David Crystal is the English etymologist and linguist everybody likes. His upcoming book The Story of English in 100 Words was excerpted in the Independent, which nearly completely muffed the actual list of 100 words (including misreading backformation as “back-information,” a novice error).
Here, then, are David Crystal’s hundred words in a form you can actually understand. (Century of coinage in parentheses.)
- roe
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The first word (5)
- lea
-
Naming places (8)
- and
-
An early abbreviation (8)
- loaf
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An unexpected origin (9)
- out
-
Changing grammar (9)
- street
-
A Latin loan (9)
- mead
-
A window into history (9)
- merry
-
A dialect survivor (9)
- riddle
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Playing with language (10)
- what
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An early exclamation (10)
- bone-house
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A word-painting (10)
- brock
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A Celtic arrival (10)
- English
-
The language named (10)
- bridegroom
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Popular etymology (11)
- arse
-
An impolite word (11)
- swain
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A poetic expression (12)
- pork
-
An elegant word (13)
- chattels
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A legal word (13)
- dame
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A form of address (13)
- skirt
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A word doublet (13)
- jail or gaol?
-
Competing words (13)
- take away
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A phrasal verb (13)
- cuckoo
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A sound-symbolic word (13)
- cunt
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A taboo word (13)
- wicked
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A radical alteration (13)
- wee
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A Scottish contribution (14)
- grammar
-
A surprising link (14)
- valentine
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First name into word (14)
- egg
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A dialect choice (14)
- royal
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Word triplets (14)
- money
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A productive idiom (14)
- music
-
A spelling in evolution (14)
- taffeta
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An early trade word (14)
- information(s)
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(Un)countable nouns (14)
- gaggle
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A collective noun (15)
- doable
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A mixing of languages (15)
- matrix
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A word from Tyndale (16)
- alphabet
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Talking about writing (16)
- potato
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A European import (16)
- debt
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A spelling reform (16)
- ink-horn
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A classical food (16)
- dialect
-
Regional variation (16)
- bodgery
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Word-coiners (16)
- undeaf
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A word from Shakespeare (16)
- skunk
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An early Americanism (17)
- shibboleth
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A word from the King James Bible (17)
- bloody
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Emerging swear word (17)
- lakh
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A word from India (17)
- fopdoodle
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A lost word (17)
- billion
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A confusing ambiguity (17)
- yogurt
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A choice of spelling (17)
- gazette
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A taste of journalese (17)
- tea
-
A social word (17)
- disinterested
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A confusable (17)
- polite
-
A matter of manners (17)
- dilly-dally
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A reduplicating word (17)
- rep
-
A clipping (17)
- Americanism
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A new nation (18)
- edit
-
A backformation (18)
- species
-
Classifying things (18)
- ain’t
-
Right and wrong (18)
- trek
-
A word from Africa (19)
- hello
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Progress through technology (19)
- dragsman
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Thieves’ cant (19)
- lunch
-
U or non-U (19)
- dude
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A cool usage (19)
- brunch
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A portmanteau word (19)
- dinkum
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A word from Australia (19)
- mipela
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Pidgin English (19)
- schmooze
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A Yiddishism (19)
- OK
-
Debatable origins (19)
- ology
-
Suffix into word (19)
- y’all
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A new pronoun (19)
- speech-craft
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An Anglo-Saxonism (19)
- DNA
-
Scientific terminology (20)
- garage
-
A pronunciation problem (20)
- escalator
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Word into name into word (20)
- robot
-
A global journey (20)
- UFO
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Alternative forms (20)
- Watergate
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Place-name into word (20)
- doublespeak
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Weasel words (20)
- doobry
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Useful nonsense (20)
- blurb
-
A moment of arrival (20)
- strine
-
A comic effect (20)
- Alzheimer’s
-
Surname into word (20)
- grand
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Money slang (20)
- mega
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Prefix into word (20)
- gotcha
-
A nonstandard spelling (20)
- PC
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Being politically correct (20)
- bagonise
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A nonce word (20)
- webzine
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An Internet compound (20)
- app
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A killer abb (20)
- cherry-picking
-
Corporate speak (20)
- LOL
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Netspeak (20)
- jazz
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Word of the century (20)
- sudoku
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A modern loan (21)
- muggle
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A fiction word (21)
- chillax
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A fashionable blend (21)
- unfriend
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A new age (21)
- Twittersphere
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Future directions? (21)