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The Celts begin to colonize Britain.
Words of Celtic origin in modern English: bog, clan, crag, glen, pet,
slew, slogan, trousers -
First Roman invasion of Britain.
Rome ends up occupying Britain for about 500 years. -
Germanic Anglo-Saxon tribes begin to inhabit British Isles, and the English language is born! -
The Anglo-Saxons start converting to Christianity, and English starts adopting new words from Latin, such as: angel, candle, hymn, lobster, martyr, plant, noon, school, sock
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Britain first undergoes raids from the Vikings, giving English words from Old Norse: bull, club, law, ransack, reindeer, slaughter, wing
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The Norman Conquest.
William the Conqueror invades
Britain, and Britain's nobility I speaks French for over 300 years. -
William Shakespeare begins writin. Shakespeare coins almost 2,000 new words in English, like:
anchovy, domineering, gloomy,
investment, luggage, rant, stealthy -
Jamestown becomes the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Britain would go on to create settlements the world I over, and each area would make its own contributions to English.
A few examples are: avatar (from
• India), kangaroo (from Australia), zombie (from West Africa) -
Samuel Johnson publishes his
Dictionary of the English Language, which becomes the first widely used book of its kind. Dr. Johnson is responsible for many spellings in
modern English. -
The Oxford English Dictionary
honors an emoji as its
Word of the Year.