Welcome to the History of English Podcast, a podcast about the history of the English language.

This is Episode 104, Prefix Preferences.

In this episode, we're going to look at an important development that took place within

English during the 1200s.

Not only did English start to borrow a large number of words from French and Latin,

it also started to borrow a lot of the standard prefixes and suffixes used in those languages.

And many of those new elements appeared for the first time in the Ancrenoisa, which was

composed in the early 1200s.

Those new prefixes and suffixes were embraced by English speakers, and soon those speakers

were sticking them on the front or back of native English words.

So over the next couple of episodes, we'll focus on those new word elements, and we'll

explore their overall impact on English.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the website for the podcast is historyofenglishpodcast.com.

And you can sign up to support the podcast at patreon.com slash historyofenglish.

And as always, you can reach me by email at kevinathistoryofenglishpodcast.com.

Now let me begin with a quick correction from the last episode.

Last time we looked at an important early middle English text called the Ancrenoisa.

And I noted that the words, journey and diet were used for the first time in that text.

And I also stated that the two words are cognate, having derived from the same root word,

meaning day.

Well both words were attested for the first time in the Ancrenoisa, but they are not actually

related to each other.

...