Oldest word in the English language

[Victoria Neufeldt]

How could there possibly be a single "oldest word"?  Even if they mean
the one with the oldest known record of use, it doesn't make sense to
me -- there couldn't be just one.  For another thing, there's no
specific date that's the beginning of the English language . . .  Very
odd idea!

Victoria

Victoria Neufeldt
727 9th Street East
Saskatoon, Sask.
S7H 0M6
Canada
Tel: 306-955-8910




> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of AAllan at AOL.COM
> Sent: Friday, May 02, 2003 12:01 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Oldest word in the English language
>
>
> That great source of information, WGN-TV news from Chicago,
> had a trivia
> question during their noon report today: What is the oldest
> word in the
> English language?
> Their answer was: town.
> They didn't have any explanation.
> I know that "town" goes back to Old English, but is there
> any reason to call
> it the oldest word in the language?
> - Allan Metcalf
>
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