Ængelfolc: Yes, to my mind 'human' as an adjective (which-thyng-word ??) is more woesome, as in 'human weakness', 'human rights', human mistakes, 'I'm only human' and so on. The other thing about 'mankind' is: what about womankind? (from a womanist standpoint). 'Human' is so close to the OE and the PIE root, there does not seem to be great point in burrowing around for something else, less beckoning, less winsome. Better to turn our minds to weightier goals like:
deforestation -> bare-felling, overlogging
semi-arid -> half-dry

For those folk watching the olympics who don't know what "equestrian" means......
It's horse-riding.
I cannot begin to fathom why we make such a meal of it all when it's so easy in true English.

On the other hand there are words like "human" for which a stand-in is hard to find, another kettle of fish indeed, takning on board that there is an almost-the-same word in OE.

The most galling thing is unclouding the meaning of words to outland learners: for instance:
'verb' = 'doing-word';
'noun' = 'thyng-word';
'adverb' = 'how-word';
'pre' -> 'fore' as in 'forecast';
'suffix' -> sub+fix -> 'under-fix' = 'add-on'.
Really! we should either speak latin or use English, not mix them up without pale. Learning English is indeed much easier if one learns latin first!

@Angelfolc: notiert!
@Perfect Pedant: Yes indeed, we all face choices when using English: 'global' or 'worldwide', 'prevent' or 'forestall', 'introduction' or 'lead-in', and so on. The next step-up is where we choose to toss in the odd word marked as 'obsolete' or 'archaic' in the wordbooks instead of the more common latinate ones: makes it sound like Tolkien.....
anything beyond that and it becomes too hard to understand.

Perfect Pedant: I too was very skeptical for a long while. However I now strive to weed out unneeded latinisms; and I think the outcome is sturdier, more punchy and striking English. I am also more aware of some good newswriters who seem to do the same. Of course there are so many latinate borrowings in today's English it would be foolhardy to ween that we could root them all out, and truly there is no need, save only to write more simply and less pretentiously. (root out, weed out instead of eradicate for instance).

command (noun) : behest (I like this)
command (verb) : can one really use behest as a verb? "bid" seems more like "ask"
commander : leader/bidder seem slightly off the mark; "behester" ????

John 3:16 "for God so loved the world..."
Οὕτω γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν κόσμον,
If you notice the Greek says "kosmos" which is translated as "world".
(maybe: Thus Theos liked the kosmos..)
"wer" is still in "werewolf" I think.
What one learnt at Sunday School !!!

"number - rime, a "large number" is a tale."
I could not track down "rime" other than meaning "hoar frost". Whence cometh this word?
By the by "case" either "plight" or "byspell" will often fit.

"freak" from dictionary.com:
"a person or animal on exhibition as an example of a strange deviation from nature; monster. "
Might be sone misunderstanding when spoken; but I guess that's where the laugh is.

I take it that freke and freak have the same pronunciation??
"The Republican primaries give members the opportunity to choose the best freke for the job" ???