calque

See also: calqué

English

WOTD – 1 August 2007

Etymology

From French calque (“calque/loan translation”), from French calquer (“to trace”), from Italian calcare. See also Etymology 2 of calk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kælk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ælk
• Homophones: calc, calk

Noun

calque (plural calques)

1. A word or phrase in a language formed by word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a word in another language.

The word "watershed" is a calque of the German "Wasserscheide".

Synonyms

• loan translation

Translations

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

• Armenian: բառապատճեն (hy) (baṙapatčen)
• 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: woordelijke vertaling, letterlijke vertaling, leenvertaling (nl)
• Faroese: umsetingarlán n
• Finnish: käännöslaina (fi)
• French: calque (fr) m
• Georgian: კალკი (ka) (ḳalḳi)
• German: Lehnübersetzung (de) f
• Greek: μεταφραστικό δάνειο n (metafrastikó dáneio)
• Hungarian: tükörfordítás (hu), tükörszó (hu), megfelelő (hu)
• Icelandic: tökuþýðing f
• Irish: lomaistriúchán m

• Italian: calco (it) m
• Japanese: 翻訳借用 (ほんやくしゃくよう, hon'yaku shakuyō)
• Latvian: kalks m
• Macedonian: калка f (kalka)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: oversettingslån n, oversettelseslån (no) n

  Nynorsk: omsetjingslån n

• Polish: kalka (pl) f
• Portuguese: decalque (pt) (linguístico) m
• Russian: ка́лька (ru) f (kálʹka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ка̏лк m

  Roman: kȁlk (sh) m

• Spanish: calco (es) m
• Swedish: översättningslån n
• Thai: คำต่อคำ (kham-tò kham)
• Yiddish: קאַלקע‏‎ f (kalke)

See also

• Hobson-Jobson
• loanword
• metaphrase

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To adopt (a word or phrase) from one language to another by semantic translation of its parts.

Translations

to adopt a word by translation of its parts

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 借譯, 借译 (ze³ jik⁶)

  Mandarin: 借譯, 借译 (jièyì)

• Finnish: omaksua (fi) käännöslaina
• French: calquer (fr)
• German: lehnübersetzen

• Macedonian: калки́ра (kalkíra)
• Russian: калькировать (ru) (kalʹkirovatʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: калки́рати

  Roman: kalkírati (sh)

• Yiddish: קאַלקירן‏‎ (kalkirn)

Anagrams

• claque

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Asturian

Verb

calque

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

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French

Etymology

From calquer.

Noun

calque m (plural calques)

1. tracing (the reproduction of an image made by copying it through translucent paper)
2. calque (a loan translation)

Anagrams

• claque, claqué

Further reading

• “calque” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Portuguese

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -awki

Verb

calque

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of calcar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of calcar
3. third-person singular imperative of calcar

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Spanish

Verb

calque

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of calcar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of calcar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of calcar.