Word Swaps

The Grounds

The following words must be wiped from thy mind. Not only for that they are French or Latin or whatever, but rather, that they are unneeded. Why, when there is an English word which fulfils the same meaning, is there need for any other?

One might say that any word is as good as another (which is right), and hold that it is unfair that the words below should go instead of the words I mean to swap them with. But, in English, ought we not choose the English word over the French word? or the Latin word? Indeed for too long we have done it the other way and outtaken the English word for the sake of something 'better'.

But in speech, no tongue is better than another, and no word better than another, so the grounds for a new word being brought into English is flawed. So let us not overthrow the Latin and French in our tongue for its own sake, but rather to build back the English formerly overthrown on flawed grounds.

The Words

A

abandon – All of the meanings of the deedword can be given as forsake. The nameword may be better given as wantonness or recklessness.

actually – This word has become one of the most oversaid words in English today, with some strewing their speech with it. No longer say the word where it is meaningless or only fills a gap, and everwhere else swap with in truth. Thus ‘I haven’t actually read the book’ becomes ‘In truth, I’ve not read the book’.

aid – This word, and others with the same meaning (assist and succour), is nothing but pretty clothing for the English word help.

animal – A Latin word which shoved out the older French beast, which itself had shoved out the even older English deer. Sadly, deer now has a whole other meaning, and cannot take on this one. Happily, there is another, albeit old and seldom, word with this meaning: wight.

annual – In English, we don’t say annus, we say year. Therefore, don’t say annual, say yearly.

arouse – This word could be mistaken for being English, but is in truth from French. In all meanings its best swap is stir, but some meanings may ring better with awake.

assist – This word, and others with the same meaning (aid and succour), is nothing but pretty clothing for the english word help.

assistant – As above, swap for the less pretty but more worthy helper.

asterisk – It is almost beyond belief that anyone thought this a better word than star.

B

bakery – This word is fairly new, being first seen in 1857, and is nothing more than bake with the French ending –erie, roughly meaning ‘a house for doing X’. The ending is found in a few other words, and doesn’t look good in any. The true English word, first written by Ælfric over a thousand years ago, is bakehouse.

berate – This is only one of many such words in English that mean roughly the same thing (berate, rebuke, reprimand, reproach, reprove and others), all of which come French and Latin. This is among the strongest of them, and so the right word is scold.

beverage – Nothing but a silly French word for drink.

blemish – Everywhere this word can become mar, though the nameword may be better given as flaw.

boil – It is sad to see such an everyday word coming from French, for its shows how much English has been drawn to that tongue. The older homeborn word is seethe, whose meaning has narrowed and needs to be put back.

botany – The wordbook gives the meaning ‘the science or study of plants’, which cleanly fits into wortlore, a word thought up long ago by William Barnes.

brewery – Another word with the French ending –erie (see bakery). It has nothing over the older brewhouse.

C

cable – The meaning of this word hinges on the thing’s girth. Small is wire, great is rope (which can be made of either steel or hemp).

calculate – The right word for this is reckon, which no longer has the weaker meaning like ‘think’ or ‘believe’. This word is also shared with compute and count.

calculator – As one would think, this is now reckoner.

circumference – This is the length all the way about something, and can be thought of as a belt, another name for which (seen on horses) is girth.

colour – It is sad that we have let this word shove out our own, which is not only as good, but far older. It is to be thanked that the old word has not died, and yet lingers on as hue.

compute – The right word for this is reckon, which no longer has the weaker meaning like ‘think’ or ‘believe’. This word is also shared with calculate and count.

count – The right word for this is reckon, which no longer has the weaker meaning like ‘think’ or ‘believe’. This word is also shared with calculate and compute.

cub – No one knows where this word comes from, it could either be from Irish or Danish. It is better to be sound than sorry, so swap with whelp.

custom – In the meaning ‘made to the buyer’s needs’ only, the English word is bespoke.

cygnet – This is a silly word, and odd to think that anyone cared to borrow it. Following after the names for the young of other waterfowl: duck and duckling, goose and gosling, swan and swanling.

