calque

See also: calqué

English

WOTD – 1 August 2007

Etymology

From French calque (“calque”, literally “copy, tracing”), from calquer (“to copy, trace”) (whence also calk), itself borrowed from Italian calcare, from Latin calcāre (“to tread”). Doublet of calcate and calcation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kælk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ælk
• Homophones: calc, calk
• Hyphenation: calque

Noun

Examples
watershed from German Wasserscheide

calque (plural calques)

1. (linguistics, translation studies) A word or phrase in a language formed by word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a word in another language.

   Synonyms: loan translation, calquing

   Hypernym: loan formation

   Coordinate term: (a term that is partially a calque and partially formally contains a foreign element) partial calque, loanblend

   • 2005 March 27, William Safire, “Kifaya!”, in The New York Times Magazine‎^[1]:

     David S. Powers, professor of Islamic history and law at Cornell, says he thinks that the word as used today is in the nature of what linguists call a calque, a borrowing from another language in literal translation […]

   • 2023 July 26, Patricia Mazzei, “‘Get Down’ From the Car. ‘Make’ the Line. Is Miami English a Dialect?”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     Those phrases, translated from Spanish, are known as calques.

Hyponyms

• partial calque

Coordinate terms

• Hobson-Jobson
• loanword

Derived terms

• semantic calque
• semi-calque

 

Translations

word formed by word-for-word translation of a word in another language

• Afrikaans: leenvertaling (af), calque
• Arabic: تَرْجَمَة اِقْتِرَاضِيَّة (ar) f (tarjama iqtirāḍiyya)
• Armenian: բառապատճեն (hy) (baṙapatčen)
• Belarusian: ка́лька f (kálʹka)
• Breton: drevezadenn f
• Bulgarian: ка́лка f (kálka)
• Catalan: calc (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 借譯／借译 (ze³ jik⁶)

  Mandarin: 借譯／借译 (jièyì), 仿造詞／仿造词 (fǎngzàocí)

• Czech: kalk (cs) m
• Danish: oversættelseslån n
• Dutch: leenvertaling (nl) f
• Esperanto: paŭso (eo), tradukprunto, kalkeo
• Faroese: umsetingarlán n, týðingarlán n, tøkutýðing f
• Finnish: käännöslaina (fi)
• French: calque (fr) m
• Georgian: კალკი (ka) (ḳalḳi)
• German: Lehnübersetzung (de) f
• Greek: μεταφραστικό δάνειο (el) n (metafrastikó dáneio), εκτύπωμα (el) n (ektýpoma)
• Hungarian: tükörfordítás (hu), tükörszó (hu), kalk (hu)
• Icelandic: tökuþýðing f
• Indonesian: pinjam terjemah
• Irish: lomaistriúchán m
• Italian: calco (it) m
• Japanese: 翻訳借用 (ja) (ほんやくしゃくよう, hon'yaku shakuyō)
• Korean: 번역차용(翻譯借用) (beonyeokchayong)
• Latvian: kalks (lv) m
• Macedonian: преведеница f (prevedenica), калка f (kalka)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: oversettingslån n, oversettelseslån (no) n

  Nynorsk: omsetjingslån n

• Persian: گرته‌برداری (fa) (gerte-bardâri)
• Polish: kalka (pl) f
• Portuguese: decalque (pt) m, decalque linguístico m
• Romanian: calc (ro) n
• Russian: ка́лька (ru) f (kálʹka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ка̏лк m

  Roman: kȁlk (sh) m

• Slovak: kalk m
• Slovene: kalk m
• Spanish: calco (es) m
• Swedish: översättningslån (sv) n
• Thai: แคลเก้
• Turkish: öyküntü (tr)
• Ukrainian: ка́лька (uk) f (kálʹka)
• Welsh: cyfieithiad benthyg m
• Yiddish: קאַלקע f (kalke)

Trivia

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

See also

• metaphrase

Verb

calque (third-person singular simple present calques, present participle calquing, simple past and past participle calqued)

1. (linguistics, translation studies, transitive) To adopt (a word or phrase) from one language to another by semantic translation of its parts.
   • 2024 June 7, Soumaya Amine Al Salti, “Calque Examples in Translating: Impacts on Linguistic Diversity”, in Soumaya Salti‎^[3]:

     Terms like "cloud computing" have been calqued into multiple languages, making it easier for global audiences to grasp complex technological concepts. […] For example, translating Shakespeare's works into other languages often involves calquing phrases to maintain the rhythm and metaphorical richness of the original.

Translations

adopt a word by translation of its parts

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: բառապատճենել (hy) (baṙapatčenel)
• Bulgarian: калки́рам impf or pf (kalkíram)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 借譯／借译 (ze³ jik⁶)

  Mandarin: 借譯／借译 (jièyì)

• Czech: kalk (cs) m
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: omaksua käännöslaina
• French: calquer (fr)
• German: lehnübersetzen
• Hungarian: tükörfordítással alkot
• Indonesian: meminjam terjemah (id)
• Macedonian: калки́ра (kalkíra)
• Portuguese: decalcar
• Russian: калькировать (ru) (kalʹkirovatʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: калки́рати

  Roman: kalkírati (sh)

• Spanish: calcar (es)
• Yiddish: קאַלקירן (kalkirn)

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “calque”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “calque”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “calque”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• claque

Asturian

Verb

calque

1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of calcar

French

Etymology

Deverbal from calquer, borrowed from Italian calcare, from Latin calcāre (“to tread”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kalk/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

calque m (plural calques)

1. tracing (the reproduction of an image made by copying it through translucent paper)
2. (lexicography) calque, loan translation
3. (computer graphics) layer

Descendants

• → Belarusian: ка́лька (kálʹka)
• → Bulgarian: ка́лка (kálka)
• → Catalan: calc (semantic loan)
• → Czech: kalk
• → English: calque
• → Georgian: კალკი (ḳalḳi)
• → Italian: calco (semantic loan)
• → Latvian: kalks
• → Macedonian: калка (kalka)
• → Polish: kalka
• → Romanian: calc
• → Russian: ка́лька (kálʹka)
• → Serbo-Croatian: ка̏лк (kȁlk)
• → Slovak: kalk
• → Slovene: kalk
• → Spanish: calco (semantic loan)
• → Ukrainian: ка́лька (kálʹka)
• → Yiddish: קאַלקע (kalke)

Further reading

• “calque”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• claque, claqué

Galician

Verb

calque

1. inflection of calcar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkaw.ki/ [ˈkaʊ̯.ki]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkaw.ki/ [ˈkaʊ̯.ki]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkaw.ke/ [ˈkaʊ̯.ke]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈkal.kɨ/ [ˈkaɫ.kɨ]

• Hyphenation: cal‧que
• Rhymes: -alkɨ, -awki

Verb

calque

1. inflection of calcar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Verb

calque

1. inflection of calcar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative