where did the word essay originate from

The Essay: History and Definition

Attempts at Defining Slippery Literary Form

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"One damned thing after another" is how Aldous Huxley described the essay: "a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything."

As definitions go, Huxley's is no more or less exact than Francis Bacon's "dispersed meditations," Samuel Johnson's "loose sally of the mind" or Edward Hoagland's "greased pig."

Since Montaigne adopted the term "essay" in the 16th century to describe his "attempts" at self-portrayal in prose , this slippery form has resisted any sort of precise, universal definition. But that won't an attempt to define the term in this brief article.

In the broadest sense, the term "essay" can refer to just about any short piece of nonfiction  -- an editorial, feature story, critical study, even an excerpt from a book. However, literary definitions of a genre are usually a bit fussier.

One way to start is to draw a distinction between articles , which are read primarily for the information they contain, and essays, in which the pleasure of reading takes precedence over the information in the text . Although handy, this loose division points chiefly to kinds of reading rather than to kinds of texts. So here are some other ways that the essay might be defined.

Standard definitions often stress the loose structure or apparent shapelessness of the essay. Johnson, for example, called the essay "an irregular, indigested piece, not a regular and orderly performance."

True, the writings of several well-known essayists ( William Hazlitt and Ralph Waldo Emerson , for instance, after the fashion of Montaigne) can be recognized by the casual nature of their explorations -- or "ramblings." But that's not to say that anything goes. Each of these essayists follows certain organizing principles of his own.

Oddly enough, critics haven't paid much attention to the principles of design actually employed by successful essayists. These principles are rarely formal patterns of organization , that is, the "modes of exposition" found in many composition textbooks. Instead, they might be described as patterns of thought -- progressions of a mind working out an idea.

Unfortunately, the customary divisions of the essay into opposing types --  formal and informal, impersonal and familiar  -- are also troublesome. Consider this suspiciously neat dividing line drawn by Michele Richman:

Post-Montaigne, the essay split into two distinct modalities: One remained informal, personal, intimate, relaxed, conversational and often humorous; the other, dogmatic, impersonal, systematic and expository .

The terms used here to qualify the term "essay" are convenient as a kind of critical shorthand, but they're imprecise at best and potentially contradictory. Informal can describe either the shape or the tone of the work -- or both. Personal refers to the stance of the essayist, conversational to the language of the piece, and expository to its content and aim. When the writings of particular essayists are studied carefully, Richman's "distinct modalities" grow increasingly vague.

But as fuzzy as these terms might be, the qualities of shape and personality, form and voice, are clearly integral to an understanding of the essay as an artful literary kind. 

Many of the terms used to characterize the essay -- personal, familiar, intimate, subjective, friendly, conversational -- represent efforts to identify the genre's most powerful organizing force: the rhetorical voice or projected character (or persona ) of the essayist.

In his study of Charles Lamb , Fred Randel observes that the "principal declared allegiance" of the essay is to "the experience of the essayistic voice." Similarly, British author Virginia Woolf has described this textual quality of personality or voice as "the essayist's most proper but most dangerous and delicate tool."

Similarly, at the beginning of "Walden, "  Henry David Thoreau reminds the reader that "it is ... always the first person that is speaking." Whether expressed directly or not, there's always an "I" in the essay -- a voice shaping the text and fashioning a role for the reader.

Fictional Qualities

The terms "voice" and "persona" are often used interchangeably to suggest the rhetorical nature of the essayist himself on the page. At times an author may consciously strike a pose or play a role. He can, as E.B. White confirms in his preface to "The Essays," "be any sort of person, according to his mood or his subject matter." 

In "What I Think, What I Am," essayist Edward Hoagland points out that "the artful 'I' of an essay can be as chameleon as any narrator in fiction." Similar considerations of voice and persona lead Carl H. Klaus to conclude that the essay is "profoundly fictive":

It seems to convey the sense of human presence that is indisputably related to its author's deepest sense of self, but that is also a complex illusion of that self -- an enactment of it as if it were both in the process of thought and in the process of sharing the outcome of that thought with others.

But to acknowledge the fictional qualities of the essay isn't to deny its special status as nonfiction.

Reader's Role

A basic aspect of the relationship between a writer (or a writer's persona) and a reader (the implied audience ) is the presumption that what the essayist says is literally true. The difference between a short story, say, and an autobiographical essay  lies less in the narrative structure or the nature of the material than in the narrator's implied contract with the reader about the kind of truth being offered.

Under the terms of this contract, the essayist presents experience as it actually occurred -- as it occurred, that is, in the version by the essayist. The narrator of an essay, the editor George Dillon says, "attempts to convince the reader that its model of experience of the world is valid." 

In other words, the reader of an essay is called on to join in the making of meaning. And it's up to the reader to decide whether to play along. Viewed in this way, the drama of an essay might lie in the conflict between the conceptions of self and world that the reader brings to a text and the conceptions that the essayist tries to arouse.

At Last, a Definition—of Sorts

With these thoughts in mind, the essay might be defined as a short work of nonfiction, often artfully disordered and highly polished, in which an authorial voice invites an implied reader to accept as authentic a certain textual mode of experience.

Sure. But it's still a greased pig.

Sometimes the best way to learn exactly what an essay is -- is to read some great ones. You'll find more than 300 of them in this collection of  Classic British and American Essays and Speeches .

• What Are the Different Types and Characteristics of Essays?
• What Is a Personal Essay (Personal Statement)?
• Rhetorical Analysis Definition and Examples
• The Writer's Voice in Literature and Rhetoric
• What Is Expository Writing?
• Point of View in Grammar and Composition
• What Is Tone In Writing?
• The Difference Between an Article and an Essay
• How to Write a Narrative Essay or Speech
• Topical Organization Essay
• Writers on Writing: The Art of Paragraphing
• What is a Familiar Essay in Composition?
• Compose a Narrative Essay or Personal Statement
• Mood in Composition and Literature
• Writing Prompt (Composition)

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What does the noun essay mean?

There are 12 meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun essay , nine of which are labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

essay has developed meanings and uses in subjects including

Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

How common is the noun essay ?

How is the noun essay pronounced, british english, u.s. english, where does the noun essay come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the noun essay is in the late 1500s.

OED's earliest evidence for essay is from 1597, in the writing of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor, politician, and philosopher.

It is also recorded as a verb from the Middle English period (1150—1500).

essay is a borrowing from French.

Etymons: French essai .

Nearby entries

• esrache, v. 1477
• esraj, n. 1921–
• ESRO, n. 1961–
• ess, n. 1540–
• -ess, suffix¹
• -ess, suffix²
• essamplerie, n. 1393
• essart, n. 1656–
• essart, v. 1675–
• essarting, n. a1821–
• essay, n. 1597–
• essay, v. 1483–
• essayal, n. 1837–
• essayer, n. 1611–
• essayette, n. 1877–
• essayfy, v. 1815–
• essay-hatch, n. 1721–
• essayical, adj. 1860–
• essaying, n. 1861–
• essaying, adj. 1641–
• essayish, adj. 1863–

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Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for essay, n..

essay, n. was first published in 1891; not yet revised.

essay, n. was last modified in March 2024.

Revision of the OED is a long-term project. Entries in oed.com which have not been revised may include:

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• new senses, phrases, and quotations which have been added in subsequent print and online updates.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into essay, n. in March 2024.

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The History of Essay: Origin and Evolvement

These days, an essay is one of the key assignments at college. This particular task allows tutors to evaluate the student’s knowledge effectively. But it was not always a key assessment tool in the education sphere. So, when did an essay become so important for study purposes? And who invented the essay? According to Aldous Huxley, this particular literary piece can be used to describe almost everything. Essays have become very popular since the first day this type of paper was introduced. What is more, the first time the essay appeared in the far 16th century, it was a part of a self-portrayal done by Michel de Montaigne. The term essay was adopted from French “essayer”, which was adopted from Latin “exagere”. The last one means “to sort through”. In the far 16th century, the essay was mostly a form of a literary piece. Afterward, it has gained wider use in literature and study. It lost all its formality and has become quite a popular writing form. Besides, it has turned into quite a complicated study assignment. That is why many modern students need help writing an essay these days.

