----- Original Message -----
From: "Elliott Lash" <erelion12@...>
> John Cowan wrote:
>
>> Vocabulary, though, is a different matter. English
>> borrowed thousands
>> of words from Old Norse: such ordinary words as
>> "uncle" and "sky" are
>> of Old Norse origin. . . .
> Agreed to all the above, except "uncle". Isn't "uncle"
> a French word from Latin "avunculus"?
>
> Elliott
That's what my American Heritage Dictionary says. But the word in German is
Onkel, which is either a borrowing from OF oncle (or vice versa), or
similarly derived.
Sally