8. Scandinavian Loanwords and their character.

It was after the Danes had begun to settle down peacefully in the island and
enter into the ordinary relations of life with the English that Scandinavian words began to enter in numbers into the language. The Danish invasions were not like theintroduction of Christianity, bringing the English into contact with a different civilization and introducing them to many things, physical as well as spiritual, that they had not known before. The civilization of the invaders was very much like that of the English themselves. Consequently the Scandinavian elements that entered the English language would make their way into it through the give-and-take of everyday life.
Among nouns that came in are tree, band, bank, birth, booth, bull, calf, dirt, down, egg, fellow, guess, keel, kid, leg, link, race, reef, root, score, scrap, seat, sister, skin, skill, steak…etc. Among adjectives we find awkward, flat, ill, loose, low, meek, muggy, odd, rotten, scant, sly, tattered, tight and weak. There are also a surprising number of common verbs among the borrowings, like to bait, bask, call, cast, clip, cow, crawl, die, droop, gape, gasp, get, give, lift, nag, rid, scare, scowl, snub, sprint, take, thrive, thrust.