@Ængelfolc - "medu" is meed nowadays and still in the wordbook.

meed |mēd|
noun
a deserved share or reward: He must extract from her some meed of approbation.

@evath ... Well, you're written a lot and so this may ramble a bit. My binding to the net is terrible today ... I've already lost it once.

Your opinion is your opinion and that's ok. Without looking back over what has been written. It's very possible that I did go out in left field so to speak. It happens on forums since we can't see each other and get those hints of voice inflections and facial expressions that help get not only a meaning over to someone but the mood as well. We all need to be more careful online when saying something as to whether we're weening (opining) or put it out as "fact". But then we all have bad days as well.

An Anglo word for educated is onefoldly (simply) learned. He is a learned man. As for the parts of speech, yes, there are Anglo-Saxon words for them as well, but most of them are about as clear as mud since they are rooted in words that aren't brooked anymore. But nowadays they are teaching the young kids, the "naming part" (subject) and the "telling part" (predicate). You can brook forefast for prefix and afterfast or aftfast for suffix.

I can write brooking few Latinates, but too many old Anglo words would overwhelm the average reader so I must weigh them out a bit and try not to go all out. Eath, dern, bewry, umbe are all in wordbooks but if someone must look up every other word, then I might as well be writing in German!

There is no danger of Hispanics overrunning the US or Spanish taking over. Hispanic is a murky term at best anyway. Hispanic is not a race. There are many 3rd generation "Hispanics" ... Spanish surname ... that do not speak Spanish. One of my best friends is of Hispanic descent (Spanish surname) and is fluent in Spanish but his two boys can't speak it at all. Intermarriage between those with Spanish surnames and those without is common. The former governor of New Mexico ... Governor Richardson is a byspel of this.

Spanish in the US, and to an extent in Mexico, is becoming Spanglish ... el carro, el pickup, los breakers (circuit breakers), el laptop, asf. English itself is in great demand in Mexico. Most folks under 30 have had it in school and there are many, many schools set up to teach English.

Anent usage ... briefly ... many years ago as a teenager, I thought "drive-thru" was bad. That is until I looked in my wordbook and found altho, tho, and thru as variants of although, though, and through. I went to my English teacher in high school and told her that, since they were in the wordbook, from that day forth, I would be using them. I have done so thru undergraduate, graduate, and the corporate world. They have been part of reforms for over 100 years and were the preferred spellings when I was in the Army.

Tongue is a result of earlier "reforms" most of them to Latinize the spelling. The "u" to "o" was due to the script brooked at the time by the scribes ... It was befuddling to brook it "u" before "n" or "m" ... thus tung(e), munk, sum (and others) becam tong(e), monk, some. The "s" was mistakenly put in iland, the "b" put in det (came from French det but the later Latin lovers put the "b" in), and many others.

While I think of myself as a free-speller ... I brook many of the reform words ... definit instead of definite (from Latin definitus ... and the "i" is short ... don't need that "e") ... and enuff. I don't brook most of the "world voted" reforms here: http://freespeling.com/new-simpler-spelings/ ... aside from gage which is in the wordbook and makes sense ... and thru.

BTW, I do have a very long list of words that I can swap in and out. The last time I looked, it was over 30 pages long and I add words almost every day. One of the latest that I put in it was behight (to promise, to vow). I have shared it with friends who have asked for it. There are books on the subject but that is another soapbox!

@Jayles ... You likely can see that akinship between hight and heissen.

Nowadays we'd likely say, "There was a knight called Theseus" or named Theseus.

It has a twisted history in ME ... It was also written as hoaten and heighten. It was a past tense of hoaten as was hoaten (also hoten). Many spellings. But, in the end, makes it thru as hight and is now a weak verb.

@Hairy Scot ... Yea, someone has used my screen name as well ... If it isn't in red, then it likely isn't from me.

@Ængelfolc ... English brooks the forefast ur- as in urtext. We even have ursprache! It has ruffly the same meaning as ōr- in OE.

ur- |ʊ(ə)r|
comb. form
primitive; original; earliest: urtext.

It is often brooked with a hyphen like ur-rendition (seen here in a writ that I redd last night: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_good_word/2011/04/the_nonplussed_problem.html) onefoldly for the sake that most folks don't know it, so it is set off.

Oddly enuff, there is also or- as in ordeal ... to deal out ... upspringally, it was to deal out or share out pain ... a trial by ordeal.

@Hairy Scot ... LOL ... Not a big deal to me as long as someone doesn't say, "This is myself!" ... I think I cringe at the unrightly brooking of reflexive pronouns only because folks do it when they're trying to be hyper-correct! Altho it is creeping into everyday brooking as well.

This is she ... this is her ... that's me ... that's him ... meh. I've seen all the arguments back and forth. That is someone else's pet peeve! :þ

I just found a website for "freespeling" http://freespeling.com/ What bothers me about the website is that they held a "world vote" on a list of words ... and the spelling reforms show it. I brook some free-spelling so that in itself isn't bothersum. The guidelines (or guydlines on their site) are somewhat reasonable ... I don't agree with them all but the guidelines aren't too bad. But the results leave a little to be wanted. The results look more like all-worlders won the voting rather than erd-speakers.

I feel another blog coming on! lol

Looks like the OED accepts of, with, and by:

enamor |iˈnamər| (chiefly Brit. enamour )
verb (be enamored of/with/by)

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I usually hear with or by ... of sounds a little odd to me but it seems that they're all ok.

"Would of, should of, could of" ... Outside of the slangy idiomatic saying, you're right ... even then it could still be written "would've, should've, could've" or I'd take "would'av(e), should'av(e), could'av(e)".

While I don't mind a little free-spelling ... I do it often enuff. I'm not sure that putting the preposition 'of' in place of the verb 'have' shows a lack of knowledge, a lack of caring, a lack of editing, or what.

What's the name of the novel?

@Hairy Scot ... Only when it makes sense! LOL ... Otherwise blame it on the French! (Always blame the French ... ).