Crystal devotes a couple of paragraphs to Coverdale's "role in the >development of English vocabulary". There are apparently 189 words that[...]
have their first OED citation in Coverdale's translation.
Anyhow, here are the examples that Crystal gives:[...]
behold
And a few others which didn't catch on:[...]
overmorrow (day after tomorrow)[...]
Of course this does not necessarily mean that Coverdale
made up these words -- merely that he was the first to put
them in print. I suppose you could argue that just putting
them in a book gave them an added currency, which could
be considered a contribution to the English vocabulary. But
I wish people would make these distinctions more clearly
(see my previous rants about Shakespeare in this connection).
Sat, 20 Jan 2024 12:18:33 +1300: Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz>
scribeva:
Crystal devotes a couple of paragraphs to Coverdale's "role in the >>development of English vocabulary". There are apparently 189 words that >>have their first OED citation in Coverdale's translation.[...]
Anyhow, here are the examples that Crystal gives:[...]
behold
And a few others which didn't catch on:[...]
overmorrow (day after tomorrow)[...]
His Bible translation may indeed have been the first time a word like >"overmorrow" appeared in print, but it seems very likely to be much
older, and not specially coined by the translator. That's because it >corresponds directly to Dutch 'overmorgen' and German 'übermorgen',
both still in current use.
Cf. my list in
https://rudhar.com/etymolog/TYSB/anciangl/ia.htm#Tabella .
Sat, 20 Jan 2024 12:18:33 +1300: Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz>
scribeva:
Crystal devotes a couple of paragraphs to Coverdale's "role in the >>development of English vocabulary". There are apparently 189 words that >>have their first OED citation in Coverdale's translation.[...]
Anyhow, here are the examples that Crystal gives:[...]
behold
And a few others which didn't catch on:[...]
overmorrow (day after tomorrow)[...]
His Bible translation may indeed have been the first time a word like "overmorrow" appeared in print, but it seems very likely to be much
older, and not specially coined by the translator. That's because it corresponds directly to Dutch 'overmorgen' and German 'übermorgen',
both still in current use.
Cf. my list in
https://rudhar.com/etymolog/TYSB/anciangl/ia.htm#Tabella .
His Bible translation may indeed have been the first time a word like "overmorrow" appeared in print, but it seems very likely to be much
older, and not specially coined by the translator. That's because it corresponds directly to Dutch 'overmorgen' and German 'übermorgen',
both still in current use.
Crystal devotes a couple of paragraphs to Coverdale's "role in the development of English vocabulary".
Anyhow, here are the examples that Crystal gives:
behold
And a few others which didn't catch on:
Babylonical (Babylonian)
On 2024-01-20, Ruud Harmsen <rh@rudhar.com> wrote:
His Bible translation may indeed have been the first time a word like
"overmorrow" appeared in print, but it seems very likely to be much
older, and not specially coined by the translator. That's because it
corresponds directly to Dutch 'overmorgen' and German 'übermorgen',
both still in current use.
"While in exile in Holland, Coverdale had worked with translator
William Tyndale", so a calque from Dutch-German feels like a distinct >possibility.
Duden online says the German term goes back to Old High German "ubar
morgan"; the dedicated etymological dictionaries don't list it.
On 2024-01-19, Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz> wrote:
Crystal devotes a couple of paragraphs to Coverdale's "role in the
development of English vocabulary".
Anyhow, here are the examples that Crystal gives:
behold
That is surprising, since "behold" looks like a very old formation.
And indeed, Etymonline and Wiktionary trace it back to an Old English
verb. So I don't know what Crystal has in mind here.
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