Difference Between Essay and Article

In contrast to an article that mostly has an informative purpose, an essay is more a literary paper. The “essay” concept can refer to practically any short piece of report or small composition. It can be a short story, some critical piece, etc. The essay differs from an article or other kinds of papers. Many prominent features distinguish essays from research papers, case studies, or reports. The essay paper has a standard structure in most cases. Sometimes, the layout can be a little bit creative. An article provides information on a certain topic. It has a mostly informative character and does not tend to deliver solutions or recommendations. Besides, it lacks a strict formatting style and outline. Still, it mostly refers to modern academic essays. In old times, essays had no defined format or structure. The origin of the essay does not affect its current usage. Now, it is an effective educational tool and one of the top college projects. Academic essays have an assigned structure and formatting style. You cannot ignore the provided requirements if you want to have a good grade. There are many strict rules to essays assigned at college. Students often check long tutorials to learn how to prepare a proper essay

Types of Essays and Its Characteristics

In the history of the essay, there were always different types of essays. First and foremost, essays were divided into formal and informal. Next, impersonal and familiar. Formal essays are mostly focused on the described topic. Informal essays are more personal and focused on the essayist.

Academic essays differ greatly with their wide variety of types and formats. You can count descriptive, argumentative, reflective, analytical, persuasive, narrative, expository essays’ types. The key types of academic essays include analytical, descriptive, persuasive, and critical.

Every of the mentioned types has its own essay format. They also differ by structure, length, main points to analyze, and purposes. In old times, writers were mostly concerned by the personal or impersonal tone of written composition. It takes more effort to learn all the types of academic essays these days. Besides, they all have a different focus and the final goal.

The most popular narrative essay is quite familiar to the one it was just a few centuries ago. In this paper, you tell the story and focus on a single idea. Such papers like argumentative or analytical essays are more like research papers. They require a thesis statement, strong arguments, and supporting evidence. You have to conduct research work. It is way more difficult than to tell a simple story. Still, even storytelling requires natural talents and a clever mind to be appreciated by readers.     

Essay Evolvement and Modern Use

The essay history describes the way the traditional essay was turned into a decent educational tool. First, the essay was a typical literary form of expression. Authors were mostly concerned to share their point of view about some ideas or themselves in the composition. It gained more personal coloring than any other paper in years.

Since being parted from a self-portrayal, this particular piece was mostly essayist-focused originally. Afterward, once the essay writers have figured out it can describe particularly everything, an essay has gained wider use. Not every modern essay writer knows how the term “essay” was created. Still, modern writers face even bigger challenges with these particular kinds of written papers.

The key reasons include a set of strict rules and requirements for academic essays. They force writers to come up only with the most interesting and unique ideas. Also, they make writers prepare papers formatted due to an assigned formatting style only. Besides, many types of essays require strong analytical abilities.

An analytical essay is like a research paper. It also requires all the elements of a research piece. Thus, the ability to conduct proper research work and provide a complex analysis is mandatory for a modern author as well.

Final Thoughts

Preparing an essay can take a lot of time and great effort these days. With lots of complex requirements and difficult writing instructions, students often need outside writing essay help to succeed.

A modern essay differs greatly from the one it was in the far 16th century. In the first years, this particular writing form was introduced, it was a part of self-portrayal. In many following years, it turned into one of the most popular compositions and the top college assignment.

Nowadays, there is probably not a single student who has never dealt with an essay. Therefore, knowing how it was created and who introduced it to the world can be quite interesting and surely very informative for everyone. Knowing history helps to recognize yourself in the world better. Knowledge can always be quite a driving force for every person.

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Students in every country, at all levels of education from the lower echelons of high school to post graduate and research schools are well practised in the writing of essays. These days, essays come in many different formats and structures; from a book review to a comparison essay to an argumentative essay to a dissertation and everything in between. In today’s education system, we often take for granted the fact that the essay is one of the main forms of assignments. We accept the challenge and complete them without ever thinking about the origins of the format. If you are interested in where the essay actually began and who was the first to bring the assignment format into existence, then read on for a brief history of the essay.

The word “essay” was first used by a Frenchman

It is generally accepted that the Frenchman Michel de Montaigne, born in 1533, was the first author to describe his works of writing as essays. Back then, essay was a term that he used to characterise the way that he would attempt to put his various thoughts into writing. From this description, it is easy to see how this attempt to arrange thoughts on a page could turn into the type of essay that we are familiar with today. Eager to share his new form of writing with the world, in 1580, Montaigne compiled his essays into a published collection entitled Essais.  He achieved great success with this, and for the rest of his life, he spent time revising and publishing previously written essays, as well as composing new ones.

Francis Bacon is considered the first English language essayist

In terms of the English language, Francis Bacon’s essays, published in the form of books in 1597, 1612 and 1625, were the first works of English to be officially described as essays. Interestingly, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of the word ‘essayist’ was recorded by playwright Ben Jonson in 1609.

Asia wrote essays before Europeans

Of course, as with most of recorded history, the claim for the invention of the essay is much older in Asia than it is in Europe. Much like the novel, which was being cultivated in places like Japan much earlier than in England and Europe, essays existed and were known as zuihitsu, a word meaning fragmented ideas. A word somewhat incongruous to the aim of an essay which attempts to bring order to thoughts and ideas. Notable examples of this early form of essay include The Pillow Book court lady SeiShonagon from 1000 A.D. and 1330’s Tsurezuregusa by the famous Buddhist monk Yoshida Kenko. Kenko spoke of his essay writings in a very similar way to Michel de Montaigne, classing them as nonsensical thoughts that were written during idle hours. One more interesting thing to note is that in a stark difference from the overwhelming patriarchy in writing in Europe, Japan was filled with female writers who enjoyed creating essays. However, this rich history of female Asian work has been somewhat erased by Chinese-influenced writing by male writers who were much more revered at the time.

From random to ordered

Though the origins of the essay are very much rooted in authors assembling ‘varied thoughts’ and ‘fragmented ideas’ on the page, over time the essay has become a much more official and rigid form of writing, constructed for students and academics to be able to argue, explain or explore a topic in a defined and recognised fashion. Here is a brief list of some of the most popular essay forms today:

• Cause and Effect – an essay that is used to argue causal chains that connect a cause to a direct effect.
• Compare and Contrast – an essay that is used to identify and evaluate the differences between two ideas, objects or concepts e.g. chalk and cheese, Hitler and Stalin, Pride and Prejudice and Emma
• Descriptive –an essay that required writing that is characterised by all of the sensory details such as sight, smell, sound, touch. Generally intended to appeal to a reader’s emotional response.
• Argumentative – an essay in which the author takes a stand on one side of an argument, and works to build a case around why exactly their view point is the most persuasive.
• Reflective – an analytical essay in which the author describes a scene, either real or imagined in as rich detail as possible, with an eye on surmising a learning experience.

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An introduction to etymology: eight great word origins.

Etymology is the study of the origin of words and how the meaning of words has changed over the course of history. Let’s get meta and take the word “etymology” as an example. “Etymology” derives from the Greek word etumos , meaning “true.” Etumologia was the study of words’ “true meanings.” This evolved into “etymology” by way of the Old French ethimologie . That’s all fairly straightforward, but there are many, many words in the English language that have unexpected and fascinating origins. Here are a few of our favorite examples.

1. Avocado (Origin: Nahuatl)

The word avocado comes from Spanish aguacate , which in turn comes from the Nahuatl ahuacatl , meaning testicle. Surprised? Perhaps, but the more one thinks about it, the less surprising it gets — they do rather resemble a man’s soft spot, and this resemblance becomes even more pronounced when you see avocado duos dangling clumsily from trees.

