Not Quite There Yet

A fair number of common terms

In the English language have roots

That terminate among the terps

Of Frisia along the Dutch coast—

About the time that Athens was

In the glow of its golden age,

Preliterate Germanic tribes

Infiltrated Celtic lowlands

In wooded coastal areas

Lashed by the North Sea’s typical,

Usually blustery weather,

Building villages on raised hills

They piled up themselves against floods,

While basing their economy,

Unremarkably, on cattle.

They contributed nothing much

To global civilization,

Except some stubborn resistance

To Roman colonization

That eventually broke them,

But if you look up English words,

You’ll find, among the Hellenic,

Latinate, and other lauded

Sources, the occasional term

Whose etymology stops dead

At a Frisian antecedent

Labeled of unknown origin,

Including basic words, like yet,

(Cognate of Old Frisian ieta,

Of unknown origin). Enough

Of these crop up that you begin

To ponder those early Frisians

With their unremarkable herds

And lack of cultural lustre.

Just where did their vocabulary

Haunting English really come from?

You never know with origins.

Just when you think you’re digging down

To somewhere where some story starts,

It’s twilight, and tide’s coming in.