Take me to your leader, Earthling’ #WordsmithWednesday

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Take me to your leader, Earthling’

This might sound like a line out of a cheesy Ed Wood sci-fi B movie. 

But did you know that that the word ‘Earthling’ is originally Anglo-Saxon and meant something completely different from what it does today?

Yep, it’s that time of the week again! # WordsmithWednesday

Back to ‘Earthling’...

Apparently, the Anglo-Saxons used the suffix ‘-ing’ or ‘-ling’ to mean ‘of’ or ‘from the’, and so ‘Earthling’ simply meant a ploughman i.e. someone who worked the earth.

Incidentally, they also used these same suffixes for place names which they attached to the name of different tribes or important families. Hence; Hastings, Reading etc.

Furthermore, they would sometimes also add an additional suffix ‘-ton’ to denote a fenced off area to make ‘-ington’. The ‘-ton’ is where we get the word ‘Town’ and the ‘-ington’ how we got places such as Donnington (and eventually Washington!).

While we’re on the subject, I should mention that the suffix ‘-ford’ related to places you could cross a river e.g. Guildford or Oxford, and the suffix ‘-ham’ meant homestead e.g. Nottingham.

Finally, the suffix ‘-worth’ meant ‘enclosure’ which explains villages like Hinxworth.