D

deceive – A better word for this is mislead. For not only does it more starkly show the meaning ‘to lead away from the truth’, but also it has kinwords in almost all German tongues, such as German missleiten, Dutch misleiden and Danish mislede.

diary – This word comes from the Latin diarius meaning ‘daily’, and the word was given to the book into which daily happenings were written. There is already an English word for this from the field of business: daybook.

dictionary – A book full of words? Yes, thou guessed it, a wordbook.

dislike – This a halfbreed word, dis- is Latin and like is English. It is shaped after and shoved out the earlier mislike.

dozen – Why? No, why? What was ever wrong with twelve? If one wishes it to mean ‘many’ then tens will do.

E

egregious – This word, like many others, has been trashed for those who say it do not know what it means. In Latin, it first meant ‘rising above the flock’, and later took on the meaning outstanding, which it ought to be swapped with. But some write it to mean ‘outstandingly bad’ for which the right word could be rank, glaring or awful.

estuary – A ‘learned’ word this one, from the height of the borrowing madness. A wonderful word coming from Danish by way of Scots fills the gap. That word is firth. (Bear in mind that it always comes after the name. So: Humber Firth, Severn Firth, Thames Firth and so on.)

eventually – Why the long word? If something was to happen one week or one year from now, we would say ‘in a week’ or ‘in a year’. Likewise, if something was to happen in an unknown time from now, we can say in time.

ex- – When written with a dash (not freestanding or on the beginning of a word), this only means ‘at an earlier time’. Sometimes the word erstwhile fits best, and so ‘an ex-friend’ can become ‘an erstwhile friend’. Though mostly the best swap (with or without a dash) is former.

F

faeces – Thou knows what this word means, and thou knows its match in English, but thou’d rather not say it. Why? Does thou think it is a rough, mean word that shames thee to say when among mild folk or children? Does thou think that maybe a lovely Latin word would soften the thought of it? I don’t. It’s thy shame and thy shortcoming, so hard shit.

firmament – I don’t think this word has been seen much outside the Bible, and on good grounds. The word sky, or the seldom welkin, can be put in its stead, but the best swap is heaven.

forceps – Another Latin word said only by those in the fields of healing and childbirth. The true Latin word forceps means ‘the tool with which a smith takes hot things out of a hearth’. Everywhere, the word is a straight swap for its English match: tongs.

G

generous – This comes from the Latin generosus meaning ‘of high birth’, with the thought that such folk always give freely, and gainwise, those of low birth do not. A better word, showing that it more means to give willingly, is openhanded.

generously – This word can have two meanings: the first is ‘much’ for which the English word is handsomely, the next, like generous, is anent willingness, for which the word is freely.

H

hiatus – A straight swap with either gap or break.

homicide – This word has a great mist about its meaning, even though most folk think it means only murder. It can also mean manslaughter, for the word does not show whether the killing was meaningful or not. Also, it can mean ‘one who kills another’, for which the english words would be murderer and manslaughterer (or if thou would rather: manslayer).

I

incorrect – This is not the right word. The right word is wrong.

insane – The English word for this is mad, and always has been. But bear in mind that some folk take the word mad to mean angry. (I think this ought to be stopped for the sake of keeping two words with sharp meanings instead of letting one melt into the other.)

J

jump – Where this word comes from is unknown, though it may be French. Anyway, the j- at the beginning means it has great unlikelihood of being English. In some meanings it can become spring, but the best swap is leap.

junior – Everywhere this become either young, youth or younger. For names it may take a the before it, so it would be: Martin Luther King the Younger.

K

kiosk – This word has come far from its Persian roots, and it seems a shame to get rid of it, but a wholly good word for the same thing is already in English: booth.

L

lake – Some believe this word was in Old English, which it was after a kind, but likely did not give rise to this word. It is therefore hard to choose whether or not this word needs swapping. I think it is no great sin to leave this word in First English, but if thou wishes to have another word, then mere is the fit.

It must be borne in mind that unlike lake which often comes before a name, mere always comes after (this in itself makes the latter a better English word). Thus Lake Barkley becomes Barkley Mere.

leash – Oddly, English has two words for this: the first for when a wight is being walked, which is lead, and the other for when it is tied to the spot, which is tether.

M

malnourish – This mostly means ‘give too little food’, for which the word is underfeed. Another meaning, though less seen, is ‘give food that is not healthy enough’, the word for which is ill-feed.

marriage – As a nameword from the deed this is most often wedding, though there are many kinds of wedding, one of which is the heathen handfast. With the meaning ‘being as wedded’, the word is wedlock.

megaphone – Thomas Edison came up with both this word and the tool itself. Maybe this word is therefore better left alone, but maybe it is better swapped with loudhailer.

