Paucity of Germanic adjectives in English

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English is generally classified as Germanic language, despite having less than a third of its vocabulary from Germanic roots.

One of the principal reasons why English is considered a Germanic rather than Romance language is that most of its basic everyday words are Germanic. Let's see if that is true of adjectives. Here is the list of the 25 most common adjectives in English:

  1. good => Germanic
  2. new => PIE (Latin novus, Old English neowe)
  3. first => Germanic
  4. last => Germanic
  5. long => Latin
  6. great => PIE (Latin grandis, West Germanic *grautaz)
  7. little => Germanic but quite rare in other modern Germanic languages
  8. own => Germanic
  9. other => PIE (Latin alter, Proto-Germanic *antharaz)
  10. old => Germanic
  11. right => Germanic
  12. big => unique to English
  13. high => PIE (French haut, Latin altus, Old English heh, Proto-Germanic *haukhaz)
  14. different => Latin
  15. small => Germanic
  16. large => Latin
  17. next => Germanic
  18. early => Germanic but unique to English nowadays
  19. young => Germanic
  20. important => Latin
  21. few => PIE (*pau 'little, few'), but only survived in English and Romance languages (Latin paucus, French peu)
  22. public => Latin
  23. bad => unique to English
  24. same => Germanic but unique to English
  25. able => Latin

Only 10 of the top 25 adjectives are of purely Germanic origin and have cognates in other modern Germanic languages.

This oddity is even more apparent when one looks at the most basic adjectives in English. Lots of them have no cognate in other modern Germanic languages, and the etymology of some is so mysterious that nobody knows where they come from. A few examples:

English adjectives of unclear/unknown origin

- average
- bad
- big
- crazy
- funny
- lazy
- tired

English adjectives of Proto-Indo-European origin but unique to English

- cheap => English coinage
- evil
- healthy
- hollow
- mad => derived from a PIE and Germanic root, but meaning(s) unique to English.
- quick => based on a Proto-Germanic and PIE root, but sense of 'fast' unique to English.
- sad => based on a Proto-Germanic and PIE root for 'satiated'

English adjectives probably based on a Germanic root but unique to English

- blunt => cognates vaguely with Old Norse, but ultimately of unknown origin.
- clever
- dark
- dirty
- empty => found in Old English, but of unknown origin.
- happy
- tall
- scary => derived from Old Norse, but of unknown origin.
- smooth => found in Old English, but of unknown origin.
- steep => probably Germanic, but of unknown origin.
- stingy => English coinage
- straight => derived from Old English but origin unknown
- swift => English coinage
- wicked => English coinage from the Old English noun wicca. Unique to English.


English adjectives with ancient Germanic cognates but no modern ones

- angry => only found in Old English and Gothic
- back => only found in Old English and Old Frisian
- early => only found in Old English or Old Norse
- fair
- flat
- guilty => only found in Old English
- hilly
- ill => vaguely cognates with Old Norse
- naughty => only found in Old English
- shallow => only found in Old English
- together => only found in Old English


English adjectives with a few modern Germanic cognates but of unknown, probably non-Germanic origin

- busy => only related to Old Dutch bezich, Low GerMan besig.
- lean => vaguely related to the East Frisian luf, Dutch dialectal loof.
- narrow => sole cognates in Dutch and Frisian; probably not from Proto-Germanic.


English adjectives of Germanic origin but with a unique sense/usage in English

- clean => distantly related to the West Germanic term for small, but English sense not found elsewhere.
- creepy
- kind => derived from the Germanic word for 'kin'.
- mean => derived from the Old English gemæne (common, public), from the Germanic root *ga-mainiz meaning 'possessed jointly'.
- pretty => of West Germanic origin, but English meaning not found elsewhere.
- ready => derived from the Germanic word for 'arranged'.
- same => derived from the Germanic word for 'together'.
- silly => derived from the Germanic word for 'happy'.
- tiny
- wrong => derived from the Germanic word for 'crooked'.
- ugly => derived fom Old Norse, but unique to English with this meaning.


English adjectives of Romance origin but with a unique sense/usage in English

- cheerful => Anglo-Fr. chere and Latin cara, both meaning 'face'.
- cute => perhaps derived from the Romance word 'acute', but otherwise unique to English.
- nice => derived many times from Latin nescius ('ignorant'); unique to English.
- proud => derived from the Old French prud (brave, valiant), itself from Latin prode (profitable).


All the above (57 words listed so far) could be considered coinages of English or Old English, or words that have died out in other modern languages. The fact that they are unique to English makes me want to count them separately from true Germanic words.


