History of English History of English English is a West Germanic language that originated from Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain in the mid 5th to 7th centuries AD by Anglo-Saxon settlers from what is now northwest Germany, west Denmark and the Netherlands, displacing the Celtic languages that previously predominated. The Old English of the Anglo-Saxon era developed into Middle English, which was spoken from the Norman Conquest era to the late 15th century. A significant influence on the shaping of Middle English came from contact with the North Germanic languages spoken by the Scandinavians who conquered and colonized parts of Britain during the
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant "Anglo-Saxon" referred to the language of indigenous inhabitants of England before 1066, especially in contrast to Norman French influence after that. Since the 19th century it has been in common use in the English-speaking world, but not in Britain itself (in this context), to refer to Protestants of principally English descent. The "W" and "P" were added in the 1950s to form a humorous epithet with an undertone of "waspishness" (which means a person who is easily irritated and quick to take offense). The first published mention of the term "WASP" was provided by political scientist Andrew Hacker in 1957,