Can you name the most common English words of Old Norse origin? by Tser

Old Norse Word	English Word	Direct Translation
Ladd		'young man'
Thor's dag		'day of Thor'
Vindauga		'wind-eye'
Kalla		'cry loudly'
Steik		'to fry'
Krafla		'to throw'
Klubba		'cudgel'
Drit		'feces'
Angr		'trouble, afliction'
Uggligr		'dreadful'
Illr		'bad, sick'
Myrr		'bog'
Skirra		'to frighten'
Veikr		'lacking in force or ability'
Mistaka		'miscarry'

Old Norse Word	English Word	Direct Translation
Lauss		'free'
Gestr		'visitor'
Baggi		'a sack'
Agi		'terror'
Hreindyri		'game'
Tew's dag		'day of Tew'
Berserkr		'bare-shirt/frenzied warrior'
Slathr		'butchering'
Lagu		'rules'
Knifr		'tool'
Raptr		'log'
Boli		'cattle'
Husbondi		'master of the house'
Blundra		'shut ones eyes'
Deyja		'pass away'

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English Words of Old Norse Origin Quiz

by Tser

Created Oct 4, 2009 in Language
Game Plays 11,626

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	JayHankEdLyon:	Oct 4th, 2009 at 19:40 GMT	15 points
	GREAT quiz. I love etymology. Problems are the hints are vague/wrong at times. "Crawl" has nothing to do with throwing. Awe isn't terror so much as wonder. There are better words for "loose" than "free." "Games" is a funny hint, but it's WAY too vague ("santa" might suffice, if "elk" won't.) "Boat" would probably be better for raft. Still, the vast majority of hints were wonderful and the actual quiz rules. 9/10

	Tser:	Oct 5th, 2009 at 01:53 GMT	8 points
	Yeah I see what you mean, but some of the hints are direct translations of the Old Norse word. So for example the word "raptr" is directly translated to log(or logs in plural) and the english use of the word is therefor "raft" as they are made from logs. So yes; some of the hints are vague, but they are not wrong.

	JayHankEdLyon:	Oct 5th, 2009 at 04:42 GMT	18 points
	Ah. If you called them "meaning" or "direct translation" or something rather than "hint" then it'll be a lot clearer. I agree completely that you should keep them if that's the direct translation, but the word "hint" makes it look like you're giving us a category.

	JayHankEdLyon:	Oct 5th, 2009 at 04:43 GMT	15 points
	Oh, and I just now got that it's "game" like "hunting target." I thought it was like Reindeer Games.

	Lady_Galadriel:	Oct 5th, 2009 at 19:48 GMT	3 points
	Love it, love it, love it. I am a huge language nut, always have been but it was aggravated when I discovered Tolkien. It's so much fun to notice how languages have evolved. Old Norse is an awesome language, never even mind how awesome the mythology is.

	melissa:	Oct 8th, 2009 at 16:16 GMT	11 points
	Great quiz, Tser - lots of fun. I agree with JayHankEdLyon's second comment that the "hint" column would be better titled "meaning" or "direct translation." Otherwise, really solid and ripe for a sequel!

	Scyphus:	Nov 6th, 2009 at 11:35 GMT	3 points
	Great quiz. Seems like way too much time is allowed, though; maybe cut it to 5 minutes?

	eurythmech:	Nov 6th, 2009 at 11:55 GMT	1 point
	Loved the quiz. A bit too much time, but still a fiver from me, and that's pretty rare. But one thing: should there really be an apostrophe in the Norse Torsdag and the Tuesday one?

	davebesag:	Nov 6th, 2009 at 13:21 GMT	3 points
	It's a very good quiz but I agree that some of the text in the hints column is counter-productive.

	bstarr66:	Nov 6th, 2009 at 21:40 GMT	4 points
	I kept typing "uggly" with two gs and wondering why it wasnt working. Oh my.

	RS89:	Nov 7th, 2009 at 08:38 GMT	-1 points
	Too much time and do you have a source? Otherwise, pretty cool game.

	ffi:	Nov 7th, 2009 at 11:30 GMT	4 points
	After reading through this quiz I found myself spelling things with k's instead of c's... I wondered why it wouldn't accept 'skare' for the last one.

	Nicktroptopolis:	Nov 7th, 2009 at 19:53 GMT	4 points
	The damn Viking conquest has made Anglo-Saxon history so much more difficult to study. The etymology deriving from Tew and Thor could just as easily be their Anglo-Saxon predecessors Tiw and Thunor. Since Wednesday seems to bare more resemblance to Woden than Odin, this is perhaps more likely. A good quiz though, etymology is fascinating :)

	AddiSnow:	Nov 9th, 2009 at 15:15 GMT	2 points
	As an Icelander this quiz has annoyed me since some words aren't always correctly translated and in some cases the hints just give away the answer. Like for example gestr. It literally mean visitor. Veikur, or veikr, means sick. Drit is now known as bird poo. Not sure that ladd and lass are norse words. Sounds more like Celtic to me. The idea is great but the execution of it no so great.

	RetepAdam:	Nov 13th, 2009 at 05:00 GMT	2 points
	Go Norway.

	rsinetheta:	Nov 28th, 2009 at 21:39 GMT	1 point
	I thought it was a fun quiz and I'm happy that there was plenty of time because some of them took some concentration and thought. I got all except awe, mire, law, and crawl. I feel I should have been abel to get law and mire, but I don't think I could have ever gotten awe and crawl based on the translations/hints. Good job on this one.

	Salmon:	Nov 30th, 2009 at 14:11 GMT	1 point
	The most notable influence of Old Norse on the English language is how English got the pronouns they, them, their from Norse. I'm pretty certain those words are in much, much, much more widespread use than a lot of the words in this quiz.

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	Unn:	Feb 1st, 2010 at 22:45 GMT	1 point
	Maybe check the etymology of some words - Tuesday and Thursday as mentioned above (OE Tiw ~ ON Tyr), and also weak could be from OE wac?

	Danni:	Feb 4th, 2010 at 12:18 GMT	-4 points
	Many of the hints are too vague.

	15782:	May 21st, 2010 at 14:18 GMT	2 points
	fun!

	Quinteh:	Jun 27th, 2010 at 00:47 GMT	-4 points
	The hreindyri hint is WAY too vague.

	chriskotx:	Oct 23rd, 2010 at 23:00 GMT	3 points
	Those who are saying that the hints are too vague dont seem to understand the nature of how words travel through time and culture. The modern word isnt always a clear direct same-meaning term, but there is a relationship between them. Crawl and throw are related in the sense that when you crawl you throw yourself to the ground to do so. Imagine you are introduced into the court of an ill-tempered medieval king... you might do well to throw yourself to the ground and do some crawling before him in order to avoid being considered worthy of castigation for your disrespect. Nomination for this quiz.

	tbwilson:	Oct 29th, 2010 at 20:58 GMT	3 points
	I agree with Unn on Tuesday. The ancient Anglo-Saxons had their own religion that was a close relative of Norse religion but different from Norse religion itself. Tuesday was named after Tiw, not Tyr. Thursday is arguable, though. Norse influence shortened the Old English day named after "Thunor" to "Thor's Day".

	Lampehus:	Feb 20th, 2011 at 11:53 GMT	1 point
	http://www.sporcle.com/games/Fjons/wonano If you liked this quiz, then try this one.

	Sollair:	Mar 14th, 2011 at 15:29 GMT	1 point
	That was great. Waiting for the sequel.

	samcash13593:	Mar 27th, 2011 at 20:13 GMT	2 points
	when i read hreindyri i thought of reindeer initially, but when i read the game clue, i started thinking of games people would have played back then.