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That's Viking You're Speaking!

Name the RANDOM English words which have their roots in Old Norse.
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overtired
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Last updated: September 16, 2023
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First submittedApril 18, 2023
Times taken3,880
Average score70.0%
Rating4.84
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Hint
English Word                                                   Norse root
O
complaint investigating official
ombudsman umboðsmaðr (representative)
M
oppressively humid, close
muggy mugga (drizzle, mist)
I
irritate, annoy
irk yrkja (to work)
F
brownish spots on face/skin
freckle freknur
T
stop someone accomplishing
thwart þvert (across)
A
overwhelming wonderment
awe agi (terror)
S
frighten, cause fear
scare skirra (to frighten)
A
ire, rage
anger angr (trouble, affliction)
S
large fish of the ray family
skate skata (fish)
B
dreary, desolate, pale
bleak bleikr (pale)
S
a magician has _____ of hand
sleight slœgð (cunning, slyness)
S
barely sufficient or adequate
scant skamt & skammr (short, lacking)
W
spin around
whirl hvirfla (to go around)
G
stare stupidly, gape
gawk ga (to heed)
S
appear to be
seem sœma (to conform)
S
slope or lean
slant sletta, slenta (to throw carelessly)
A
clumsy or embarrassing
awkward ǫfugr (turned backward)
C
cry out to someone
call kalla (cry loudly)
S
long heroic story e.g. Star Wars
saga saga (story, tale)
D
pass away, expire
die deyja
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11 Comments
interopia
+6
Level 90
Apr 18, 2023
Interesting!
overtired
+6
Level 88
Apr 18, 2023
Yeah, I was quite fascinated to see how many common words came to English via the Viking invasions and rule. Makes sense, but I feel like it doesn't get mentioned much.
cathlete
+5
Level 78
Apr 19, 2023
Nice! I must say I am fascinated as well. Nominated
AlmostAGenius
+1
Level 90
Sep 22, 2023
Ugh. I read “a present” as “at present” and never got it.
maur85
+2
Level 73
Sep 23, 2023
Apparently quite a few of these (such as race) were already cognate to their Old English equivalents, which makes sense given they're both Germanic languages.
overtired
+2
Level 88
Aug 1, 2024
Sure, some of them had mixed roots given in the source.

Other common words were very different in Old English, for instance leg (leggr in Old Norse) which was sceanca, the root of the modern word shank.

Josiah
+1
Level 58
Aug 1, 2024
Wow, what an interesting quiz! Nominated!
McKenzieFam
+1
Level 68
Aug 1, 2024
+1! I enjoyed this
GlassMonkeyOLD
+1
Level 69
Dec 4, 2024
Nice, you should add 'window'
overtired
+1
Level 88
Dec 4, 2024
It’s already there. There are 140 different possible answers!
hihipicklei
+1
Level 56
Jan 17, 2025
Never heard the word "ombudsman" in my 41 years of life
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