12. +Scandinavian Words+ (i).-- The words contributed to our language by the Scandinavians are of two kinds: (i) Names of places; and (ii) ordinary words. (i) The most striking instance of a Danish place-name is the noun +by+, a town. Mr Isaac Taylor[2] tells us that there are in the east of England more than six hundred names of towns ending in +by+. Almost all of these are found in the Danelagh, within the limits of the great highway made by the Romans to the north-west, and well-known as +Watling Street+. We find, for example, +Whitby+, or the town on the _white_ cliffs; +Grimsby+, or the town of Grim, a great sea-rover, who obtained for his countrymen the right that all ships from the Baltic should come into the port of Grimsby free of duty; +Tenby+, that is +Daneby+; +by-law+, a law for a special town; and a vast number of others. The following Danish words also exist in our times-- either as separate and individual words, or in composition-- +beck+, a stream; +fell+, a hill or table-land; +firth+ or +fiord+, an arm of the sea-- the same as the Danish fiord; +force+, a waterfall; +garth+, a yard or enclosure; +holm+, an island in a river; +kirk+, a church; +oe+, an island; +thorpe+, a village; +thwaite+, a forest clearing; and +vik+ or +wick+, a station for ships, or a creek. [Footnote 2: Words and Places, p. 158.] 13. +Scandinavian Words+ (ii).-- The most useful and the most frequently employed word that we have received from the Danes is the word +are+. The pure English word for this is +beoth+ or +sindon+. The Danes gave us also the habit of using +to+ before an infinitive. Their word for +to+ was +at+; and +at+ still survives and is in use in Lincolnshire. We find also the following Danish words in our language: +blunt+, +bole+ (of a tree), +bound+ (on a journey-- properly +boun+), +busk+ (to dress), +cake+, +call+, +crop+ (to cut), +curl+, +cut+, +dairy+, +daze+, +din+, +droop+, +fellow+, +flit+, +for+, +froward+, +hustings+, +ill+, +irk+, +kid+, +kindle+, +loft+, +odd+, +plough+, +root+, +scold+, +sky+, +tarn+ (a small mountain lake), +weak+, and +ugly+. It is in Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Lincoln, Norfolk, and even in the western counties of Cumberland and Lancashire, that we find the largest admixture of Scandinavian words.