Is gotten a word in the english language

From Sarah Woodbury’s website: Romance and Fantasy in Medieval Wales

On the use of the word ‘gotten’

Several UK readers have wondered about the use of the word ‘gotten’ in my medieval mysteries. Since the word is not in common usage in England right now, it seems odd to them to read it at all, and a glaring ‘Americanism’ in a book set in the medieval period. At first glance, this might appear to be yet another instance of ‘two countries separated by a common language,’ but as it turns out, the history of the word ‘gotten’ is a lot more interesting than that.

‘Gotten’ is, in fact, an ancient English word that was in use in England at the time America was colonized by the English. Over the centuries, the Americans kept on using it and the English did not.

Origin: 1150-1200(v.) Middle English geten < Old Norse geta to obtain, beget; cognate with Old English –gietan (> Middle English yeten), German-gessen, in vergessen to forget; (noun) Middle English: something gotten, offspring, derivative of the v.

The British author quotes from reference.dot.com, whose the page is now obsolete.

“British English discontinued the use of “have gotten” as a form of the past participle for “get” over 300 years ago. […]. It is now rarely used in the British version of the English language. American English continues to use “have gotten” to emphasis the action performed. In American English language “has got” implies possession. It is assumed that if “has got” is used that it is referencing what the person has in their possession. On the other hand, “has gotten” implies that the person acquired, received or obtained an item.”

In brief, gotten is a perfectly legitimate word with a long and glorious history.

Содержание:

INTRODUCTION

 The subject of the  work relates to lexicology. As you know, vocabulary is the most dynamic side of the language in any period of time. It represents the smallest degree of abstraction in a language, because the word is always object-oriented; it can be borrowed, formed anew or form the elements available in the language. We consider borrowing in this work as one of the main ways of replenishing the language vocabulary.

The urgency of our work is related to the intense penetration of foreign-language borrowings in the English language and the problem of assimilation. These loans have come into English from other languages, and have been taken in the process of socio-economic and cultural relations between peoples and nations. Such words are called foreign borrowings. Many of them are widely used in various spheres of oral and written speech, others are limited in their use. [Лешева 2001: 127]

Some words were borrowed in the era of Old English and assimilated them as elements of linguistic heritage. In our time, the borrowed vocabulary is very popular and usable.

The subject of the research — methods of translation of foreign borrowings from English into Russian.

The object of the research — foreign borrowings in the system of the English language.

The purpose of the work: to consider foreign borrowings in the English language and how to translate them into Russian.

According to the subject and the object, as well as the purpose of the study the hypothesis was formulated : the main way of transfering the loans occurring in the system of the English language to the Russian language will be the formal lexical transformation.

        Based on the purpose of the subject, object and research hypothesis, the following objectives were formulated:

-to reveal the concept and essence of borrowing words in the English language;

— analyze theoretical materials related to borrowing;

-to carry out the lexical analysis of foreign borrowings in the English language on a material of English-language print media;

— draw conclusions on the topic of the work.

— trace the routes of entry and the main stages of assimilation of borrowings in the English language. [Ахманова 2004: 119]

The scientific novelty of this work lies in the study of group of words among the total number of foreign borrowings in the English language which are not fully assimilated; in determining the types of translation transformations in the system of their classification when translating foreign borrowings from English into Russian.

The theoretical significance of the work lies in an integrated approach to the coverage of the problem of the foreign-language borrowing, : first, the relationship of social and linguistic factors that affect the process of borrowing; secondly, the specific application of translational transformations in the translation of borrowings from English into Russian.

The practical value of the work lies in the fact that scientific research has foreign borrowings and their need to popularize them through a variety of media to contribute to:

-development of linguistic consciousness and culture of separate speakers of the language, and the entire collective language as a whole;

-correct (in quantitative and qualitative terms) use of «foreign» words in the language;

-elaboration of linguistic foundations of language policies, adequate as the present conditions of rapid globalization in all spheres of public life and the conditions of preservation of the identity of the English language as an important component of the national culture.

