THE MELTING POT OF BORROWED WORDS

15 English Words That Have Foreign Origins

Credit: CHUTTERSNAP

As one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, English managed to fix and patch some of its natural linguistic shortcomings by borrowing many foreign words. There are no pure languages, nor isolated communities of speakers. Borrowing and remixing tools and knowledge from elsewhere has always been one of the motors of human progress. And languages are no exception to this trend. Maybe you already noticed the pattern, likely after learning about the origins of a few English words, but the truth is that almost 29% of the English language is made of words originating from French and Latin languages. In particular, French has exerted a powerful influence over English, and it is estimated that of the 1000 most commonly used words, around 50% have French origins! These loan words helped us expand our vocabulary and name things and ideas for which we didn't have useful equivalents before. Join us to learn more about the foreign origins of many of our words, from cartoon to karaoke!

Credit: Chris Yang

Anonymous derives from the Greek word anōnumos, which means "someone or something without a name". In English, it is usually used to mean someone who doesn’t want to reveal their identity.

Credit: Ayrus Hill

Originally derived from the Sanskrit language, the traditional definition of Guru isn’t just that of an expert on a certain subject but rather describes a full-fledged master with exceptional wisdom and provoking intelligence.

Credit: Hu Chen

In modern English, a safari is an expedition where animals can be observed in their natural habitat. However, this word is a loan from the Arabic language and it originally means "to travel".

Credit: BBC Creative

The word kindergarten, translated literally, means "children’s garden". Have you ever noticed that we use so many German words? Another borrowed word with German origins is rucksack.

Credit: Christina

From our favorite language to take linguistic loans, rendezvous, originally a French word (literally "present-yourself") is used to describe a meeting at an agreed time and place.

Credit: Fer Nando

This isn’t a straightforward loan from the Chinese language, but rather a composite word that might carry influences from other languages, like Greek, Portuguese, and Arabic. However, most sociolinguists agree that typhoon is mainly a corruption of the Chinese word taifeng, which can be translated as "big wind".

Credit: Erik Mclean

From comic strips to on-screen animations, who doesn’t love cartoons? But did you know this word came from the Italian carton? Initially, it referred to artistic drawings made on hard paper but was later adopted as a medium for artistic comedy.

Credit: Nadine Rupprecht

This somewhat romantic term used to describe the passion for traveling or just wandering away was borrowed from the German language early in the twentieth century.

Credit: Forja2 Mx

Not just a borrowed word, but a whole borrowed concept too. Karaoke is a Japanese form of entertainment that took English-speaking countries by storm around the eighties and still is a —quite fun— activity for teens and adults alike. The original Japanese term means "an empty orchestra", following the idea of singing along to recorded music in special clubs or bars.

Credit: Bruno Aguirre

This Greek loaned word describes an important or main city in a country. The original term is composed of the words metro, meaning "mother", and polis, "city", so the literal meaning of metropolis is "mother city".

Credit: Cristina Anne Costello

As with many citruses, their names derive from Middle Eastern and Asian languages, and the humble lemon is no exception. The Arabic term from which this word derives is laimun, and it describes a yellow citrus fruit.

Credit: zibik

As much as Hollywood would like you to believe this word only came to life after James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster, avatar is a word derived from the Sanskrit avatra, meaning "descent". Originally, it referred to the manifestation of a deity in bodily form, but nowadays it is mostly used for an icon or image that you choose to represent yourself in many types of online media.

Credit: Dennis Klein

Who would have thought the favorite condiment of burger joints and crispy french fries was a borrowed word? And from Chinese, no less. This word is derived from the Chinese ke-stiap, meaning a concoction of pickled fish and spices popular in the 1600s. Tomatoes were only added around a hundred years later, creating the famous condiment.

Credit: Tyler Franta

The word entrepreneur derives from the French verb entreprendre, meaning "to do or undertake something". By the 16th century, the verb transformed into the noun entrepreneur and started referring to someone who undertakes some form of business venture.

Credit: Cornelius Ventures

A rare one! While its origins are still disputed, many hold that the word for these cute southern pole birds comes from the Welsh pen gwyn, which means "white head". Other accounts instead suggest that the word penguin was used for a now-extinct sea animal and that the noble penguin somehow inherited its name.

Enjoyed discovering which English words and concepts were borrowed from elsewhere? Stay around to learn more about the curious origins of many common words, names, and places.