Nahuatl is the language of the Aztecs and is still spoken by approximately 1.5 million people native to Mexico and other parts of Central America. Avocado isn’t the only Nahuatl word that has been borrowed by the English language; chili, chocolate, tomato and guacamole were also coined by speakers of Nahuatl. Indeed, the -mole of guacamole is derived from the Nahuatl molli , which means sauce. It’s a good thing the origin of this word has been obfuscated on its way into the English language. Otherwise, guacamole ( Nahuatl: ahuacamolli) probably wouldn’t be as popular as it is.

2. Cappuccino (Origin: Italian/German)

Next time you’re trying to flirt with someone at your local coffee shop, impress them with this whimsical anecdote about the origin of the word cappuccino : it’s the diminutive form of the word cappuccio , which means “hood” in Italian. Wondering what the link is between a (little) hood and a cappuccino? One must look no further than the Capuchin Monks, whose hooded habits were a dark, oak brown similar to the color of a good cappuccino.

The first recorded use of the word was in 1790 in Vienna, Austria. Wilhelm Tissot jotted down a recipe for an exquisite Kapuzinerkaffee (lit. “Capuchin coffee”), which was rather different in constitution to its modern-day successor, containing sugar, cream and egg yolks. The current, somewhat simplified recipe now consists of espresso and foamed milk, but there are still parts of Austria where you can order a good ol’ Kapuziner .

3. Disaster (Origin: Italian/Greek)

The word disaster has been passed around Europe like a hot potato. The English version is most closely tied to the French désastre , which is derived from the Old Italian disastro , itself derived from Greek. The pejorative prefix dis- and aster (star) can be interpreted as bad star , or an ill-starred event . The ancient Greeks were fascinated by astronomy and the cosmos, and believed wholly in the influence of celestial bodies on terrestrial life. For them, a disaster was a particular kind of calamity, the causes of which could be attributed to an unfavorable and uncontrollable alignment of planets. It’s therefore interesting to note that the strict, modern English definition of disaster explicitly stipulates that a disaster is human-made, or the consequence of human failure.

4. Handicap (Origin: English)

This word originates from the 17th-century English trading game “hand-in-cap.” The game involved two players and an arbitrator, or umpire. The players would present two possessions they would like to trade. The umpire would then decide whether the possessions were of equal value or not, and if they weren’t, would calculate the discrepancy. The owner of the lesser object would make up the difference with money, and then all three participants would place forfeit money into a hat. If the two players agreed with the umpire’s valuation, they would remove their hands from the hat with their palm open. If they disagreed, they would pull out their hands clenched in a fist. If both agreed or disagreed, the umpire would get the forfeit money, while if one agreed and the other didn’t, the player who approved the transaction would receive the forfeit money.

Over time, hand-in-cap came to be known as “handicap” and started to be used to refer to any kind of equalization or balancing of a contest or game. The word handicap is still used in many sports today, such as golf and horse racing. Indeed, horse racing was probably the first sport to introduce the term in order to define an umpire’s decision to add more weight to a horse so that it runs equally to its competitors. This notion of being burdened or put at a disadvantage was carried over to describe people with a disability in the early 20th century. By the mid-20th century, it was widely used, but it has since fallen out of the popular lexicon.

5. Jeans (Origin: Italian)

Although jeans are quintessentially American, and their invention is commonly attributed to Jacob W. Davis and Levi Strauss, the etymology of the popular garment is actually of European origin. The fabric Strauss used for his patented, mass-produced trousers was first produced in Genoa, Italy and Nimes, France. Why’s that significant? Well, the French word for Genoa is Gênes , and the name “jeans” is likely an anglicization of the material’s city of origin. Similarly, the word “denim” most likely comes from de Nimes , meaning “from Nimes” in French. Although we often talk about denim jeans nowadays, the two materials actually differed. Denim was coarser, more durable and of higher quality than the toughened cotton corduroy manufactured in Genoa. Workers in Northern Italy were sporting jeans as early as the 17th century, long before post-war American subcultures picked up on them as a fashion accessory.

6. Salary (Origin: Latin)

The word “salary” comes from the Latin salarium , meaning “salt money.”

In ancient times, salt was used for many important things and was often referred to as “white gold.” It could be used as an antiseptic to treat wounds — In Romance languages one can recognize a connection between sal/sale , meaning “salt,” and salud/saude/salute , meaning “health”) — and to preserve food, and also as a method of payment in Greece and Rome.

As far back as the Egyptian Empire, laborers were paid with salt that they could use to preserve their food. The Roman Empire continued using this form of payment and it took on the name “salary” for “that which was given to workers at the end of the working month,” which adds a new dimension to the notion of a company’s solvency.

7. Trivial (Origin: Latin)

“Trivial” originates from the Latin word trivium , which was used to mean “a place where three roads meet” ( tri- meaning “three,” and -vium from via , meaning “road”). A trivium gained the connotation of being an open, public place — a mini agora — where people from across society’s technicolor spectrum could relax, chat and simply coexist. The adjective trivialis was a derivative of trivium and came to mean “vulgar, ordinary, of little importance, common and contemporary,” and the English adjective trivial carries much of this definition to this day: tired, ordinary, commonplace; of little use, import, consequence or significance.

8. Whiskey (Origin: Gaelic)

Medieval monks called it aqua vitae , meaning “life water.” The expression was transformed into uisce beatha when it was transferred to Gaelic. As time passed and the word was anglicized, uisce evolved into uige , usque , and then uisky , which bears an obvious and close resemblance to “whiskey.”

You may have noticed that you can spell the drink two different ways — “whiskey” and “whisky.” Some people believe the extra “e” was added to by Irish and American distilleries to differentiate their higher quality whiskeys during a period when Scottish whisky had a bad reputation.

Scotch was also introduced to denominate a Scottish whisky, and the word “whiskey” has been adopted in other countries for quite different reasons. In some South American countries, it’s used as an alternative to “cheese” to encourage people to smile when being photographed. How and why we chose “cheese,” and why the South Americans chose “whiskey” (and the Spanish patata , or “potato”) is a story for another time.

Why Study Etymology?

Etymology not only enhances your understanding of your native language but also gives you insights into its shared roots with other languages. Prior to reading this article, would you have thought that every time you say “avocado,” you’re prompting Moctezuma to chuckle in his tomb? Some word origins are wonderfully idiosyncratic and make for great anecdotes, while others demonstrate common standards and rules which help you assimilate new words and terms across languages.

Take the simple examples of the Latin prefixes con- (also “com-” in English) and dis- , which are widely used in Romance languages and indicate “togetherness” and “apartness,” respectively. Knowing such elements of etymology can vastly improve your guesswork when it comes to deciphering words, whether it be concatenate ( con – and -catenate , from catena , meaning “chain”; a verb meaning to chain together) or disconsolate ( dis- and con – and -solate , from solari , meaning “to comfort”; an adjective describing someone who can’t be comforted or consoled).

Want to explore further? We encourage you to put on your etymologist’s hat and venture into the jungle of meaning.

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A Brief History of the English Language: From Old English to Modern Days

Join us on a journey through the centuries as we trace the evolution of English from the Old and Middle periods to modern times.

What Is the English Language, and Where Did It Come From?

The different periods of the english language, the bottom line.

Today, English is one of the most common languages in the world, spoken by around 1.5 billion people globally. It is the official language of many countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

English is also the lingua franca of international business and academia and is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

Despite its widespread use, English is not without its challenges. Because it has borrowed words from so many other languages, it can be difficult to know how to spell or pronounce certain words. And, because there are so many different dialects of English, it can be hard to understand someone from a different region.

But, overall, English is a rich and flexible language that has adapted to the needs of a rapidly changing world. It is truly a global, dominant language – and one that shows no signs of slowing down. Join us as we guide you through the history of the English language.

