A couple of weeks ago I watched a tiny robin having a bath just feet away from me.
It was cold. It was wet. But the little bird was happy.
When your Old-English ancestors went for their annual* wash I bet they were just as cold and wet, and probably less happy about it than our feathery friend.
But we have the Anglo- Saxons to thank for our word 'bath' (bæþ) at least.
And they even got quite poetic about it. The sea was 'the seal's bath' (seolhbæþ)
Gif me þone sāpe
[Yif me tho-nuh saa-puh]
Pass me the soap (please)
And how about this for the end result...
Eart þu sȳferlīċ nu?
[Ey-art thoo soo-fer-litch noo?]
Are you clean now?
*I'm guessing there was none of this modern daily shower malarky...
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