@Thorn,

People won't bide that which is unfashionable. Make something trendy, then they will grace any idea with childlike obsession. Balls, to the idea that folk won't take on new words, they do it daily in work, the pub, social networks. Anyway that's why we're chatting, about the reintroduction and edquickening of those words which have been wrongly rendered redundant. A clever ploy, applied in just the right way could have Beckham speaking like Beowulf in an eyeblink. That simple.

@ Thorn,

Yeah, switch and shift could be used more, but in relation to 'swap' or 'exchange' then I see no problem with wissel/wistel - though I would back the double-S spelling first to avoid ambiguity with its tuneful neighbour.

I yeasay that one!

Wissel sounds like its long overdue its place in modern English. And if Broad Scots has it then it most definitely is true English.

Probably the closest thing you'll get to how ME would've sounded if the conquest hadn't happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhBuT_b5Uc8

Hone is a true OE word, originally meaning a whetstone - one hones a blade, as one hones skill. I find the US English explanation a bit misleading.

@Jayles. hear hear!

Ive been pushing the teaching of Dutch for all primary children for years. Brits are fecking lazy, and unfortunately still well zombie-like in their unfraining(unquestioning) of Francophilia. I do a little like you, Jayles, and try and sneak a few doublets or triplets into my blogs and business correspondence. Wordstock and Wordhoard are some of my faves, others however are 'chuckleworthy, mirthmaking, middenmouthed' the list goes on, just keep trying to use the old stock, and then I suppose change is quicker than any of us think.

''Well, how do new words make it into today's wordbook? Why can't Old English words be dusted off, spelled anew to meet today's standards''

Again Aengelfolc, you're speaking my speak.

Ah, yes, but we live in times of the internet - dare to dream big! :))

Also, the 17th and 18th Century bookish folk didnt give a monkeys about messing around with spellings in some misguided belief that they were aligning spelling to its correct conclusive form. As long as the anewed words aren't forcerred by weird and wacky ideas of spelling, and stick to accepted norms, then there should be no hardship in bringing words back into use.

Unfortunately the word 'benote' exists and is used as another verb to describe annotation. I dont see any problem with us deciding a spelling variant of the OE word notian, taking into account plausible sound and spelling changes to get it from ME to modern English. Sikerly, we can decide upon one or the other? Else we have to try and convince the English speaking world to change their usage of the word ' note' and 'benote' which smacks of utter impossibility.

All well and good, Jayles and thank you for doing the research bit.

However the strongest contenders/ kempers for the spelling we should adopt are still 'noot or nute' Nutte whilst possibly the closest to the original would undoubtedly be said 'nut' as this is a widely used slang term for 'head butting' then I think it would again fall victim to ambiguity.

So the question still remains: ' nute or noot ' (pron - nyoot & noot) or both and adopt one for the word enjoy and one for use? Though Im aware some dialects will pronounce the spellings identically.