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Learn English with Langster

The English language is a West Germanic language that originated in England. It is the third most spoken language in the world after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. English has been influenced by a number of other languages over the centuries, including Old Norse, Latin, French, and Dutch.

The earliest forms of English were spoken by the Anglo-Saxons, who settled in England in the 5th century. The Anglo-Saxons were a mix of Germanic tribes from Scandinavia and Germany. They brought with them their own language, which was called Old English.

The English language has gone through distinct periods throughout its history. Different aspects of the language have changed throughout time, such as grammar, vocabulary, spelling , etc.

The Old English period (5th-11th centuries), Middle English period (11th-15th centuries), and Modern English period (16th century to present) are the three main divisions in the history of the English language.

Let's take a closer look at each one:

Old English Period (500-1100)

The Old English period began in 449 AD with the arrival of three Germanic tribes from the Continent: the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. They settled in the south and east of Britain, which was then inhabited by the Celts. The Anglo-Saxons had their own language, called Old English, which was spoken from around the 5th century to the 11th century.

Old English was a Germanic language, and as such, it was very different from the Celtic languages spoken by the Britons. It was also a very different language from the English we speak today. It was a highly inflected language, meaning that words could change their form depending on how they were being used in a sentence.

There are four known dialects of the Old English language:

• Northumbrian in northern England and southeastern Scotland,
• Mercian in central England,
• Kentish in southeastern England,
• West Saxon in southern and southwestern England.

Old English grammar also had a complex system, with five main cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental), three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and two numbers (singular and plural).

The Anglo-Saxons also had their own alphabet, which was known as the futhorc . The futhorc consisted of 24 letters, most of which were named after rune symbols. However, they also borrowed the Roman alphabet and eventually started using that instead.

The vocabulary was also quite different, with many words being borrowed from other languages such as Latin, French, and Old Norse. The first account of Anglo-Saxon England ever written is from 731 AD – a document known as the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People , which remains the single most valuable source from this period.

Another one of the most famous examples of Old English literature is the epic poem Beowulf , which was written sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries. By the end of the Old English period at the close of the 11th century, West Saxon dominated, resulting in most of the surviving documents from this period being written in the West Saxon dialect.

The Old English period was a time of great change for Britain. In 1066, the Normans invaded England and conquered the Anglo-Saxons. The Normans were originally Viking settlers from Scandinavia who had settled in France in the 10th century. They spoke a form of French, which was the language of the ruling class in England after the Norman Conquest.

The Old English period came to an end in 1066 with the Norman Conquest. However, Old English continued to be spoken in some parts of England until the 12th century. After that, it was replaced by Middle English.

Middle English Period (1100-1500)

The second stage of the English language is known as the Middle English period , which was spoken from around the 12th century to the late 15th century. As mentioned above, Middle English emerged after the Norman Conquest of 1066, when the Normans conquered England.

As a result of the Norman Conquest, French became the language of the ruling class, while English was spoken by the lower classes. This led to a number of changes in the English language, including a reduction in the number of inflections and grammatical rules.

Middle English is often divided into two periods: Early Middle English (11th-13th centuries) and Late Middle English (14th-15th centuries).

Early Middle English (1100-1300)

The Early Middle English period began in 1066 with the Norman Conquest and was greatly influenced by French, as the Normans brought with them many French words that began to replace their Old English equivalents. This process is known as Normanisation.

One of the most noticeable changes was in the vocabulary of law and government. Many Old English words related to these concepts were replaced by their French equivalents. For example, the Old English word for a king was cyning or cyng , which was replaced by the Norman word we use today, king .

The Norman Conquest also affected the grammar of Old English. The inflectional system began to break down, and words started to lose their endings. This Scandinavian influence made the English vocabulary simpler and more regular.

Late Middle English (1300-1500)

The Late Middle English period began in the 14th century and lasted until the 15th century. During this time, the English language was further influenced by French.

However, the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) between England and France meant that English was used more and more in official documents. This helped to standardize the language and make it more uniform.

One of the most famous examples of Middle English literature is The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, which was written in the late 14th century. Chaucer was the first major writer in English, and he e helped to standardize the language even further. For this reason, Middle English is also frequently referred to as Chaucerian English.

French influence can also be seen in the vocabulary, with many French loanwords being introduced into English during this time. Middle English was also influenced by the introduction of Christianity, with many religious terms being borrowed from Latin.

Modern English Period (1500-present)

After Old and Middle English comes the third stage of the English language, known as Modern English , which began in the 16th century and continues to the present day.

The Early Modern English period, or Early New English, emerged after the introduction of the printing press in England in 1476, which meant that books could be mass-produced, and more people learned to read and write. As a result, the standardization of English continued.

The Renaissance (14th-17th centuries) saw a rediscovery of classical learning, which had a significant impact on English literature. During this time, the English language also borrowed many Greek and Latin words. The first English dictionary , A Table Alphabeticall of Hard Words , was published in 1604.

The King James Bible , which was first published in 1611, also had a significant impact on the development of Early Modern English. The Bible was translated into English from Latin and Greek, introducing many new words into the language.

The rise of the British Empire (16th-20th centuries) also had a significant impact on the English language. English became the language of commerce, science, and politics, and was spread around the world by British colonists. This led to the development of many different varieties of English, known as dialects.

One of the most famous examples of Early Modern English literature is William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet , which was first performed in 1597. To this day, William Shakespeare is considered the greatest writer in the English language.

The final stage of the English language is known as Modern English , which has been spoken from around the 19th century to the present day. Modern English has its roots in Early Modern English, but it has undergone several changes since then.

The most significant change occurred in the 20th century, with the introduction of mass media and technology. For example, new words have been created to keep up with changing technology, and old words have fallen out of use. However, the core grammar and vocabulary of the language have remained relatively stable.

Today, English is spoken by an estimated 1.5 billion people around the world, making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. It is the official language of many countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. English is also the language of international communication and is used in business, education, and tourism.

English is a fascinating language that has evolved over the centuries, and today it is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world. The English language has its roots in Anglo-Saxon, a West Germanic language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons who settled in Britain in the 5th century.

The earliest form of English was known as Old English, which was spoken until around the 11th century. Middle English emerged after the Norman Conquest of 1066, and it was spoken until the late 15th century. Modern English began to develop in the 16th century, and it has continued to evolve since then.

If you want to expand your English vocabulary with new, relevant words, make sure to download our Langster app , and learn English with stories! Have fun!

Ellis is a seasoned polyglot and one of the creative minds behind Langster Blog, where she shares effective language learning strategies and insights from her own journey mastering the four languages. Ellis strives to empower learners globally to embrace new languages with confidence and curiosity. Off the blog, she immerses herself in exploring diverse cultures through cinema and contemporary fiction, further fueling her passion for language and connection.

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History of the Sonnet

By shaun russell.

Few forms are more associated with Renaissance poetry than the sonnet . Thanks largely to the cultural awareness of William Shakespeare’s sonnets in particular (who among us doesn’t know the line “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”), “sonnet” is almost a household word. But what exactly is a sonnet, and when and why did sonnets become so popular?

What is a sonnet?

The simple answer is that a sonnet is a poetic form made of 14 lines , a standardized rhyme scheme , a consistent meter , and a “ volta ” (also known as a “ turn ”) that marks a tonal or thematic shift. Over the centuries, various poets have taken liberties by deliberately omitting or altering some of these four main components, but the vast majority of the sonnets you come across adhere closely to this form.

When were sonnets invented?

Technically, the sonnet is thought to have been invented in Italy by a thirteenth-century notary named Giacomo da Lentini, but the form was popularized by a fourteenth-century humanist scholar named Francesco Petrarca, usually anglicized as Petrarch .

