Selected papers presented at the 18th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics, (ICEHL18), held at the University of Leuven, July 14-18, 2014.

Introduction: philology as linguistically informed cultural history / Peter Petré and Hubert Cuyckens -- Conspicuous lexical choice in past societies. Old English ead in Anglo-Saxon given names: a comparative approach to Anglo-Saxon anthroponomy / Olga Khallieva Boiché -- News and relations: highlighted textual labels in the titles of early modern news pamphlets / Carla Suhr -- "All spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air": metaphorical connections in the history of English / Marc Alexander and Christian Kay -- Historical layers in text and genre. Conservatism and innovation in Anglo-Saxon scribal practice / Christine Wallis -- Old English wills: a genre study / Lilo Moessner -- Spatio-temporal systems in Chaucer / Minako Nakayasu -- "A riddle to myself I am": argument shifting in English congregational song between 1500 and 1900 / Kirsten Gather -- Lexis, morphology, and a changing society. Common to the North of England and to New England: British English regionalisms in John Russell Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms / Javier Ruano-Garrcía -- Betwixt, amongst, and amidst: the diachronic development of function words with final / st/ / Ryuichi Hotta -- English word clipping in a diachronic perspective / Donka Minkova.