loanword

English

Alternative forms

• loan word

Etymology

A compound noun of loan +‎ word, a calque of German Lehnwort.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈloʊnwɝd/
• IPA^(key): /ˈləʊn.wɜː(ɹ)d/

Noun

loanword (plural loanwords)

1. A word directly taken into one language from another one with little or no translation.

   The word “exit” is a loanword from Latin.

   • 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.

Synonyms

• borrowing
• calque
• foreign word (informal)
• gainword

Translations

word taken from another language

• Arabic: دَخِيل m (daḵīl)
• Armenian: փոխառություն (hy) (pʻoxaṙutʻyun)
• Bulgarian: зае́мка (bg) f (zaémka), чужди́ца (bg) f (čuždíca)
• Catalan: manlleu (ca) m
• Chinese:

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

  Mandarin: 外來語／外来语 (zh) (wàiláiyǔ), 外来语 (zh) (wàiláiyǔ), 借詞／借词 (zh) (jiècí), 借词 (zh) (jiècí), 借用語／借用语 (jièyòngyǔ), 借用语 (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
• Estonian: laensõna (et)
• Finnish: lainasana (fi)
• French: emprunt (fr) m
• Galician: estranxeirismo (gl) m
• German: Lehnwort (de) n, Fremdwort (de) n
• Greek: δάνειο (el) n (dáneio)
• Greenlandic: oqaasersiaq
• Hungarian: jövevényszó (hu)
• Icelandic: tökuorð (is) n
• Indonesian: kata serapan (id)
• Irish: focal iasachta m
• 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)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kazakh: кірме сөз (kırme söz)
• Khmer: ពាក្យកម្ចី (piek kɑmcee)
• Korean: 외래어 (ko) (oeraeeo) (外來語 (ko)), 차용어 (ko) (chayong'eo) (借用語 (ko))
• Latvian: aizguvums
• Lithuanian: skolinys m
• Macedonian: заемка f (zaemka)
• Maori: kupu whakawhiti, kupu pōriro, kupu mino
• Mongolian: 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: دخیل (fa) (daxil), وام‌واژه (fa) (vâm-vâže)
• 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: посуђѐница f, posuđènica f
• Spanish: extranjerismo (es) m, préstamo (es) m, calco (es) m
• Swedish: lånord (sv) n, låneord (sv) n, främmande ord n
• Tagalog: salitang hiram
• Thai: คำยืม (th) (kam-yʉʉm)
• Vietnamese: từ vay mượn, từ du nhập, từ mượn, từ ngoại lai
• Welsh: benthycair m, benthyciad (cy) m

Trivia

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

See also

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

 

Further reading

• loanword on Wikipedia.Wikipedia