Why is it that English dicionaries always refer back to Latin etymology?

Question

Was Latin the first language or something? I'd really like to know! Thanks in advance for your replies.

Answer 1

Let's clear up a bit - only Offkey seems to know what's happened. English DID NOT derive from Latin. English is a Germanic language. The Roman conquest of part of Britain DID NOT have a major influence on English - minor at best.

Latin did (and does) influence English in two major ways. In 1066, the Norman French won the Battle of Hastings and took over control of England. They brought their brand of French with them, and it was derived from Latin. Many words from French made it into English that way.

For the last 1000 years or so, whenever a new word or term is needed, Latin has been a primary source, and that is still going on. Just look at today's video games and car audio systems. "Video" is perfect Latin - it means "I see." And "Audio" is just as good - it means "I hear."

The result is that, although English is a Germanic language, a large number of its words have Latin as their source, so dictionaries do often refer to Latin roots.

Answer 2

Latin and Greek words you used: native, language, academic, scientific, memorize, irregular, humans, adapt. Those are the ones I could find. Anyway, it didn't borrow needlessly, because when the early English people were wanting to learn about things, they would look to what the Romans and Greeks thought and that's where they learned the words. The Romand and Greek cultures were two well-established cultures, and they weren't going to reinvent the wheel and try and come up with new words for concepts that had already been defined. Also, religion played a role back then. This meant that church functions would have been conducted in Latin. In the early period, Great Britain was still pagan, but as Christianity crept in, it would start introducing Latin text and ideas. The other thing is that back then, there was no large extensive collection of Anglo-Saxon literature. There was some, but not the libraries that the Romans and Greeks had had. This meant that if you wanted to read many books Latin and Greek were the way to do it, just like a modern-day person would need to learn English to be able to read the most books today. Also, when you say "English," you need to be careful, because modern-day "English" is a product of the Normans who invaded mixed with Anglo-Saxon. If you were to read the language of the early people of Britain, you wouldn't understand hardly a word of it. It's a completely different language. English was born, when the French Normans mixed their language with the Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxons. Basically, English is the mixed up version. Your question should be "Why did the Anglo-Saxons borrow needlessly from French, Latin and Greek and form English." or "Why did the Anglo-Saxons adopt English as a language."

Answer 3

latin is a very old language, so most languages that come out of europe are formed from latin words.

Answer 4

A lot of English words (not all) come from Latin words.

Actually, you often two words for one meaning, and one of these words will be of Latin origin (like "penetrate" or "originate") and the other(s) from ... I think it's Saxon...

Answer 5

Because English is derived from the Latin, as is Spanish, Portugese, French, and Italian.

Answer 6

Because the Romans conquered England and greatly influenced the development of our language.