Petrarch’s famous collection, Il Canzionere , features 366 poems (317 of which are sonnets), chiefly written in praise of a woman named Laura . The general theme of this sequence of poems is the unattainability of love—the “ speaker ” (essentially the poem’s narrator) seeks to love Laura, but is never quite able to obtain her love in return.

This style of poetry, written to express the unattainable love for another, is called Petrarchism . Some of the most common literary devices used in these poems are similes (e.g., “My love is like a flower”), metaphors (e.g., “My love is a flower”), conceits (e.g., “My love is pollen on the breeze”), and blazons —lengthy descriptions of the parts of the object of affection, usually from the top down (e.g., “My lover’s hair spills like a waterfall / Her eyes do glisten like two polished gems / Her voice is as the bird of heaven’s call” etc.). Notably, however, the object of affection is rarely given a voice.

Though it flourished in Italy for over two centuries, the sonnet only reached England in the 1530s. Scholars have long credited Sir Thomas Wyatt with bringing the sonnet to England via his many translations of Petrarch’s sonnets, along with his own compositions. Fellow courtiers in King Henry VIII’s court began to experiment with the sonnet form, most notably Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, who is credited with the English sonnet form (see below). In 1557, long after Wyatt and Surrey had died, an important poetry collection titled Songes and Sonettes (but later referred to as Tottel’s Miscellany ) was published, featuring many works by both poets, along with a large number of anonymous poems, including many sonnets.

Why did sonnets become popular?

This question is open to speculation, but what we do know is that Tottel’s Miscellany proved to be very popular, going through ten editions between 1557 and 1586. Sir Philip Sidney , a lauded courtier in Elizabeth I’s court, wrote the first known Petrarchan sonnet sequence in English in the 1580s (titled Astrophil and Stella ), and a great many poets opted to use the form from that point until the end of the Renaissance. The brevity of the form made sonnets easy to write in a short amount of time, while the universal theme of unrequited love never seemed to get old…though later sonneteers, such as John Donne , found that sonnets could be used to explore other themes.

Anatomy of a Sonnet

As mentioned above, there are four key components to a standard sonnet:

• Fourteen lines
• A standardized rhyme scheme
• A consistent meter
• A “volta” or “turn”

There are several variants that differ in their standardized rhyme scheme, the most important being what is commonly called the English sonnet (or less accurately, the Shakespearean sonnet ), as contrasted with the Italian sonnet (also known as the Petrarchan sonnet ).

In both English and Italian sonnets, the most common meter is iambic pentameter , which is meant to mirror the cadence of natural speech. An “iamb” is simply a term for two syllables together, where the stress is on the second syllable. For instance, words like “prepare,” “debate,” “embark,” and “suggest” all have a soft first syllable, and a stressed or emphasized second syllable. Pentameter refers to the number of iambs in a line: penta = five (in Greek). Therefore, a line of iambic pentameter (often abbreviated as IP) is usually ten syllables made up of five iambs. For instance, “I might suggest that you are now prepared” is a perfectly metrical line of IP:

I might | sug gest | that you | are now | pre pared

It is hard to read this line aloud without placing the stresses where they are. Of course, poetry is not meant to be rigid, so sonneteers will often make metrical substitutions to make the language flow more naturally. In other words, even though not every line is in perfect IP, the meter generally defaults to IP. If there are too many substitutions, the sense of meter is lost, which is disruptive to the ear.

A metrical substitution might look as follows:

To high | light where | the me | ter adds | a stress

Since meter isn’t an exact science, with some speakers placing different emphasis on different words, it’s possible that you might read it differently…and that’s perfectly fine! Just remember that the point of meter is to adhere to a consistent (but not monotonous) rhythm.

As mentioned above, there are two dominant sonnet forms, based on their rhyme schemes: English and Italian. Because the Italian language has a far greater number of rhyming words, the Italian sonnet form has fewer distinct rhyming sounds in a rhyme scheme. A rhyme scheme simply refers to the number of end stresses in lines of poetry that rhyme with each other. Because of the rhyme scheme, Italian sonnets often have a two-part structure: an octave and a sestet . An octave is the first eight lines, and the sestet is the final six. In an Italian sonnet, the octave always has a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA, where all the A’s are end words that rhyme with each other, and all the B’s are end words that rhyme with each other. Sestets in Italian sonnet form are less consistent, sometimes rhyming CDCDCD, sometimes CDECDE, or occasionally other variations.

An English sonnet is usually not broken down into octaves and sestets, but it is sometimes structured via its rhyme scheme into three quatrains and a couplet . A quatrain is a four-line unit, while a couplet is a two-line unit. While Italian sonnets were often written with a mere four rhyme sounds, English sonnets have a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG, making for seven rhyme sounds in all.

William Shakespeare

(Example of an English Sonnet)

When I do count the clock that tells the time,

And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;                          

When I behold the violet past prime,

And sable curls, all silvered o’er with white;  ←Quatrain 1 (ABAB)    

When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,                                                                        

Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,                               

And summer’s green all girded up in sheaves,                                                             

Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard, ←Quatrain 2 (CDCD)  

Then of thy beauty do I question make,

That thou among the wastes of time must go,                      

Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake

And die as fast as they see others grow; ←Quatrain 3 (EFEF)    

  And nothing ‘gainst Time’s scythe can make defence               

  Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence. ←Couplet (GG)    

Whoso List to Hunt 

Sir Thomas Wyatt

(Example of an Italian Sonnet)

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,

But as for me,  hélas , I may no more.

The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,

I am of them that farthest cometh behind.

Yet may I by no means my wearied mind

Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore

Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,

Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind. ←Octave (ABBAABBA)

Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,

As well as I may spend his time in vain.

And graven with diamonds in letters plain

There is written, her fair neck round about:

Noli me tangere , for Caesar’s I am,

And wild for to hold, though I seem tame. ←Sestet (CDDCEE)

The final element of a sonnet, the volta (or “turn”), is more thematic than structural, and is therefore more subjective. Broadly speaking, sonnets tend to present one topic, theme, or argument, then turn to present another perspective on that topic, a counter-argument, or something that undermines the initial topic, theme, or argument completely. In many Italian sonnets, this turn is evident at the beginning of the sestet, often marked by words such as “but” or “yet,” while in many English sonnets, the turn can be found in the final couplet. Of all components of the sonnet, however, the location of this turn is the most variable.

British Literature to 1800 Copyright © 2020 by Karen Winstead. All Rights Reserved.

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ARTS & CULTURE

The birth of brunch: where did this meal come from anyway.

Jesse Rhodes

Once a week, an email chain of epic proportions germinates in my inbox: it's a regular call to brunch, followed by a scramble to figure out where we're eating, how many people are in so that reservations can be made, what time we're eating and whether or not bottomless mimosas are available. No mimosas usually means a change in venue, depending on who's in. And come Sunday morning there's a round of phone calls and text messages to rally the oversleeping, hung-over and/or otherwise indisposed members of the group. It's a complicated affair.

In anticipation of this Sunday, families all across the country will be be going head-t0-head, trying to beat each other out in securing brunch reservations at their favorite dining spots in order to celebrate Mother's Day. When did people start subjecting themselves to this delicious little slice of Sunday madness?

As is the case with many culinary traditions, the origins are a bit hazy. Some food historians think that the meal has its roots in England's hunt breakfasts—lavish multi-course meals that featured a smorgasbord of goodies such as chicken livers, eggs, meats, bacon, fresh fruit and sweets.  Others posit that Sunday brunch derives from the practice of Catholics fasting before mass and then sitting down for a large midday meal. And then there are those who  look to New York's abundance of dining spots when it comes to tracing the origins of classic brunch dishes from eggs Benedict to bagels and lox.

​ What does seem certain is that the word "brunch"—that playful blend of "breakfast" and "lunch"— first appeared in print in an 1895 Hunter's Weekly article. In "Brunch: A Plea," British author Guy Beringer suggested an alternative to the heavy, post-church Sunday meals in favor of lighter fare served late in the morning. ''Brunch is cheerful, sociable and inciting,'' Beringer says. ''It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.''

