joyous, bliss, happy").

There were only about 500 words of Latin-French origin in English before 1250 AD, about 1000 before 1400 AD. Maybe that is the cut-off?

Those with the will should scour (from Old Norse skūr) the wordstock for all Latin-French words that came in after 1400, and find an English or Germanic word to put in its stead.

Thoughts?

"Jared wasn’t the only one who lived outside of the (bulwarked) walls but those who did were often (looked upon) with mistrust of not wanting to be part of the Gathering. (Brazen) (selfhood) could lead to one being shunned until one (made amends)."

1. Blatant > Brazen, Bald, Bold, Garish,

2. Individualism > Selfhood (1. The state of having a distinct identity; individuality. 2. The fully developed self; an achieved personality.) See, English doesn't need this word either!

3. Repent > make amends, square up, withdraw (withdrew > take back, unsay), forswear, asf.

Thanks, AnWulf, for showing that "(em)biggen" is right and true....even today!

@jayles: I can see what you mean! Greek μεταφορά (metaphorá) means "a transfer" < metaphérein "to transfer".

META means "beyond, after, among, behind, higher, over" or "change or alteration of something". Greek μετά is akin to O.E. mid "with, together with, into the presence of, through, by means of, by, among, in, at (time), in the sight of, opinion of”", ON/Icelandic með, and the other like Germanic words. Both are allegedly from PIE *medʰi- "with".

-PHOR(E) means "bearer of...", "thing or part doing the bearing", "carrier" < phérein "to bear"

metaphor < lit. "to carryover from one word to another"; The comparison of one thing to another without the use of like or as.

Icelandic says myndhvörf/myndhverfing/myndlíki(ing) "image, picture turning/ likness".

Wait...we have a good English word for "metaphor": KENNING.

@jayles >> "There was a happening in your class today", but that IS foreboding, isn't it? I like it, even if the status quo does not. Maybe, "goings-on" for incident would work, too.

I'll have to work on METAPHOR....

@jayles: "BTW I was taught at school (after the dinosaurs died out) that "big" and "get" were low class words and to be shunned; just because they are Norse perhaps."

Wow...'after' the dinosaurs died? LOL! Were you really taught that those Norse words were "low class" and should be forgotten? I guess that highlights and underpins my whole thought about "academia" being the main problem.

"Bug word of the day: "authoritative" - why do we have author AND writer? Why bring in the Greek? Oh no! it just LOOKS greek! really should AUGMENT my vocabulary!
A trustworthy source would be fine."

Your meaning here, for me, is betwixt and between. What do you mean? I know that 'authoratative', 'authority', 'author', and 'augment' are all kin to one another. Are you asking for a trustworthy book to grow you wordstock?

I myself do not like the word 'augment'. It is an unneeded word; It is overmuch. English speakers, instead, can say build up, grow, strengthen, beef up, make greater, "greaten", wax, asf.

What's more, a word akin to AUGMENT (from the same PIE root as the Latin and Greek) already was in Old English before it was taken in to English:

Old English ēaca (ON auki, Danish øge, Icelandic auka, Swedish öka; Gothic aukan; akin to German auch = English eke, eek). It means "to supplement; add to; stretch; to increase; grow; lengthen; enlarge. Why anyone thought English needed AUGMENT is way beyond me!

Sadly, the word only lives in the phrase "eke out" >> "They managed to eke out a living by farming a small piece of land."

Middle English eke, eake, eek "olso, too, in addition, moreover < Old English ēac, ēc = Dutch ook, Old Dutch ōk, Old Saxon ok, Old High German ouh (ouchon), Old Norse auk, Danish og, Swedish och, Gothic auk < PGmc. stem *auk-.

So, say instead, "(I) should indeed EKEN my wordstock!" ;-p

@jayles:

"I would call it uncommon/nonstandard English" Why...yes it is! That's the thing, we are talking about giving "standard English" a makeover.

Yes, "greaten" (first said c. 1614) is also a true, long forgotten, word that is now thought of as archaic, or "non-standard" English. It means "to make or become great or greater". It is good English--both words are.

"Can I greaten my political standing?"

Why couldn't you say these words? "I'd like to greaten the size of my house." Maybe it would sound odd, but so what? You'd be the talk of the town; a little quirky and offbeat! LOL

"Biggin" in "Biggin Hill" may be from the Scottish word meaning "a house, a cottage, a building". The word 'big' here is from Middle English biggen "to inhabit" < Old Norse byggja "to inhabit", akin to Old English bū(i)an "to build", German bauen "to build". This in mainly said in Scotland and North England.

A 'big(g)ing' or a 'biggins' is a 'stead, dwelling, home or a building'. There is a small town called Biggin in North Yorkshire, England. There is also a township called Newbiggin in the parish of Middleton-in-Teesdale, co. Durham; also a township in the parish of Shotley, co. Northumberland. "Newbiggin" >> "new building".

"...it is hard to do so at times without sounding like you lack an education."

This is the kind of thought that must be washed away. The "academics" have done a good job of selling this one to the folks!

"To my surprise, I found a conjugation of biggen" I don't make up words, like so many do, if I don't have to. That's why I also wrote where I got it from. I like the word, for what it's worth.

"Instead of wan(n)hope ... Why not just hopeless?" We would save "wan" (O.E. wann dark, gloomy < PGmc. *wannaz) and bolster "hope". I think it better, since wan(n) does not seem to be found in other Germanic tongues, save for English's nearest kin---> Old Frisian wann "dark".

@jayles: "ad nauseam >> ad queasiam???? "

How about "toward, at, about, to queasiness"? Latin 'ad-' is a cognate with Germanic 'at'.