Second Layer

The second layer consists of words which directly or indi­rectly belong to the sphere of religion and church. When Christianity was introduced in England, the Latin language came to be used as language of the church. At this time a certain number of Latin words were taken over into English: biscop 'bishop’ from Latin episcopus, Greek episkopos; cleric ‘church man’ from Latin clericus, Greek klērikós; apostol 'apostle' from Latin apostolus, Greek apóstolos; deofol 'devil' from Latin diabolus, Greek diábolos; mæsse 'mass' from Latin missa; munuc 'monk' from Latin monachus, Greek- mоnachós; mā™ister 'teacher' from Latin magister; scrifan 'prescribe' from Latin scrībere. Some Latin loan-words yielded derivatives: biscophād 'bishopric', biscepun™ ’becoming a bishop', scrtfi 'shrift'.

Under Latin influence some native Englishwords acquired new meanings: thus, the substantive ēastron, whichoriginally denoted a heathen spring holiday, acquired the meaning ‘Easter’. Some new terms were created on the pattern of Latin words, e.g. ™ōdspell (literally 'good news'), þrēnes 'Trinity'.

CELT I C

Celtic languages had but a marginal influence on the English vocabulary. Among Celtic loan-words we may mention dūn (MnE down) ‘dunе', dun ‘dun', binn 'bin'.

Some Celtic elements have been preserved in geographical names: Gaelic amhuin 'river' in Avon, Evan; Gaelic cothair 'fortress' in Carnarvon; Gaelic uisge ‘water' in Exe, Usk, Esk; dun, dum 'hill’ in Dumbarton, Dumfries, Dunedin; llan 'church' in' Llandaff, Llandovery, Llandudno; coil 'forest' in Kilbrook, Killiemore; kil 'church' in Kilbride, Kilmacolm; Ceann 'cape' in Kebadre, Kingussie; inis

'island' in Innisfail; inbher ‘mountain’ in Inverness, Inverurie; bail ‘house’ in Ballantrae, Ballyshannon.

On the whole, the percentage of loan-words in OE was very insignificant, as compared with later periods.