The most obvious way in which Modern English differs from Old English is in the number of borrowed words that have come into the language since the Old English period. Less obviously, many words have ceased to be used. Since we no longer carry swords (most of us, at least), the word foin, meaning “the thrust of a sword,” is no longer heard. A common Old English word for “man” was were, but it has fallen out of use, except in horror films where the compound werewolf occasionally appears. A number of expressions such as lo, verily or egad are immediately recognized as belonging to a much earlier period, along with certain medieval-sounding names such as Bertha, Egbert and Percival.

Two other processes are described as “broadening” and “narrowing” of meaning. An example of broadening of meaning is the change from holy day as a religious feast to the very general break from work called a holiday. We have broadened the use of foda (fodder for animals) to talk about all kinds of food. Old English words such as luflic (“loving”) and hræd (“quick”) not only went through sound changes, they also developed more complex evaluative meanings (“wonderful” and “preferentially”), as in their modern uses: That’s a lovely idea, but I’d rather have dinner at home tonight. Another example is the modern use of the word dog. We use it very generally to refer to all breeds, but in its older form (Old English docga), it was only used for one particular breed.

The reverse process, called narrowing, has overtaken the Old English word hund, once used for any kind of dog, but now, as hound, used only for some specific breeds. Another example is mete, once used for any kind of food, which has in its modern form meat become restricted to only some specific types. The Old English version of the word wife could be used to refer to any woman, but has narrowed in its application nowadays to only married women. A different kind of narrowing can lead to a negative meaning for some words, such as vulgar (which used to mean simply “ordinary”) and naughty (which used to mean “having nothing”).