Word.ws English Dictionary

Anglish

Syllables: An·glish/ˈæŋ.(ɡ)lɪʃ/US/ˈæŋ.(ɡ)lɪʃ/

Anglish proper noun: a puristic style of English that exclusively uses words of native (Germanic) origin, proscribing words of foreign (especially Latin, French, and Greek) origin.

Proper noun

Anglish

  1. A puristic style of English that exclusively uses words of native (Germanic) origin, proscribing words of foreign (especially Latin, French, and Greek) origin.
    • In Anglish, you would call a dictionary a wordbook.
    • Whilst you would be forgiven for thinking this statement comes straight from the latest UKIP manifesto, it is in fact a quotation from The Anglish Moot, a fan-page promoting the use of the 'Anglish' language — that is, English with all foreign borrowings stripped away.2017 March 25, Lili Bidwell, “Anglish: A Brexiteer’s lingua franca?”, in The Cambridge Student, archived from the original on 31 Jan 2021
    Synonyms:
    Anglo-Saxon English, Eldsay English, Saxon English
    Antonyms:
    Anglese[Romance]] language>

Adjective

Anglish (not comparable)

  1. Of, in, or pertaining to this form of English.

Synonyms of Anglish

  • Anglo-Saxon English
  • Eldsay English
  • Saxon English

Antonyms

  • Anglese[Romance]] language>

Origin of Anglish

Coined by British author Paul Jennings in 1966 from Angl(e) + -ish, from Old English Engl(e) + isċ, as a jocular name in the British magazine Punch. Doublet of English.

Questions about Anglish

What does Anglish mean?
Anglish means a puristic style of English that exclusively uses words of native (Germanic) origin, proscribing words of foreign (especially Latin, French, and Greek) origin.
What part of speech is Anglish?
Anglish can be a proper noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce Anglish?
Anglish is pronounced /ˈæŋ.(ɡ)lɪʃ/ (UK).

Words near Anglish in the dictionary

  1. angling
  2. angling for
  3. angling for farthings
  4. anglings
  5. Anglins
  6. Anglish
  7. Anglist
  8. Anglistic
  9. Anglistics
  10. Anglists
  11. anglo

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Anglish (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Anglish.wav.

Cite this entry: “Anglish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/anglish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.