Ye Olde

In Old English, the "th" sound was represented by the letters thorn, þ, (voiceless) and  ð  (voiced).  They were written similarly to the letter y.  So whereas the written word "ðe"  was "the," the letter ð, when handwritten, looks like a y to modern readers. So, there is no Ye Olde, anything.  It's a corruption of "the old."

Walking down the Gangplank

Now, I'm no expert. I don't claim to be the final authority on anything I may post. I aim to share my love of words with others. My particular interest is in the origin of words and how they morph over time.


Gangplank. Isn't that the board on a ship where they send people to their death at sea? I guess it's used as a board to embark and disembark. Maybe the death at sea was something I saw in a pirate movie.


Take the Norwegian word "gående" which, depending on which part of Norway you're in, is roughly pronounced "gawin'  na."  It is the present participle of the verb "to go" (å gå), like the English word "going." "Å gå" in Norwegian means "to walk," which is precisely what one does on the gangplank.  The Norwegian words for "entrance" and "exit" are "ingang" and "utgang."  Knowing that the Vikings settled in England and influenced the language, to me the gangplank is a going plank, or a gående plank.