loanword

See also: loan word

English

Alternative forms

• loan word

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (CA)

  (file)

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
• foreign word (informal)
• gainword

 

Hyponyms

• Hobson-Jobson

 

Coordinate terms

• calque

 

Translations

word taken from another language

• Arabic: دَخِيل‎ m (daḵīl), لَفْظ دَخِيل‎ m (lafẓ daḵīl)
• Armenian: փոխառություն (hy) (pʿoxaṙutʿyun)
• Belarusian: запазы́чанне n (zapazýčannje), запазы́чанае сло́ва n (zapazýčanaje slóva)
• Bulgarian: зае́мка (bg) f (zaémka), чужди́ца (bg) f (čuždíca)
• Catalan: manlleu (ca) m
• 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)
• 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
• Hindi: आगत शब्द m (āgat śabd)
• Hungarian: jövevényszó (hu), átvétel (hu), kölcsönzés (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)
• 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)
• 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: دَخیل‎ (fa) (daxil), وام‌واژه‎ (fa) (vâm-vâže), واژهٔ دَخیل‎ (vâže-ye daxil), واژهٔ عاریَتی‎ (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
• 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)
• Thai: คำยืม (th) (kam-yʉʉm)
• Turkish: alıntı kelime, alıntı sözcük
• Ukrainian: запози́чення (uk) n (zapozýčennja)
• Vietnamese: từ vay mượn, từ du nhập, từ mượn (vi), từ ngoại lai
• Welsh: benthycair m, benthyciad (cy) m
• Yoruba: ọ̀rọ̀-àyálò

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