But wherever the initial spark of genius came from, the tradition definitely seems to have caught on in the United States in the 1930s, supposedly because Hollywood stars making transcontinental train trips frequently stopped off in Chicago to enjoy a late morning meal . It was a meal championed by hotels since most restaurants were closed on Sundays and, with church attendance flagging after World War II, people were looking for a new social outlet that also let them sleep in a bit. Restaurants soon hopped on the bandwagon and began offering the decadent spreads of food and signature morning cocktails, such as Bloody Marys, Bellinis and Mimosas.

"Sunday dinner became important because it was the only time people could eat together as a family unit during the week at the onset of urbanization and industrialization, 150 years ago," according to Stanford University professor Carl Degler in a 1980 Chicago Tribune article on the rise of America's brunch culture. He also pointed to another social change that might be responsible for why Sunday brunch became so popular here. "After World War II, large numbers of American married women entered the workforce for the first time. Married women needed a relief on Sunday, too, thus the rise in popularity of Sunday brunch eaten out."

Chefs, however, aren't a huge fan . After a busy Saturday night, trying to create a menu for a meal that stretches from 11 A.M. until 3 or 4 in the afternoon—finding that right balance between breakfast foods, lunch foods and exotic hybrids of the two—is no small task. And then there's the issue of dealing with fussy diners.

Will you be celebrating mom by way of a big brunch buffet this Sunday or do you have other Mother's Day dining traditions you like to keep? Tell us in the comments area below.

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Jesse Rhodes | READ MORE

Jesse Rhodes is a former Smithsonian magazine staffer. Jesse was a contributor to the Library of Congress World War II Companion .

Old English lufu "feeling of love; romantic sexual attraction; affection; friendliness; the love of God; Love as an abstraction or personification," from Proto-Germanic *lubo (source also of Old High German liubi "joy," German Liebe "love;" Old Norse, Old Frisian, Dutch lof ; German Lob "praise;" Old Saxon liof , Old Frisian liaf , Dutch lief , Old High German liob , German lieb , Gothic liufs "dear, beloved"). The Germanic words are from PIE root *leubh- "to care, desire, love."

The weakened sense "liking, fondness" was in Old English. Meaning "a beloved person" is from early 13c. The sense "no score" (in tennis, etc.) is 1742, from the notion of playing for love (1670s), that is, for no stakes. Phrase for love or money "for anything" is attested from 1580s. The phrase no love lost (between two people) is ambiguous and was used 17c. in reference to two who love each other well (c. 1640) as well as two who have no liking for each other (1620s, the usual modern sense).

To fall in love is attested from early 15c.; to be in love with (someone) is from c. 1500. To make love is from 1570s in the sense "pay amorous attention to;" as a euphemism for "have sex," it is attested from c. 1950.  Love affair "a particular experience of love" is from 1590s. Love life "one's collective amorous activities" is from 1919, originally a term in psychological jargon. Love beads is from 1968. Love bug , imaginary insect, is from 1883. Love-handles "the fat on one's sides" is by 1967.

"Even now," she thought, "almost no one remembers Esteban and Pepita but myself. Camilla alone remembers her Uncle Pio and her son; this woman, her mother. But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning." [Thornton Wilder, "Bridge of San Luis Rey," 1927]

Old English lufian "to feel love for, cherish, show love to; delight in, approve," from Proto-Germanic *lubojanan (source also of Old High German lubon , German lieben ), a verb from the root of love (n.). Weakened sense of "like" attested by c. 1200. Intransitive sense "be in love, have a passionate attachment" is from mid-13c. To love (someone) up "make out with" is from 1921. To love and leave is from 1885.

This truth came borne with bier and pall,

I felt it, when I sorrow'd most,

'Tis better to have loved and lost,

Than never to have loved at all —

[Tennyson, "In Memoriam"]

Entries linking to love

"greatly loved, dear to the heart," late 14c., past-participle adjective from obsolete verb belove "to please; be pleased with" (c. 1200), from be- + loven "to love" (see love (v.)). The noun meaning "one who is beloved" is attested from 1520s, first in Biblical language.

"woman who is the object of one's affections," 1733; see lady + love (n.).

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The History of Swear Words: Where the &%@! Do They Come From?

From ancient rome to the renaissance, dive into the surprising origins and history of swear words..

Don’t deny it: Sometimes, swearing just feels good. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that dropping the occasionally profanity bomb is actually good for us, too — at least, according to science .

Research has shown that swearing can boost pain tolerance , foster emotional resilience and signal positive traits like verbal fluency and honesty . What’s more, spewing obscenities has the potential to impact our bodies as well as our minds, providing stress relief and even a slight boost in physical performance .

Given their ubiquity in society, it can seem like swear words simply sprouted into existence. But where, exactly, does profane language come from? From ancient Rome to the Renaissance to today, there’s lots that the history of swearing can teach us about how taboos, language and culture evolve — and it can provide a glimpse of the future of (mostly) four-letter words.

The History of Swear Words

Simply put, swearing is taboo language: particular words that certain people deem unacceptable in specific settings within a given culture.

“The words that come to fill that role come from certain places in the human experience,” says Benjamin Bergen, a linguist and cognitive scientist at the University of California, San Diego, and author of What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves. “They tend to describe things that are themselves taboo.”

Historically, Bergen continues, taboo language has tended to revolve around religion; in Judeo-Christian and Muslim traditions, profanity emerges when words selected for specific functions are stripped of their intent and used outside of religious contexts. (In Latin, the word profanus translates to “outside the temple,” signifying words that desecrate sacred precepts.)

As such, words in English like holy , hell and goddamn — or even names of religious figures like Jesus Christ — become swears when they’re used accordingly, even if they're pretty tame by today's standards.

Read More: New Evidence for How Languages Spread 10,000 Years Ago

Other Origins of Curse Words

Beyond religion, profanity can also come from language involving sex and sexual acts, as well as bodily functions — in the latter category, you can find words describing vomit, urine and, of course, feces. In certain cultures, death and disease can even become fodder for profane language. In Dutch, for example, a long list of expletives are derived from the names of diseases , like the extremely-offensive Kankerlijer , which literally translates to “cancer-sufferer.”

“It’s the same general phenomenon [in all cases],” says Bergen. “A taboo about the world becomes a taboo about the word.”

Lastly, there are slurs — among the most offensive of all profanity, according to several studies that rank the offensiveness of English swear words. These derogatory terms refer to members of groups perceived as being defined by their race, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation, among others. And, according to Bergen, the prominence of slurs in the U.S. is on the rise.

“There’s very clear, empirical evidence that not only is there more of [this type of language], but it’s also judged to be more offensive, at least by younger Americans,” he says.

Read More: Swearing Like A Sailor May Not Be Such A Bad Thing

Swear Words in Ancient Rome

The history of swearing is filled with fascinating twists and turns. But, perhaps surprisingly, obscenity in Latin shares a few striking similarities with swearing today, with both drawing from taboos about sex and excrement. The sexual and cultural norms of ancient Rome, however, were markedly different from ours, giving rise to some unique profanity.

“You get swear words from the cultural preoccupations of the time,” says Melissa Mohr, author of Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing. “One of the key Roman preoccupations was, ‘What does it mean to be a man?’ They had all of these different words for man , and the best kind of man you could be was a vir , and that’s where we get the word virtuous .”

In ancient Rome, Mohr continues, it was socially acceptable for a virtuous Roman man to have sex with people of any gender, for example, so long as he was the active participant. (As such, one of the surest ways to sling mud at a Roman man was to use language putting them in a passive sexual position.) Meanwhile, if a woman was active during sex, that was deemed taboo by society.

“When you transgress the rules, that’s where you get the swear words,” adds Mohr.

