the time of Hengist’s invasion, “the common language of the more educated classes among the British was Latin, which was in use as a literary language and as the language of the British Christian Church.  Hence, the Low German tribes [of invaders] found no great necessity for learning ancient British; and this explains the fact, which would otherwise be extraordinary, that modern English contains but a very small Celtic element.”  Of the Celts that remained within the English pale, it is certain that, in a very short time, they accepted the necessity of learning Anglian or Saxon, and lost their previous language altogether.  Hence, in many dialects, as for example, in the East Midland district, the amount of words of “British” origin is practically nil.  For further remarks on this subject, see Chapter V of Anglo-Saxon Britain, by Grant Allen, London, n.d.

I here give a tentative list of some Celtic words found in dialects.  Their etymologies are discussed in my Etymological Dictionary (1910), as they are also found in literary use; and the words are fully explained in the English Dialect Dictionary, which gives all their senses, and enumerates the counties in which they are found.  It is doubtless imperfect, as I give only words that are mostly well known, and can be found, indeed, in the New English Dictionary.  I give only one sense of each, and mark it as N., M., or S. (Northern, Midland, or Southern), as the case may be.  The symbol “gen.” means “in general use”; and “Sc.” means Lowland Scotch.

Art, or airt, Sc., a direction of the wind; banshee, Irish, a female spirit who warns families of a death; beltane, N., the first of May; bin, M., a receptacle; boggart, bogle, N., M., a hobgoblin; bragget, N., M., a drink made of honey and ale; brat, N., M., a cloth, clout; brock, gen., a badger; bug, N., a bogy; bugaboo, N., M., a hobgoblin; capercailyie, Sc., a bird; cateran, Sc., a Highland robber; char, N., a fish; clachan, Sc., a hamlet; clan, N., M., a class, set of people; claymore, Sc., a two-handed sword; colleen, Irish, a young girl; combe, gen., the head of a valley; coracle, M., a wicker boat; coronach, Sc., a dirge; corrie, Sc., a circular hollow in a hill-side; cosher, Irish, a feast; crag, craig, N., a rock; crowd, N., S., a fiddle; dulse, N., an edible sea-weed; dun, gen., brown, greyish; duniwassal, Sc., a gentleman of secondary rank; fillibeg, Sc., a short kilt; flummery, Sc., M., oatmeal boiled in water; gallowglass, Sc., Irish, an armed foot-soldier; galore, gen., in abundance; gillie, Sc., a man-servant; gull, a name of various birds; hubbub, hubbaboo, Irish, a confused clamour; inch, Sc., Irish, a small island; ingle, N., M., fire, fire-place;