loanword

See also: loan word

English

Alternative forms

• loan word

Etymology

A calque of German Lehnwort, equivalent to loan +‎ word. Compare West Frisian lienwurd, Dutch leenwoord, Danish låneord, Swedish lånord, Icelandic lánsorð.

Pronunciation

• (Canada, US) IPA^(key): /ˈloʊnˌwɝd/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈləʊnˌwɜː(ɹ)d/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

Noun

loanword (plural loanwords)

1. A word directly taken into one language from another one.

   "Calque" is a loanword with French origins, and "loanword" is a calque with German origins.

   • [1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, chapter 32, in The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC:

     New words, and particularly loanwords, are simplified, and hence naturalized in American much more quickly than in English. Employé has long since become employee in our newspapers, and asphalte has lost its final e, and manœuvre has become maneuver, and pyjamas has become pajamas.]

   • 2018, James Lambert, “Anglo-Indian slang in dictionaries on historical principles”, in World Englishes, volume 37, page 251:

     This searching was facilitated by the author's knowledge of the vagaries of Anglo-Indian spelling and the numerous colonial-era transliteration systems used for loanwords from Indian languages.

   • 2021 April 25, John Malathronas, “Which languages are easiest – and most difficult – for native English speakers to learn?”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     Indeed, in 1957 Xenophon Zolotas, the then governor of the Bank of Greece, gave two speeches to the IMF that contained just Greek loanwords apart from the inevitable basic English. (Example: “Our policies should be based more on economic and less on political criteria.”)

Synonyms

• borrowing
• foreign word (informal)
• gainword

Hyponyms

• Hobson-Jobson

Coordinate terms

• calque

Translations

word taken from another language

• Afrikaans: leenwoord
• Albanian: fjalë e huazuar f
• Arabic: دَخِيل m (daḵīl), لَفْظ دَخِيل m (lafẓ daḵīl)
• Armenian: փոխառություն (hy) (pʻoxaṙutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: alınma söz, alınma
• Belarusian: запазы́чанне n (zapazýčannje), запазы́чаньне n (zapazýčanʹnje), запазы́чанае сло́ва n (zapazýčanaje slóva)
• Bengali: ঋণশব্দ (rinośobdo)
• Bulgarian: зае́мка (bg) f (zaémka), чужди́ца (bg) f (čuždíca), чу́жда ду́ма f (čúžda dúma)
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: manlleu (ca) m
• Cebuano: pulong hinulaman
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 借詞 / 借词 (ze³ ci⁴), 外來語 / 外来语 (ngoi⁶ loi⁴ jyu⁵)

  Mandarin: 外來語 / 外来语 (zh) (wàiláiyǔ), 借詞 / 借词 (zh) (jiècí), 借用語 / 借用语 (zh) (jièyòngyǔ)

• Crimean Tatar: alınma söz
• Czech: přejaté slovo n
• Danish: fremmedord n (a loan that retains its native spelling), låneord n
• Dutch: leenwoord (nl) n
• Erzya: ушовал (ušoval), саезь вал (sajeź val), саевкс (sajevks)
• Estonian: laensõna (et)
• Finnish: lainasana (fi)
• French: emprunt (fr) m
• Galician: estranxeirismo (gl) m
• Georgian: ნასესხობა (nasesxoba), სესხება (sesxeba), ნასესხები სიტყვა (nasesxebi siṭq̇va)
• German: Lehnwort (de) n, Fremdwort (de) n
• Greek: δάνειο (el) n (dáneio)
• Greenlandic: oqaasersiaq
• Hebrew: מִלָּה שְׁאוּלָה (he) f (milá sh'ulá)
• Hindi: आगत शब्द m (āgat śabd)
• Hungarian: jövevényszó (hu), átvétel (hu), kölcsönzés (hu)
• Icelandic: tökuorð (is) n, lánsorð n
• Indonesian: kata serapan (id)
• Irish: focal iasachta m, iasacht (ga) f
• Italian: forestierismo (it), prestito linguistico m
• Japanese: 外来語 (ja) (がいらいご, gairaigo), 借用語 (ja) (しゃくようご, shakuyōgo)
• Kazakh: кірме сөз (kırme söz)
• Khmer: ពាក្យកម្ចី (piək kɑmcəy)
• Korean: 외래어(外來語) (ko) (oeraeeo), 차용어(借用語) (ko) (chayong'eo)
• Kyrgyz: өздөштүрүү (ky) (özdöştürüü)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: aizguvums m
• Lithuanian: skolinys m
• Macedonian: заемка f (zaemka)
• Malay: kata pinjaman
• Maori: kupu whakawhiti, kupu pōriro, kupu mino
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: зээлдсэн үг (zeeldsen üg), харь үг (mn) (xarʹ üg)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lånord (no) n, fremmedord (no) n, importord n

  Nynorsk: låneord n, lånord n, framandord n, importord n

• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: دَخیل (fa) (daxil), وام‌واژِه (fa) (vâm-vâže), واژِهٔ دَخیل (vâže-ye daxil), واژِهٔ عارِیَتی (vâže-ye âriyati)

• Polish: zapożyczenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: estrangeirismo (pt) m, empréstimo (pt) m
• Romanian: cuvânt împrumutat n, împrumut (ro) n
• Russian: заи́мствование (ru) n (zaímstvovanije), заи́мствованное сло́во n (zaímstvovannoje slóvo)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: посуђѐница f, позајмљеница f

  Roman: posuđènica f, pozajmljenica (sh) f

• Slovak: prevzaté slovo n
• Slovene: izposojenka f, prevzeta beseda f
• Sorbian:

  Upper Sorbian: požčonka f

• Spanish: extranjerismo (es) m, préstamo (es) m, calco (es) m
• Swedish: lånord (sv) n, låneord (sv) n, främmande ord (sv) n
• Tagalog: salitang hiram
• Tajik: иқтибос (iqtibos)
• Tatar: алынма (alınma)
• Thai: คำยืม (th) (kam-yʉʉm)
• Turkish: alıntı kelime, alıntı sözcük
• Ukrainian: запози́чення (uk) n (zapozýčennja)
• Urdu: دَخِیلِ لَفْظ m (daxīl-i lafz)
• Uzbek: oʻzlashtirma (uz), qarz soʻzi
• Vietnamese: từ vay mượn, từ du nhập, từ mượn (vi), từ ngoại lai
• Welsh: benthycair m, benthyciad (cy) m
• Yiddish: לײנװאָרט n (leynvort)
• Yoruba: ọ̀rọ̀-àyálò

See also

• calque
• foreignism
• loanblend
• loanshift
• loan translation
• partial calque
• semantic loan
• semi-calque

Trivia

• While the term loanword is a calque from German, the term calque is a loanword from French.

Further reading

• loanword on Wikipedia.Wikipedia