Read More: Eight Ancient Languages Still Spoken Today

Swearing in the Middle Ages

By the Middle Ages, our cultural norms were quite different from those in antiquity; now, religion was an even more dominant force in society. As such, religious oaths — promises before God that your words are true and you’ll do what you say — that were made falsely became the predominant form of profanity.

“The cultural preoccupation [in the Middle Ages] is how and when you use God’s name,” says Mohr. “If you were having a criminal trial, you could be found not guilty just because you swore that you were a good person. […] So when you get vain swearing, which is what they’re worried about, that’s when you swear and you’re lying or you’re not sincere.”

So if you were, say, gambling in the Middle Ages and lost, you might cry out, “By God’s bones!” In particular, oaths on God’s body parts — other examples include “by God’s wounds” or “by the blood of Christ” — were the most obscene phrases you could say. These swears were deemed so shocking because people thought that saying them was akin to ripping apart the body of Christ in heaven, in a perversion of the Eucharist here on Earth.

Over the centuries, however, the perverse power of religious oaths began to fade. Mohr says that the decline started during the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s , with traditional religion playing a less central role in people’s lives.

“Basically, in Catholicism, God is more reachable; there was a sense [during the Middle Ages] that swearing was really directly connected to God and that vain swearing was really bad when you did it,” she says. “And with the Protestant Reformation, it’s no longer God’s physical body; it’s his spiritual body. […] With the decline of religiosity, this has basically been on a downward trend for hundreds of years.”

Read More: By God's Bones: Bad Words in the Middle Ages Were Nothing Like Today’s

Modern Obscenity Was Born During the Renaissance

During the Renaissance, swearing started to more closely resemble modern profanity. Terms that had simply been direct or descriptive during the Middle Ages — like the C-word, which could once be found in medical treatises describing anatomy — began to take over as the new swear words.

“Most of the bad words were around in the Middle Ages, they just weren’t swear words,” says Mohr.

These swears, often sexual or scatological in nature, reached their peak offensiveness during the Victorian era. This is when profanities largely vanished from print and speech, and polite euphemisms took their place. The societal urge to veer away from anything deemed uncouth or explicit was so strong that even now-banal words like leg and trouser were seen as taboo.

“But in private, there were all of these hints that by around 1860, people were swearing basically the same way that they are now,” says Mohr. “It just rarely made it into the record, but it’s in court cases and pornography.”

Around the dawn of the 20th century, however, profanity became much more public. During World War I and World War II, says Mohr, wartime correspondents tried to faithfully report on what soldiers were doing and saying, from trenches to submarines — including all of the colorful language they used. As a result, swearing started to bleed into newspapers and books.

“At that point, they’re saying f--- every other word,” adds Mohr. “There’s a quote [from the era] where someone said, ‘We knew it was serious if the sergeant didn’t say, ‘Get your f---ing rifle.’”

Read More: How Language Shapes Our Understanding of Reality

What Will the Swear Words of the Future Look Like?

Today, slurs are increasingly replacing other forms of profanity as the most shocking and offensive words in the English language. And while research suggests that the bulk of profanity is mostly harmless, even when used around children , slurs are a notable exception to this rule — for both the individuals being defamed and observers.

For example, Italian researchers found that being exposed to homophobic slurs led participants to dehumanize and physically distance themselves from gay men, according to a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology .

As slurs become more pervasive, both Bergen and Mohr note that it’s difficult to say whether they’ll ever lose their intent to harm and become intensifiers in language like other forms of swearing.

“One way to look at it is to say that, in hundreds of years, when we stop being discriminatory and putting people in all these silos, maybe [slurs] will just be this remnant of a time when this mattered,” says Mohr. “I hope that’s going to go away, but I feel like maybe they’ll never become the ‘seasoning’ words of the future.”

Read More: Is There Any Harm in Swearing Around Your Kids?

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Trump Media Merger Provides Trump a Potential Cash Lifeline

Having closed the merger of his social media company, Mr. Trump could find ways to raise cash against the value of his stake in the company, estimated at more than $3 billion.

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By Matthew Goldstein

Former President Donald J. Trump’s social media company — and the parent of his favorite communications platform, Truth Social — became a public company on Friday through a merger that will raise Mr. Trump’s wealth by billions of dollars and potentially help pay his mounting legal bills.

Trump Media & Technology Group is poised to debut on Wall Street at a market value of around $5 billion — based on the $37 share price of its merger partner, Digital World Acquisition Corp. Given that Mr. Trump owns more than 60 percent of the company, his overall net worth will increase by $3 billion — instantly doubling his wealth from the $2.6 billion estimate by Forbes magazine in October.

So far, those gains are on paper, and Mr. Trump is unlikely to be able to quickly turn it into cash because of restrictions in the merger agreement that prevent major shareholders from selling shares for at least six months, or using them as collateral for loans. But because Mr. Trump controls so much of Trump Media, and because his allies are expected to make up a majority of the new board, they could waive those restrictions on his request.

The question of where Mr. Trump can raise cash has become an urgent one because he is on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars of legal bills tied to the multiple cases against him. Mr. Trump is facing a Monday deadline to cover a $454 million penalty in a civil fraud case brought by the New York State attorney general, which accuses him of greatly inflating the value of his real estate holdings in deals with banks.

If Mr. Trump cannot come up with the cash or a bond to cover the penalty while he appeals the ruling, the attorney general’s office could seize some of his properties.

Trump Media’s board might be reluctant to allow Mr. Trump to sell shares early as that would likely deflate the company’s share price. But lifting the restriction on using shares as collateral would help him secure a bond and minimize the negative impact on the stock price.

Before the merger closed, Mr. Trump was chairman of Trump Media but neither it nor Digital World disclosed whether he will continue to retain the title. Either way, Mr. Trump will hold enormous sway over the company as the company’s new seven-member board includes Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and three former members of his administration. His 79 million shares give him a large majority stake in the company and his brand is critical to the success of Truth Social, which has become his main megaphone with communicating to his supporters.

There is no guarantee that the stock of Trump Media will continue to trade at its current levels. If the share price falls over the coming months, the sizable increase to his net worth could be smaller over time. Digital World’s shares dropped about 14 percent after the shareholder vote approving the merger.

As part of the merger, investors in Digital World — the cash-rich shell company that voted to merge with Trump Media — will now become shareholders of Mr. Trump’s three-year-old company. The deal will transfer more than $300 million from Digital World’s coffers to Trump Media, a struggling business with little revenue, and allow Truth Social to keep operating.

Shares of Trump Media could begin trading on the stock market as early as Monday under the stock symbol DJT.

Many of Digital World’s 400,000 shareholders are ordinary investors and fans of Mr. Trump, whose enthusiasm about the former president has propped up the shares for years. But it remains to be seen whether they will hold on to the stock now that the merger is done.

In a statement before the vote, Trump Media said that “the merger will enable Truth Social to enhance and expand our platform.”

With the future of his real estate business in flux because of the ruling in the New York civil fraud case, Trump Media could become one of Mr. Trump’s main moneymakers — and a potential source of conflict should he win the presidency in November. Trump Media currently gets most of its revenue from Truth Social, its flagship platform where several upstart companies advertise their products, targeting Mr. Trump’s supporters and using slogans that are variations on America First or Make America Great Again.

In using the stock symbol DJT, Trump Media is taking a trip back in time. One of Mr. Trump’s former publicly traded companies, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, had traded under that stock symbol until it filed for bankruptcy in 2004.

The merger of Digital World and Trump Media, first proposed in October 2021, is one of the more prominent deals to emerge from a strategy that many companies used to go public that was all the rage during the pandemic. Special purpose acquisition companies like Digital World are speculative investment vehicles set up for the purpose of raising money in an initial public offering and then finding an operating business to buy.

In going public through a SPAC merger, Trump Media is following other so-called alt-right businesses like Rumble, an online video streaming service that caters to right-leaning media personalities, and PublicSquare, which bills itself as an online marketplace for the “patriotic parallel economy.”