Examples of adjectives that have obvious equivalent in other modern Germanic languages and can therefore truly be classified in the modern Germanic family include:

  1. bitter
  2. broad
  3. cold
  4. cool
  5. dead
  6. deep
  7. dull
  8. dusty
  9. dry
  10. even
  11. far
  12. fast
  13. fat
  14. fierce
  15. first
  16. free
  17. friendly
  18. full
  19. good
  20. hard
  21. high
  22. hot
  23. hungry
  24. late
  25. last
  26. light
  27. lively
  28. loud
  29. lovely
  30. low
  31. lucky
  32. next
  33. old
  34. open
  35. right
  36. ripe
  37. rotten
  38. sharp
  39. shiny
  40. shy
  41. sick
  42. slow
  43. soft
  44. sour
  45. strong
  46. sweet
  47. thick
  48. thin
  49. thirsty
  50. true
  51. young
  52. warm
  53. weak
  54. well
  55. wet
  56. wild
  57. wise
  58. witty
  59. wonderful

Some single- or double-syllable adjectives may have a Germanic look to them (at least for people not well versed in Latin or Romance languages), but are actually derived from Latin or Old French:

  1. afraid
  2. bland
  3. clear
  4. close
  5. eager
  6. easy
  7. faithful
  8. faint
  9. fancy
  10. fine
  11. foolish
  12. fresh
  13. huge
  14. miser
  15. mute
  16. noisy
  17. nasty
  18. poor
  19. powerful
  20. quaint
  21. quiet
  22. safe
  23. spicy
  24. square
  25. tasty

The vast remainder of common adjectives in English are all from French or Latin.

  1. able
  2. acid
  3. adorable
  4. agreeable
  5. alert
  6. amused
  7. ancient
  8. annoyed
  9. automatic
  10. anxious
  11. arrogant
  12. beautiful
  13. brave
  14. brief
  15. calm
  16. careful
  17. cautious
  18. charming
  19. chemical
  20. colourful
  21. comfortable
  22. common
  23. complete
  24. complex
  25. complicated
  26. concerned
  27. condemned
  28. confused
  29. conscious
  30. cooperative
  31. courageous
  32. cruel
  33. curious
  34. damaged
  35. dangerous
  36. defeated
  37. defiant
  38. delicate
  39. delightful
  40. dependent
  41. depressed
  42. determined
  43. different
  44. difficult
  45. disgusted
  46. distinct
  47. disturbed
  48. doubtful
  49. elated
  50. elegant
  51. embarrassed
  52. enchanting
  53. encouraging
  54. energetic
  55. enthusiastic
  56. envious
  57. excited
  58. expensive
  59. exuberant
  60. false
  61. famous
  62. fantastic
  63. feeble
  64. female
  65. fertile
  66. fixed
  67. fragile
  68. frantic
  69. frequent
  70. future
  71. general
  72. gentle
  73. gigantic
  74. glorious
  75. graceful
  76. greasy
  77. grotesque
  78. hilarious
  79. important
  80. impossible
  81. infamous
  82. innocent
  83. inquisitive
  84. large
  85. long
  86. male
  87. married
  88. massive
  89. material
  90. medical
  91. medium
  92. military
  93. miniature
  94. mixed
  95. modern
  96. necessary
  97. nervous
  98. normal
  99. obedient
  100. obnoxious
  101. opposite
  102. outrageous
  103. panicky
  104. parallel
  105. past
  106. perfect
  107. physical
  108. plain
  109. pleasant
  110. poised
  111. polite
  112. political
  113. possible
  114. present
  115. private
  116. probable
  117. public
  118. rapid
  119. real
  120. repulsive
  121. rich
  122. round
  123. second
  124. secret
  125. separate
  126. serious
  127. silent
  128. simple
  129. sociable
  130. solid
  131. special
  132. splendid
  133. strange
  134. stupid
  135. successful
  136. sudden
  137. terrible
  138. terrific
  139. usual
  140. victorious
  141. violent
  142. vivacious


All in all, I have listed 57 adjectives unique to English, 59 of Germanic origin, and 167 of Romance origin. Out of a total of 283 common adjectives, only 20% have cognates in modern Germanic languages.
 
Last edited:
Only 10 of the top 25 adjectives are of purely Germanic origin and have cognates in other modern Germanic languages.

IMHO that standard is too high. I think we should instead focus on words that have apparent Germanic transmission, i.e., they got into English via Germanic speech. Otherwise, you're dismissing words that apparently come from a Germanic source, just because they haven't changed much in the Germanic family or the rest of IE over time.

