Borrowed Words: How Languages Share Their Vocabulary
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Borrowed Words: How Languages Share Their Vocabulary
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What Do Pyjamas, Algebra, and Café Have in Common?
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Look at these three ordinary English words: pyjamas, algebra, café. You use them every day — but did you know that not one of them was originally English? Pyjamas arrived from Hindi and Urdu (pāy-jāma, meaning leg-garment). Algebra came from Arabic (al-jabr, meaning the reunion of broken parts). Café was lifted directly from French. These words are called loanwords — words that one language has borrowed from another and made its own. Before you read on, think about this: if English already had its own words for things, why would it ever borrow words from other languages?
💭 Think about this
Can you think of any word in your own language that sounds similar to a word in a completely different language? What might that tell you about the history between the two peoples who speak those languages?
✨
What Do Pyjamas, Algebra, and Café Have in Common?
🧮🔢➗📊
Look at these three ordinary English words: pyjamas, algebra, café. You use them every day — but did you know that not one of them was originally English? Pyjamas arrived from Hindi and Urdu (pāy-jāma, meaning leg-garment). Algebra came from Arabic (al-jabr, meaning the reunion of broken parts). Café was lifted directly from French. These words are called loanwords — words that one language has borrowed from another and made its own. Before you read on, think about this: if English already had its own words for things, why would it ever borrow words from other languages?
💭 Think about this
Can you think of any word in your own language that sounds similar to a word in a completely different language? What might that tell you about the history between the two peoples who speak those languages?
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Why Languages Borrow — and How It Works
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A is a word adopted from one language into another with little or no translation. The word is 'borrowed', but — unlike money — it is never given back. The borrowing language simply absorbs the word and, over time, may adjust its spelling or pronunciation to fit its own sound system.
Languages borrow words for several clear reasons.
**1. New concepts or objects need names.**
When a society encounters something it has no word for, the easiest solution is to borrow the foreign word along with the thing itself. English adopted 'tsunami' from Japanese when English speakers needed a precise term for a harbour wave created by an earthquake. Before the word arrived, there was simply no single English term for it.
**2. Trade and exploration.**
Merchants and travellers carry words with them. English picked up 'bazaar' from Persian via Turkish, 'chocolate' from the Nahuatl word xocolātl, and 'kangaroo' from the Guugu Yimithirr language of Australia. Each word arrived alongside the thing it described.
**3. Conquest and political power.**
When one group conquers another, the dominant group's language often floods in. After the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, thousands of French words entered English — 'beef', 'justice', 'parliament', and 'beautiful' all trace back to French. The conquered Anglo-Saxons kept their Germanic words for everyday life (house, bread, child), while French words often came to carry higher-status meanings.
**4. Cultural prestige.**
Even without conquest, a language that is seen as fashionable or advanced donates words freely. In the 17th and 18th centuries, French was the language of art, food, and diplomacy across Europe, so English absorbed 'ballet', 'cuisine', 'champagne', and 'etiquette'. Today, English itself is a major : words like 'internet', 'selfie', and 'email' have been absorbed into dozens of languages worldwide, including French, Japanese, and Arabic.
**How loanwords change over time.**
Once borrowed, a word often adapts. Its spelling may change to match new spelling conventions. Its pronunciation shifts to fit the borrowing language's sounds. Sometimes its meaning narrows or widens. The English word 'magazine' came from the Arabic makhāzin (storehouses); the meaning shifted from a physical storehouse to a storehouse of information, then to a printed periodical. This shift in meaning after borrowing is called .
Worked example
**Tracing a loanword step by step — 'algebra'**
Step 1 — Identify the word in its current language: 'algebra' is used in English (and many other languages) as a branch of mathematics.
Step 2 — Find the source language: The word comes from the Arabic text Al-Kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr waʾl-muqābala, written by the mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi around 820 CE. Al-jabr means 'the reunion of broken parts' — describing the process of moving terms across an equation.
Step 3 — Explain why it was borrowed: Medieval European scholars translated Arabic mathematical texts into Latin and later into other European languages. There was no existing European word for this new system of mathematics, so the Arabic term was kept.
Step 4 — Note any changes: The Arabic definite article 'al-' was merged with the noun 'jabr' to give 'algebra'. The spelling was adapted to fit Latin and then English conventions. The meaning stayed essentially the same.
Conclusion: 'Algebra' is an Arabic loanword borrowed because European languages needed a name for a newly encountered mathematical system.
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Test Your Loanword Knowledge
Try it yourself
Answer each question on your own. Read every option carefully before you choose. For Question 5, write a full sentence to explain your thinking.
1. Which of the following best defines a loanword?
2. The English word 'chocolate' was borrowed from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec people. What is the most likely reason English borrowed this word?
3. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, English absorbed thousands of French words. Which pair of words shows this pattern — an older Germanic English word alongside its French-origin equivalent?
4. The English word 'magazine' originally came from the Arabic word makhāzin, meaning 'storehouses'. Which linguistic term describes what happened to its meaning over time?
5. Today, English words such as 'internet', 'selfie', and 'email' have entered many other languages around the world. What does this tell us about the relationship between cultural influence and loanwords? Explain your answer.
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Bringing It Together
A loanword is a word borrowed from one language into another, usually because speakers needed a name for something new, or because the source language had cultural or political prestige.
Languages borrow words through trade, exploration, conquest, and cultural influence — and English has been both a major receiver and a major donor of loanwords throughout its history.
After being borrowed, a word often adapts its spelling, pronunciation, or even meaning (semantic change) to fit its new language — but its foreign origin can usually still be traced.
1. The Japanese language has borrowed the word 'terebi' from the English word 'television'. Which TWO factors most likely explain this borrowing?
🌱 Reflect
Think about a language you speak or are learning. Can you identify one word in it that you now suspect might be a loanword? What clues — sound, spelling, or the concept it describes — make you think that?
