Oldest word in the English language

[FRITZ JUENGLING]

I wasn't serious.
Fritz

>>> translation at BILLIONBRIDGES.COM 05/02/03 01:15PM >>>
That would merely be the oldest known _written_ word.

In a specious and facetious manner appropriate to
proclamations of this sort made on TV news, I propose
that the oldest word must surely be any and all
variations of the expression "Ouch!"

On second thought, perhaps the infantile scream
"Whaaaa...!!!" would even precede that, no?

<g>

Don


> How about the first word in the oldest known manuscript?
> Fritz
>
> >>> vneufeldt at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM 05/02/03 11:45AM >>>
> 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