Linguistic purism in English
Efforts to reduce foreign terms in English
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Key Takeaways
- Purism in the linguistic field is the historical trend of languages to conserve intact their lexical structure of word families, in opposition to foreign influences which are considered 'impure'.
- English linguistic purism has persisted in diverse forms since the inkhorn term controversy of the early modern period.
- In stronger forms, new words are coined from Germanic roots (such as wordstock for vocabulary ) or revived from older stages of English (such as shrithe for proceed ).
- Modern linguistic purists include William Barnes, Charles Dickens, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Elias Molee, Percy Grainger, and George Orwell.
- Anglo-Norman was used in schools and dominated literature, nobility and higher life, leading a wealth of French loanwords to enter English over the course of several centuries—English only returned to courts of law in 1362, and to government in the following century.
Purism in the linguistic field is the historical trend of languages to conserve intact their lexical structure of word families, in opposition to foreign influences which are considered 'impure'. Historically, linguistic purism in English is a reaction to the great number of borrowings in the English language from other languages, especially Old French, since the Norman conquest of England, and some of its native vocabulary and grammar have been supplanted by features of Latinate and Greek origin. Efforts to remove or consider the removal of foreign terms in English are often known as Anglish, a term coined by author and humorist Paul Jennings in 1966.
English linguistic purism has persisted in diverse forms since the inkhorn term controversy of the early modern period. In its mildest form, purism stipulates the use of native terms instead of loanwords. In stronger forms, new words are coined from Germanic roots (such as wordstock for vocabulary) or revived from older stages of English (such as shrithe for proceed). Noted purists of Early Modern English include John Cheke, Thomas Wilson, Ralph Lever, Richard Rowlands, and Nathaniel Fairfax. Modern linguistic purists include William Barnes, Charles Dickens, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Elias Molee, Percy Grainger, and George Orwell.
History
Middle English
English words gave way to borrowings from Anglo-Norman following the Norman Conquest as English lost ground as a language of prestige. Anglo-Norman was used in schools and dominated literature, nobility and higher life, leading a wealth of French loanwords to enter English over the course of several centuries—English only returned to courts of law in 1362, and to government in the following century.
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