N

naïve – Worth killing only to be rid of the ‘dïërësïs’, one less token of learnedness! Its gap can be filled with callow, which, if thou knew not, also can mean ‘unfledged’.

navy – A straight swap everywhere with fleet.

O

occasionally – I find this a hard word to spell and it seems to have lost any meaningful link with occasion. A better word is sometimes.

ocean – Do we truly need two words for the same thing? No, moreso when one comes from a flawed understanding of the world. Dump this word for sea.

oppose – There is a wonderful old word for this, which has been little seen in English since the 1600s, though may have lived much longer in Scots: gainstand. It brings to mind the sight of one wishing to do something but another standing in between and stopping it from happening. What can thou see when thou says the word oppose? Anything? or it is but a dead word?

P

phlebotomy – While I don’t think thou’ll ever wish to say this word, it is good to know that it means bloodletting.

preface – One would have hoped this word were dead by now. In 1842 the German word Vorwart was brought over into English. The meanings of the two words fit wholly, yet preface has kept ground against foreword.

pub – Short for public house, which doesn’t bear enough meaning, for the house may be open, but open for what? An older and more meaningful word is alehouse.

publish – In the beginning, this word meant 'make something public', but has since been narrowed mainly to books and other writings. With this in mind, the right word is either bring out or outbring.

pulsate – If it is meant to be weak, then the word could be throb. But the best overall swap is beat.

pulse¹ – As with pulsate, both throb and beat could be said, but when speaking about the flow of blood, the word is heartbeat.

pulse² – For the meaning ‘fleshy seed’, the English word is bean, though the word must be thought of as having broadened to mean any like seed.

pup – This word has had an odd and winding life, with the word from which it was born meaning ‘girl’! The old word for this (shared among all German tongues) is whelp.

Q

quit – For many meanings this can be swapped with stop or forsake, though for the meaning ‘give up’ it could better be yield.

quotidian – This is the word I mislike the most, not only for its worthlessness, but also for that it lives, though I have never heard anyone say it. Those writers who keep it alive seem to think it betters their work, but I think they forgot the word daily.

R

radio – If thou is older than most, then thou’ll already know what word I’m about to come out with: wireless. To my mind it has far more meaning (moreso with today’s other meanings of the word).

razor – Building upon the deedword shave, the word for this ought to be shaver. This may ring odd to thee, but Old English did have sceafa, which in shape and meaning is greatly alike.

refulgent – Mostly a straight swap for shining, though if a stronger meaning is needed, the word brightly can be put before.

retirement – This word come from French retirer which means ‘withdraw’, and I do not think this is a good way to think of it. A better word, which shows that those of many years ought to be held in high standing, is elderhood.

S

scissors – Like with some other words, we need to go to Scotland to find a good English word for these, which is shears. The word is broad enough to mean any ‘two hinged blades’ whether great or small.

slave – One who is owned by or bound to work for another is a thrall. Can also be said to mean ‘bound in mind or soul’.

subterranean – This word is built from the Latin sub meaning ‘under’ and terra meaning ‘ground’. Forgive me if I dare say this word ought to be underground.

succour – This word, and others with the same meaning (assist and succour), is nothing but pretty clothing for the English word help.

T

tavern – I think that folk stopped saying this word earnestly some years ago, and now it lives on in ‘ye olde’ names only. But, if you do feel the need to say this word, don’t. Say alehouse.

theatre – Though there are many meanings to this word, the first and oldest ‘where one watches a play’, is better given as playhouse.

U

uterus – Another lovely Latin word from the field of healing (see forceps). Again unneeded, for we already have the word womb.

V

vacuity – This can sometimes mean idleness, as in ‘much given to slumber and vacuity’, but it mostly means emptiness.

value – The nameword becomes worth, and the deedword likely best becomes worthe.

W

wait – Though greatly old, and, in truth, coming from a German tongue, it is nevertheless a French word. The English word, now seldom, is bide.

X Y Z

zero – As with dozen, it is so hard to think why anyone felt the need to borrow a word for this. Most tongues have enough dealwords (low ones, that is), and any borrowing of them whatsoever is seldom, yet in English we have not one but two. Throw it away and write nought in its stead.

zoo – Short for zoological gardens, which, rather wonderfully, comes out in English as wightyard.

zoology – As with zoo, we need only follow the thoughtpath and build it up from words we already have. The outcome is wightlore.