Many of the words are to do with warfare or fighting ("berserk", "club", "knife"). Some of the words from Norse look as if they should be part of the original English vocabulary ("they", "their", "take", "want"). Many words describe household, farming or family items ("husband", "plough", "window").
| Word | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| anger | grief | |
| axle | ox tree | |
| bag | ||
| bait | cause to bite | |
| berserk | The name of a warrior who fought with frenzied fury. | |
| birth | ||
| blunder | stumble around blindly | |
| bore | wave | Tidal estuary wave. |
| bulk | cargo | |
| by-law | town law | Used in the UK. |
| call | ||
| cast | As in 'cast off' from the shore in a boat. | |
| club | Item used for hitting. One of many fighting words from Norse. | |
| crawl | ||
| creek | Short arm of a river; inlet on sea coast. | |
| die | ||
| dirt | excrement | Used in UK for something unclean; used in USA for the noun, 'soil'. |
| dregs | As in 'sediment'. | |
| egg | As produced by females. | |
| get | obtain | Past form is 'got' in UK, 'gotten' in USA. |
| gift | ||
| give | ||
| gosling | Young goose. | |
| haggle | A dispute about price. | |
| hit | meet with | As in 'to strike an object'. |
| husband | house owner | |
| knife | The original pronunciation was KNIFR. | |
| lad | male servant | Used in UK for 'young boy' or 'youth'. |
| lathe | Machine used for shaping materials. | |
| law | from 'lagu', laid down | |
| litmus | moss dye | Dye that responds to acidity. |
| loose | untrue | |
| low | ||
| mistake | take wrongly | |
| muck | dung | |
| mug | Viking drinking vessel. | |
| oaf | goblin | |
| odd | Something left over. | |
| plough | Instrument for cutting furrows in land. Spelt 'plow' in USA. | |
| raft | For floating on water. | |
| ransack | house seek | To search a house thoroughly. |
| reindeer | Subarctic deer. | |
| root | Part of a plant. | |
| ruck | pile | UK slang for a fight; used in Rugby for a pile up of bodies. |
| rune | magic sign | An early European alphabet. |
| scarf | A type of wood joint. Many Norse words begin with SC- or SK-. | |
| scrap | A small piece of something. The same root as 'scrape'. | |
| scrape | ||
| seem | honour | |
| skate | A type of fish. | |
| skill | distinction | In the sense of expertise. |
| skin | Animal or human covering. | |
| skirt | shirt | English words beginning with SH- are usually from the same root as Norse SK-. |
| sky | cloud | |
| slaughter | butcher's meat | |
| sleuth | trail | |
| snub | chide | A rebuff. |
| stagger | ||
| steak | roast on a spit | |
| stumble | trip | |
| take | ||
| their | ||
| they | ||
| thrift | The same root as 'thrive'. | |
| troll | Mythological Viking dwarf. | |
| ugly | to dread | |
| wand | Magician's stick. | |
| want | lacking | |
| weak | pliant | |
| whirl | ||
| whisk | ||
| window | wind eye | |
| wing |
