Questions tagged [loanwords]
Questions about words borrowed by English from another language.
258 questions
10
votes
5
answers
3k
views
What term describes a person who always remains ill?
What term describes a person who mostly/always remains ill due multiple factors, such as being surrounded by multiple diseases or due to an incurable chronic disease?
Can I simply call that person as ...
- 109
5
votes
1
answer
397
views
What is the reason for the different spelling of the endings of *eager* and *meagre* in English (Commonwealth)?
Both words were borrowed at 14c. and their etymology looks absolutely similar:
acer (L.) -> egre (Old Fr.) -> egre (ME) -> eagER
macer (L.) -> megre (Old Fr.) -> megre (ME) -> meagRE
...
- 65
9
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Why did English borrow the French word "rendezvous" with its original spelling and silent letters, while many French loanwords are anglicized?
English has borrowed extensively from French, often adapting spelling and pronunciation to fit English norms. For example:
beauté → beauty
envoyé → envoy
(well, there is also the word envoi from ...
- 71.5k
0
votes
1
answer
208
views
Chaise(s) longues: pronunciation
According to the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary
The plural chaise(s) longues is pronounced identically with the
singular (late-stressed), or sometimes with added /z/.
How is the plural chaise(s) ...
- 4,151
0
votes
1
answer
175
views
Pronunciation of "cwm" – /kuːm/ vs /kʊm/
The Collins English Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary offer
/kuːm/
as the pronunciation of 'cwm', while the Oxford English Dictionary gives
/kʊm/.
Naturally /kuːm/ is probably going to ...
- 109
0
votes
0
answers
58
views
Meaning of the borrowing "programé" (found as a noun in English, but an adjective in French)
As most often is the case, when a word with a French form, but used as English vocabulary, is the object of a Google search in the English corpus, the result is a series of hits strictly out of the ...
- 25.5k
16
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Why “nouveau riche” but “art nouveau?”
In English, why are the adjectives in different places in nouveau riche and art nouveau? Is that an artifact of the original French, a corruption in adoption, or something else?
(Apologies if this is ...
- 1,688
23
votes
3
answers
7k
views
Why is Siobhan pronounced with a /v/ sound in English?
In English the name Siobhan is typically pronounced /ʃəvɔːn/. English speakers typically find this unintuitive, but the typical explanation is that the name is from Irish and that's how it's ...
-5
votes
0
answers
245
views
Where's the first attestation of the distinction between "hardcore" hentai and "softcore" ecchi?
The Wikipedia articles on both "Hentai" and "Ecchi" (the "Western usage" in particular) do not provide much clarity on this. Etchi in Japanese as far as I can tell is ...
- 5,579
0
votes
4
answers
317
views
Is there a word for something that was formerly a social norm but is no longer acceptable?
I've been reading a lot of various classic literature, and at times there is the sort of casual misogyny or racism that was commonplace and (within certain cultures) the social norm at that time. Such ...
- 103
1
vote
4
answers
769
views
Is there a word for fans making excuses for their favorite artist? [duplicate]
The example I'm thinking of is Bethesda and Starfield. Other than the graphics it's not a well designed game, but people keep making excuses for it, when smaller teams have done far more with far less ...
16
votes
6
answers
3k
views
Are there examples of mutual loanwords in French and in English?
I was once asked the question:
What French word is commonly used in English for which an English word is commonly used in French?
The answer was respectively rendezvous and date, which I found very ...
- 286
2
votes
2
answers
197
views
If a loan word is used with a different meaning in a given language, is it still a loan word?
Spanish speakers use 'basket,' for basketball, 'smoking' for black tie and 'freaki' for geek. They also use 'camping' for camp site and 'parking' for car park, but the participles retain the same ...
- 39
-1
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Are the origins of ¡ay, güey! and 'oy vey' related at all? [closed]
Though both of these terms come from other languages, they are both said in English, depending on where one is. One (ay wey as a more English form) can mean holy crap!, and the other can mean ...
user486478
45
votes
2
answers
4k
views
What is the origin of the word "doh" (as seen in the world's first crossword puzzle)?
The first ever crossword puzzle was written by Arthur Wynne in 1913:
Image from Wikimedia Commons
It has several clues with obscure and obsolete answers, but I was able to find all of them in ...
- 537