English
English
Etymology
From Middle English Englisch, English, Inglis, from Old English Englisċ (“of the Angles; English”), from Engle (“the Angles”), a Germanic tribe + -isċ; equal to Angle + -ish. Compare Dutch Engels, Danish engelsk, Old French Englesche (whence French anglais), German englisch, Spanish inglés, ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ- (“narrow”) (compare Sanskrit अंहु (áṃhu, “narrow”), अंहस् (áṃhas, “anxiety, sin”), Latin angustus (“narrow”), Old Church Slavonic ѫзъкъ (ǫzŭkŭ, “narrow”)).
Pronunciation
Adjective
English (comparative more English, superlative most English)
- Of or pertaining to England.
- English-language; of or pertaining to the language, descended from Anglo-Saxon, which developed in England.
- Those immigrants Anglicised their names to make them sound more English.
- Of or pertaining to the people of England (to Englishmen and Englishwomen).
- 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 2, in The Celebrity:
- Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.
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- Of or pertaining to the avoirdupois system of measure.
- an English ton
- (Amish) Non-Amish, so named for speaking English rather than a variety of German.
Hyponyms
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Noun
English (countable and uncountable, plural English or Englishes)
- (plural) The people of England; Englishmen and Englishwomen.
- The Scottish and the English have a history of conflict.
- (Amish, plural) The non-Amish; non-Amish people.
- Ability to employ the English language correctly or idiomatically.
- My coworkers have pretty good English for non-native speakers.
- The English-language term or expression for something.
- What's the English for ‘à peu près’?
- (uncountable) Specific language or wording in English; English text or statements in speech, whether in translation or otherwise.
- The technical details are correct, but much of the English is not very clear.
- (printing, dated) A size of type between pica (12 point) and great primer (18 point), standardized as 14-point.
- (uncountable, Canada, US) Spin or sidespin given to a ball, especially in pool or billiards.
- You are trying to put too much English on the ball.
Usage notes
- The people as a collective noun require the definite article "the" or a demonstrative adjective. Hence: "The English are coming!" or "Oh, those English, always drinking their tea..."
Derived terms
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
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Proper noun
English
- The language originating in England but now spoken in all parts of the British Isles, the Commonwealth of Nations, North America, and other parts of the world.
- English is spoken here as an unofficial language and lingua franca.
- How do you say ‘à peu près’ in English?
- A variety, dialect, or idiolect of spoken and or written English.
- 2003, Amy Tan, "Mother Tongue", in The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life, page 278
- I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with: the English I spoke to my mother, which for lack of a better term might be described as “simple”; the English she used with me, which for lack of a better term might be described as “broken”; my translation of her Chinese, which could certainly be described as “watered down”; and what I imagined to be her translation of her Chinese if she could speak in perfect English, her internal language, and for that I sought to preserve the essence, but neither an English nor a Chinese structure.
- 2003, Amy Tan, "Mother Tongue", in The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life, page 278
- English language, literature, composition as a subject of study
- An English surname originally denoting a non-Celtic or non-Danish person in Britain.
- A male or female given name
- A town in Indiana; the county seat of Crawford County; named for Indiana statesman William Hayden English.
Hypernyms
- (language spoken in British Isles, North America, etc): Anglo-Saxon; language
Usage notes
- As with the names of almost all languages, English, when it means "the English language", does not usually require an article. Hence: "Say it in plain English!"
Translations
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Derived terms
- African American Vernacular English
- American English
- Australian English
- BBC English
- British English
- Canadian English
- Classical English
- Commonwealth English
- do you speak English?
- Early Modern English
- Elizabethan English
- English basement
- English Bluebell
- English bond
- English breakfast
- English breakfast tea
- English Channel
- English fever
- English flute
- English garden
- English horn
- English Latin
- Englishman
- Englishmen
- English mile
- English muffin
- Englishness
- English pale
- English pea
- English pease
- English plantain
- English Plus
- English rhubarb
- English saddle
- English sonnet
- English sparrow
- English studies
- English vice
- English walnut
- English wheat
- Englishwoman
- Englishwomen
- Estuary English
- full English
- full English breakfast
- Hiberno-English
- Indian English
- King's English
- Korean English
- Medieval English
- Middle English
- Modern English
- Multicultural London English
- Newfoundland English
- New Zealand English
- Old English
- Old English Sheepdog
- pidgin English
- Queen's English
- Scottish English
- Singapore English
- South African English
- Standard English
- White English Bulldog
Verb
English (third-person singular simple present Englishes, present participle Englishing, simple past and past participle Englished)
- (transitive, archaic) To translate, adapt or render into English.
- 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970:, page 214 (2001 reprint):
- […] severe prohibuit viris suis tum misceri feminas in consuetis suis menstruis, etc. I spare to English this which I have said.
- 2011, Colin Cheney, 'Where Should I Start with Tomas Tranströmer?':
- Here, the poems are Englished by twelve different translators
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See also
English (disambiguation) on the English Wikipedia. English Wikipedia English language on Wikipedia.Wikipedia English literature on Wikipedia.Wikipedia English studies on Wikipedia.Wikipedia English people on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Wiktionary's coverage of English terms
Quotations
- For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:English.
Further reading
- ISO 639-1 code en, ISO 639-3 code eng
- Ethnologue entry for English, en