Trump Media took in just $3.3 million in advertising revenue on Truth Social during the first nine months of last year, and the company, during that period, incurred a net loss of $49 million.

“It’s unclear to me what is the strategy to building out the platform especially so it may reach a broader advertiser,” said Shannon McGregor, a professor of journalism and media at the University of North Carolina. “There does seem to be a ceiling in these niche markets.”

The merger was almost derailed by a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into deal talks between the two companies that took place before Digital World’s initial public offering. Securities rules prohibit SPACs from engaging in meaningful merger talks before going public.

But the deal got back on track after Digital World settled with the S.E.C. in July, agreeing to pay an $18 million penalty after the merger was completed and to revise its corporate filings.

After the deal was done on Friday, many shareholders and Trump fans celebrated online. Chad Nedohin, a vocal proponent of the merger on Truth Social, posted a livestream of the shareholder meeting on Rumble. In a chat room, viewers shared their enthusiasm for the deal, with messages such as “Great day to be alive” and “The day is finally here.”

Matthew Goldstein covers Wall Street and white-collar crime and housing issues. More about Matthew Goldstein

What to know about the crisis of violence, politics and hunger engulfing Haiti

A long-simmering crisis over Haiti’s ability to govern itself, particularly after a series of natural disasters and an increasingly dire humanitarian emergency, has come to a head in the Caribbean nation, as its de facto president remains stranded in Puerto Rico and its people starve and live in fear of rampant violence. 

The chaos engulfing the country has been bubbling for more than a year, only for it to spill over on the global stage on Monday night, as Haiti’s unpopular prime minister, Ariel Henry, agreed to resign once a transitional government is brokered by other Caribbean nations and parties, including the U.S.

But the very idea of a transitional government brokered not by Haitians but by outsiders is one of the main reasons Haiti, a nation of 11 million, is on the brink, according to humanitarian workers and residents who have called for Haitian-led solutions. 

“What we’re seeing in Haiti has been building since the 2010 earthquake,” said Greg Beckett, an associate professor of anthropology at Western University in Canada. 

What is happening in Haiti and why?

In the power vacuum that followed the assassination of democratically elected President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, Henry, who was prime minister under Moïse, assumed power, with the support of several nations, including the U.S. 

When Haiti failed to hold elections multiple times — Henry said it was due to logistical problems or violence — protests rang out against him. By the time Henry announced last year that elections would be postponed again, to 2025, armed groups that were already active in Port-au-Prince, the capital, dialed up the violence.

Even before Moïse’s assassination, these militias and armed groups existed alongside politicians who used them to do their bidding, including everything from intimidating the opposition to collecting votes . With the dwindling of the country’s elected officials, though, many of these rebel forces have engaged in excessively violent acts, and have taken control of at least 80% of the capital, according to a United Nations estimate. 

Those groups, which include paramilitary and former police officers who pose as community leaders, have been responsible for the increase in killings, kidnappings and rapes since Moïse’s death, according to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program at Uppsala University in Sweden. According to a report from the U.N . released in January, more than 8,400 people were killed, injured or kidnapped in 2023, an increase of 122% increase from 2022.

“January and February have been the most violent months in the recent crisis, with thousands of people killed, or injured, or raped,” Beckett said.

Armed groups who had been calling for Henry’s resignation have already attacked airports, police stations, sea ports, the Central Bank and the country’s national soccer stadium. The situation reached critical mass earlier this month when the country’s two main prisons were raided , leading to the escape of about 4,000 prisoners. The beleaguered government called a 72-hour state of emergency, including a night-time curfew — but its authority had evaporated by then.

Aside from human-made catastrophes, Haiti still has not fully recovered from the devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed about 220,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless, many of them living in poorly built and exposed housing. More earthquakes, hurricanes and floods have followed, exacerbating efforts to rebuild infrastructure and a sense of national unity.

Since the earthquake, “there have been groups in Haiti trying to control that reconstruction process and the funding, the billions of dollars coming into the country to rebuild it,” said Beckett, who specializes in the Caribbean, particularly Haiti. 

Beckett said that control initially came from politicians and subsequently from armed groups supported by those politicians. Political “parties that controlled the government used the government for corruption to steal that money. We’re seeing the fallout from that.”

Many armed groups have formed in recent years claiming to be community groups carrying out essential work in underprivileged neighborhoods, but they have instead been accused of violence, even murder . One of the two main groups, G-9, is led by a former elite police officer, Jimmy Chérizier — also known as “Barbecue” — who has become the public face of the unrest and claimed credit for various attacks on public institutions. He has openly called for Henry to step down and called his campaign an “armed revolution.”

But caught in the crossfire are the residents of Haiti. In just one week, 15,000 people have been displaced from Port-au-Prince, according to a U.N. estimate. But people have been trying to flee the capital for well over a year, with one woman telling NBC News that she is currently hiding in a church with her three children and another family with eight children. The U.N. said about 160,000 people have left Port-au-Prince because of the swell of violence in the last several months. 

Deep poverty and famine are also a serious danger. Gangs have cut off access to the country’s largest port, Autorité Portuaire Nationale, and food could soon become scarce.

Haiti's uncertain future

A new transitional government may dismay the Haitians and their supporters who call for Haitian-led solutions to the crisis. 

But the creation of such a government would come after years of democratic disruption and the crumbling of Haiti’s political leadership. The country hasn’t held an election in eight years. 

Haitian advocates and scholars like Jemima Pierre, a professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, say foreign intervention, including from the U.S., is partially to blame for Haiti’s turmoil. The U.S. has routinely sent thousands of troops to Haiti , intervened in its government and supported unpopular leaders like Henry.

“What you have over the last 20 years is the consistent dismantling of the Haitian state,” Pierre said. “What intervention means for Haiti, what it has always meant, is death and destruction.”

In fact, the country’s situation was so dire that Henry was forced to travel abroad in the hope of securing a U.N. peacekeeping deal. He went to Kenya, which agreed to send 1,000 troops to coordinate an East African and U.N.-backed alliance to help restore order in Haiti, but the plan is now on hold . Kenya agreed last October to send a U.N.-sanctioned security force to Haiti, but Kenya’s courts decided it was unconstitutional. The result has been Haiti fending for itself. 

“A force like Kenya, they don’t speak Kreyòl, they don’t speak French,” Pierre said. “The Kenyan police are known for human rights abuses . So what does it tell us as Haitians that the only thing that you see that we deserve are not schools, not reparations for the cholera the U.N. brought , but more military with the mandate to use all kinds of force on our population? That is unacceptable.”  

Henry was forced to announce his planned resignation from Puerto Rico, as threats of violence — and armed groups taking over the airports — have prevented him from returning to his country.  

Now that Henry is to stand down, it is far from clear what the armed groups will do or demand next, aside from the right to govern. 

“It’s the Haitian people who know what they’re going through. It’s the Haitian people who are going to take destiny into their own hands. Haitian people will choose who will govern them,” Chérizier said recently, according to The Associated Press .

Haitians and their supporters have put forth their own solutions over the years, holding that foreign intervention routinely ignores the voices and desires of Haitians. 

In 2021, both Haitian and non-Haitian church leaders, women’s rights groups, lawyers, humanitarian workers, the Voodoo Sector and more created the Commission to Search for a Haitian Solution to the Crisis . The commission has proposed the “ Montana Accord ,” outlining a two-year interim government with oversight committees tasked with restoring order, eradicating corruption and establishing fair elections. 

For more from NBC BLK, sign up for our weekly newsletter .

CORRECTION (March 15, 2024, 9:58 a.m. ET): An earlier version of this article misstated which university Jemima Pierre is affiliated with. She is a professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, not the University of California, Los Angeles, (or Columbia University, as an earlier correction misstated).

Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

Char Adams is a reporter for NBC BLK who writes about race.

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