What is the oldest English word still in use?

Scientists at the University of Reading
University of Reading
The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college.
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have discovered that 'I', 'we', 'who' and the numbers '1', '2' and '3' are amongst the oldest words, not only in English, but across all Indo-European languages.


What is the oldest word still in use?

Mother, bark and spit are some of the oldest known words, say researchers. Continue reading → Mother, bark and spit are just three of 23 words that researchers believe date back 15,000 years, making them the oldest known words.

What was the 1st English word?

There was no first word. At various times in the 5th century, the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and other northern Europeans show up in what is now England. They're speaking various North Sea Germanic dialects that might or might not have been mutually understandable.


What is the oldest English word ever?

According to a 2009 study by researchers at Reading University, the oldest words in the English language include “I“, “we“, “who“, “two” and “three“, all of which date back tens of thousands of years.

What was the first real word ever?

Also according to Wiki answers,the first word ever uttered was “Aa,” which meant “Hey!” This was said by an australopithecine in Ethiopia more than a million years ago.


What's the Earliest English Word?



What are the 23 oldest words?

Science Says These are the Oldest 23 Words in the English...
  1. Thou. The singular form of "you," this is the only word that all seven language families share in some form. ...
  2. I. Similarly, you'd need to talk about yourself. ...
  3. Mother. ...
  4. Give. ...
  5. Bark. ...
  6. Black. ...
  7. Fire. ...
  8. Ashes.


What words are no longer used in the English language?

7 English words that nobody uses anymore (but totally should)
  • Facetious. Pronounced “fah-see-shuss”, this word describes when someone doesn't take a situation seriously, which ironically is very serious indeed. ...
  • Henceforth. ...
  • Ostentatious. ...
  • Morrow. ...
  • Crapulous. ...
  • Kerfuffle. ...
  • Obsequious.


What is the most uncommon English word?

Here are the fifteen most unusual words you can find in the English language.
  • Nudiustertian. ...
  • Quire. ...
  • Yarborough. ...
  • Tittynope. ...
  • Winklepicker. ...
  • Ulotrichous. ...
  • Kakorrhaphiophobia. ...
  • Xertz. Who would have imagined it?


What words don t exist anymore?

Let's bring them back!
  • Beef-Witted. Adjective. ...
  • Boreism. Noun. ...
  • Brabble. Verb. ...
  • Cockalorum. Noun: A braggart, a person with an overly high opinion of himself. ...
  • Crapulous. Adj: It sounds like a word Dr Seuss made up, but it's legit. ...
  • Fudgel. Verb: Pretending to work when you're really just goofing off. ...
  • Fuzzle. ...
  • Groak.


What word needs 3 hours to say?

The longest English word

The longest word in English has 189,819 letters and takes 3 hours to pronounce. This is a technical term for the chemical composition of titin. Titin is the largest known protein responsible for maintaining the passive elasticity of the muscles.

What is the shortest word in history?

The shortest word is 'a. ' Some might wonder about the word 'I' since it consists of one letter, too. In sound, 'a' is shorter because it is a monophthong (consists of one vowel), while 'I' is a diphthong.


What is the 46 letter word?

Sünnipäevanädalalõpupeopärastlõunaväsimatus meaning "untiredness of a birthday week graduation party" which is 46 letters.

What was the last word ever made?

Zyzzyva has achieved notoriety for being the last word in several English-language dictionaries.

What is the first language ever spoken?

Dating back to at least 3500 BC, the oldest proof of written Sumerian was found in today's Iraq, on an artifact known as the Kish Tablet. Thus, given this evidence, Sumerian can also be considered the first language in the world.


What is the oldest text?

The world's oldest literature is widely accepted to be the Sumerian “Instructions of Shuruppak”, which dates to somewhere around 2600 B.C.E.

Is there an Old English word?

Thee is an old-fashioned, poetic, or religious word for 'you' when you are talking to only one person. It is used as the object of a verb or preposition.

What language did the English speak 1000 years ago?

Old English language, also called Anglo-Saxon, language spoken and written in England before 1100; it is the ancestor of Middle English and Modern English. Scholars place Old English in the Anglo-Frisian group of West Germanic languages.


What Old English words are still used?

Some Old English words of Latin origin that have survived into modern English include belt, butter, chalk, chest, cup, fan, fork, mile, minster, mint, monk, pepper, school, sock, strop, wine.

What is the oldest word for water?

Etymology. The word water comes from Old English wæter, from Proto-Germanic *watar (source also of Old Saxon watar, Old Frisian wetir, Dutch water, Old High German wazzar, German Wasser, vatn, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐍄𐍉 (wato), from Proto-Indo-European *wod-or, suffixed form of root *wed- ("water"; "wet").

Who spoke Old English first?

Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or Ingvaeonic dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes.


What was the first American word?

In a letter he sent home in 1608, British explorer John Smith described a critter he called a rahaughcum.

What is the most forgotten word?

18 Amazing English words we've totally forgotten about
  1. Twirlblast. A tornado, according to people in the 1700s. ...
  2. Chork. The act of making the sound your shoes make when you're walking in them and they're full of water.
  3. Interrobang. ...
  4. Groaning-cheese. ...
  5. Uglyography. ...
  6. Ultracrepidarian. ...
  7. Trumpery. ...
  8. Throttlebottom.


What is a rare 5 letter word?

ERGOT. A disease of cereals and other grasses caused by fungi.


What is the least used word?

The 20 least known words in English
  • genipap.
  • futhorc.
  • witenagemot.
  • gossypol.
  • chaulmoogra.
  • brummagem.
  • alsike.
  • chersonese.


What is the most beautiful English word?

The Top 10 Most Beautiful English Words
  1. 1 Sequoia (n.) (A seven-letter word that has the letter Q and all five vowels)
  2. 2 Euphoria (n.) A feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness. ...
  3. 3 Pluviophile (n.) ...
  4. 4 Clinomania (n.) ...
  5. 5 Idyllic (adj.) ...
  6. 6 Aurora (n.) ...
  7. 7 Solitude (n.) ...
  8. 8 Supine (adj.) ...