Then we get:


  1. good => Germanic
  2. new => Germanic (O.E. neowe, A.S. niwe, Proto-Germanic *newjaz)
  3. first => Germanic
  4. last => Germanic
  5. long => Germanic (O.E. lang, Proto-Germanic *langgaz)
  6. great => Germanic (O.E. great, Proto-Western-Germanic *grautaz)
  7. little => Germanic
  8. own => Germanic
  9. other => Germanic (O.E oþer, Proto-Germanic *antharaz)
  10. old => Germanic
  11. right => Germanic
  12. big => Germanic (originated in a Germanic context possibly from Norse bugge)
  13. high => Germanic (O.E. heh, A.S. heah, Proto-Germanic *haukhaz)
  14. different => Latin
  15. small => Germanic
  16. large => Latin
  17. next => Germanic
  18. early => Germanic
  19. young => Germanic
  20. important => Latin
  21. few => Germanic (O.E. feawe, Proto-Germanic *faw-)
  22. public => Latin
  23. bad => Germanic (originated in a Germanic context possibly from O.E. bæddel)
  24. same => Germanic
  25. able => Latin

I get 20/25.
 
I couldn't finish writing everything I wanted last night, so I have expanded and reorganised my original post.
 
I couldn't finish writing everything I wanted last night, so I have expanded and reorganised my original post.

interesting
without checking I could say that:
right is not only germanic but shared with latin rect-us + breton reizh surely from latin sources?
for high I see not link with latin alt-us nor french haut << aut (the 'h' is from a frankish influence)
lazy could be link to french loisir (ancient dialects leisir)???
straight maybe strict-us ???
very uncertain: health-y from a brittonic calet ? welsh caled breton kaled : "hard" + "resistant" ???
just bets
 
interesting
without checking I could say that:
right is not only germanic but shared with latin rect-us + breton reizh surely from latin sources?
for high I see not link with latin alt-us nor french haut << aut (the 'h' is from a frankish influence)
lazy could be link to french loisir (ancient dialects leisir)???
straight maybe strict-us ???
very uncertain: health-y from a brittonic calet ? welsh caled breton kaled : "hard" + "resistant" ???
just bets

You are correct for right and high. The others are debatable though.

I will create a separate list for adjectives shared by both Germanic and Romance languages, since English is a hybrid of these two families and could have inherited the word from either or both. I actually think that English did attempt to merge the pronunciations of the Old/Middle English and French/Latin terms whenever these were similar. That would explain why English has an intermediary spelling and pronunciation for many words. For example :

- one : in between the French un and the Dutch een ; 'one' used to be pronounced 'on', just like the Walloon word, which is also a hybrid of Romance and Germanic. It would be interesting to know what the Anglo-French and Norman French dialect word for one is.
 
you are right and I just made some propositions without going farther
for intermediary phonetic forms, I'm not sure... perhaps?

for the word 'one' I don't know: the southern english pronounciation for a lot of germanic words with previous long 'E' /éé/ which gave long /éé/ too in netherlandish, "frisic" and scandinavian , but a lot of diphtongs or new monophtongd in german dialects: /ai/+/äi//èi//èè//ää//öö//oi//wa//aa//ââ/ -
english (southern) has a 'o' 'oa' spelling /oo//ëo//ëw/ pronounciation (approximative, I have no phonetic fonts)
as in 'stone' ('stein') / 'oak' ('eich') / 'broad' ('breit') / 'more' ('mehr') ... when scot english has 'stane', 'ake'/'aik' / 'braid' / 'mare' etc... we can figure out an evolution /éé/>>/èi/>>/ai/>>/aa/>>/oo/ ?
I know 'one' is pronounced /won//wën/ in place of expected /ëon//ëwn/or /oon/ but ?!? no french nor walloon pronounciation has /wo/ in 'un' but only /ö~/ or /o~???/ fémi. /ün//un/
just to bet too
 
for the number of adjectives compared by source, I believe that the most necessary (urgent) are germanic and that maybe the first pure anglo-saxon elite societies had more germanic adjectives but that in future high level language, for precise and specific meanings, the french and latin adjectives took the strong side upon the genuine anglo-saxon ones - almost in every language I know the low level language uses often periphrases or other idiomatic ways to express some uncommon meanings and that high level language tries ti do with the minimum of words andwith the most possible precise words - for more "ground" life meanings, the low level language can express things very quickly and directly, at the contrary - the competition between the two sources of language for english was not a "fair play one", speaking about social classes languages ?
 

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