We find both bikœchedd and bikahht for caught. This new word, which we saw first in the South, must have spread fast in England.
Another new word is found in the lines: —
þatt . . . þeod
þatt Jacob wass bilenge. — I. page 76
(belonging to Jacob). This word is akin to the Dutch verb belangen (attingere).
Orrmin, like the Peterborough Chronicler of 1120, uses the Passive Participle chosenn for the old gecóren.
He replaces the old cneowian by cnelenn (kneel), which came first in the Essex Homilies.
He sometimes turns a Strong verb into a Weak one, a process begun long before his time. He uses hœfedd (elatum) as well as hofenn; he has sleppte (dormivit) where it ought to be slep; weppten (fleverunt) instead of weópon; trededd (depressus) instead of treden.
One of the peculiar shibboleths, brought hither by the Danes, is the word gar (facere), a word still in the mouths of Scotchmen. Orrmin uses the compounds forrgarrt and oferrgarrt. The verb gar is found neither in High nor in Low German.
The Norse gow is used by him for observare. Hence comes our a-gog, the Icelandic à gœgium, on the watch.
As might be expected, Orrmin follows the Northern hafan rather than the Southern habban (habere). We find a near approach to our modern corruption hast in his line —
Himm haffst tu slaʓenn witerrliʓ. — I. page 154.
