Where do most or all of english words come from? does it have anything to do with names or fallen angels?
Executive summary
English is a West Germanic language that grew from Anglo-Saxon dialects brought to Britain in the 5th–7th centuries AD and later borrowed massively from Norse, Norman French and Latin — so most English words trace to Germanic roots plus large layers of Romance and classical borrowings [1] [2]. Available sources do not link mainstream historical linguistics of English to “names or fallen angels” as a source of vocabulary; the idea that an angelic tongue (Enochian) supplied English is an occult claim recorded in late‑16th‑century journals, not linguistic history [3] [4].
1. How English actually formed: migration, mixing and time
English began as a set of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects spoken by Anglo‑Saxon settlers from northwest Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands in the mid‑5th to 7th centuries; those dialects became Old English in Britain [1]. Over centuries English absorbed North Germanic (Old Norse) influence from Viking settlement and a huge influx of Norman French and Latin vocabulary after 1066, so modern English is a layered product of contact, conquest and borrowing [1] [5].
2. Where most English words come from: Germanic core, Romance and classical overlays
Many everyday core words (function words, basic verbs and nouns) come from Old English/Germanic roots; many higher‑register, legal, literary, religious and scientific terms come via Norman French, Latin and Greek borrowings introduced in the Middle Ages and Renaissance [1] [5]. Reference works and etymology projects catalog these origins; the Online Etymology Dictionary and etymological sections of dictionaries trace words back to Proto‑Germanic, Latin, Old Norse, Old French and beyond [6] [7].
3. Proper names and word formation: names influence vocabulary but not the whole language
Personal names and place‑names sometimes become common nouns (eponyms like “mesmerize” or brand‑names becoming generic), and the Cuesta College etymology guide notes that people’s names occasionally enter English as words [8]. But this is a small, well‑documented mechanism within a much larger system of borrowing and internal development; it does not account for “most” English words [8].
4. The ‘fallen angels’ / angelic‑language hypothesis: occult claim, not linguistic evidence
Some occult traditions claim an “angelic” or antediluvian language. John Dee and Edward Kelley recorded an “Enochian” language they said came from angels in the late 16th century; this is an occult, constructed language, not a source cited by historical linguists for English vocabulary [4]. Scholarly histories of English do not treat Enochian or fallen‑angel lore as sources for English words; mainstream accounts attribute English’s vocabulary to migrations, language contact and borrowings [1] [2].
5. Where the fallen‑angel story comes from and why it circulates
Beliefs about fallen angels, such as the Watchers in Enochian literature, appear in religious and pseudepigraphic traditions and later occult reception; those narratives sometimes ascribe knowledge (writing, medicine, astrology) to supernatural beings in texts like 1 Enoch, which has shaped mythic accounts but not linguistic scholarship [9] [10]. Popular articles and speculative pieces recycle these motifs [11], but that is cultural history, not etymology.
6. How to check word origins yourself
Use etymological dictionaries and reputable histories: the Oxford English Dictionary, Online Etymology Dictionary, Britannica and university reference guides trace word histories and show loans from Old Norse, Old French, Latin and Proto‑Indo‑European roots [12] [6] [3] [13]. These sources document when a word entered English and its parent language — something occult claims about angelic tongues do not do in a verifiable way [4].
7. Conflicting perspectives and limitations
Mainstream linguistics is unanimous that English developed by human language change and contact [1] [2]. Sources about Enochian or fallen angels present a competing cultural narrative — recorded in occult journals and modern popular writing — but those sources do not provide philological data connecting that “angelic” vocabulary to the attested history of English words [4] [11]. Available sources do not mention a scholarly link between fallen‑angel names and the bulk of English lexicon.
If you want specific word histories, tell me a few words you’re curious about and I will cite etymological entries showing their documented sources (e.g., Old English, Old Norse, Old French, Latin) from the references above [6] [7] [12].