Over the course of the history of English, many Old English words have died. They’re just no longer in the language. In some cases, though, words that have become obsolete in general usage have lived on in compounds or in fixed phrases.

Let me give you a couple examples of words that have just died.

In Old English we have the word fremman, which means “to do” or to “perform.”  Clearly we no longer frem things.

Then there’s an Old English word I love: ymbsittend, an “around-sitter.” These around-sitters are your neighbors, that is, the people who “sit around you.” Now we just call them neighbors.

Then there are the words that have lived on, but only in compounds or fixed expressions.

One of the best-known examples is the wer in “werewolf.” Most etymologists trace it back to the Old English word wer, which means “man.” So a werewolf is a man-wolf.  In Old English the word wer (“man”) often paired with wīf (“woman”). The word wīf lives on in the phrase “old wives’ tales.” There are people who wonder, why are old wives’ tales told by married women? Well, they’re not. In Old English the word wīf referred to women in general, so they’re just old women’s tales.

The same is true with the word “midwife,” which goes back to the generic meaning of wīf as “woman” and mid, which means “with.” A midwife is the woman who is with another woman when she’s giving birth.

Knowing that the word wīf used to mean “woman” helps explain the origin of the word woman, as well. Woman goes back to wīfmann, “a female person.” The word mann, now “man,” really did used to have the more generic meaning “person.” The word woman does not go back to “womb man” or “woe to man,” two false etymologies that I have occasionally seen.

Let me give you a few other examples of Old English words that have lived on in some surprising ways.

The expression “to boot”: “To boot” has nothing to do with footwear. The word boot in “to boot” goes back to the Old English word bōt, which meant “good” or “advantage.” So “to boot” has long meant “to the advantage/good,” and you can probably imagine how that meaning led to the use of “to boot” to refer to things that are thrown into the bargain, so to speak.

Have you ever wondered what the “cob” in the word “cobweb” is? Cob goes back to the Old English word for “spider,” which is coppa. Cop eventually came to be cob.

And I’ll give you one last one, which is “lovelorn.” When someone is lovelorn, they’re typically despondent because they are experiencing unrequited love or they have lost their love. The lorn in lovelorn goes back to the Old English verb lēosan, meaning “to lose.” The form lorn was the past participle and meant “lost.” So when you are lovelorn, you are “love lost.”

These kinds of etymologies are one reason I love studying the history of English. Once you know Old English, you can hear some of the whispers of it in the language we speak today.

This video originally appeared in LSA Today, where you can find more videos, including an archive of Anne Curzan’s discussions of language.