Contents:

1.Introduction. The nature of borrowings, their classification, sources of borrowing and borrowing process.

     2.The analysis of the ways of transferring borrowings.

     3.The analysis of the foreign loans on the example of the    English-language printed press.

    4.Conclusion.

  The “guests from another language” or borrowed words penetrate the English language. Through linguistic osmosis, these numerous words were taken over from one language by another during the course of the English history mainly through the constant uninvited arrival of invaders to the island.

Borrowings in the lexical system of English

The history of English language and borrowings

Otto Jespersen,(a Danish linguist) in his book “Growth and Structure of the English Language” indicates that the English language is a “chain of borrowings” that was a result of the conquests of Britain by various invaders .

First came the Romans and with their occupancy of England, they introduced Latin to some, but not all, its inhabitants. While the Celts co-existed with the Romans and “continental Germans”, only a few hundred borrowed Latin words were found in Old English, which was substantially a “self-sufficing” language, according to Jespersen. The Christianization of the country in the VIth century forced more inhabitants to adopt Latin words and phrases through the Church. Once the Angles, Saxons and Jutes arrived in Britain, and with the Celts displaced, the language literally began revolting as the new-arrivals began settling in. The Celtic influence began quickly decreasing as the so-called “superior” borrowed words began to take hold. Yet, while the Angles, Saxons and Jutes brought us the original English language, the foundation of English as we know it today is Germanic with a solid French impact.

The history of the English language, and its borrowings, is founded on three incursions: Teutonic; Scandinavian (Vikings); and, most importantly, by the Norman conquest of England by the Duke of Normandy in 1066. The Teutonic and Scandinavian invasions apparently affected the mother language. But it was the French-speaking Normans, led by William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant), who introduced the greatest, most extensive and most constant collection of borrowed or “loan” words to the English language upon their successful 1066 invasion of the island.

According to Jespersen, many British adopted borrowed French words not only to communicate, but because they felt it was the “fashion” to imitate their “betters”. Again, while some might distinguish this as a form of snobbism, many of us do strive to improve our language skills as our knowledge of borrowed words not only expands our vocabulary but enables us to converse with one another .

This borrowing has also helped swell the size of English dictionaries. The voluminous English dictionaries, as compared to French, German or Dutch dictionaries for example, can credit their size to the borrowings of foreign words the British adopted. If the English were originally concerned that their native language was not up to snuff with the French or Latin tongues, the Britons’ borrowings might give new meaning to “size matters”.

The Renaissance brought a multitude of classical words, particularly from France and Italy, increasing the Latin influence on the language in England. But Italy, along with Spain, contributed few borrowed words because the English language was nearly completely formed by this age. The new words and phrases enriched the British language, but Jespersen believes at somewhat of a cost. Because of the various invasions, the English had, over time, begun to “shrink from consciously coining new words out of native material”. That concept brings us full circle back to the “physical mobility and mental laziness” aspect of borrowing words .

Classification of borrowings

There are the following groups of borrowings: phonetic borrowings, translation loans, semantic borrowings, and morphemic borrowings. [Ахманова 2004. 576 р]

Phonetic borrowings are most characteristic in all languages; they are called loan words proper. Words are borrowed with their spelling, pronunciation and meaning. Then they undergo assimilation, each sound of the borrowing language. In some cases the spellings changed. The structure of the word can also be changed. The position of the stress is very often influenced by the phonetic system of the borrowing language. The paradigm of the word, and sometimes the meaning of the borrowed word are also changed. Such words as labor, travel, table, chair, people are phonetic borrowings from French; apparatchik, nomenclature, sputnik are borrowings from Russian; bank, soprano, duet are phonetic borrowings from Italian, etc.

Translation loans are word-for-word (or morpheme-for-morpheme) translations of some foreign word expressions. In such cases the notion is borrowed from a foreign language but it is expressed by native lexical units, ‘to take the bull by the horns’(Latin), ‘living space’(German), etc. Some translation loans appeared in English from Latin already in the Old English period, for example Sunday (solis dies).

Semantic borrowing can appear when an English word borrowed into some other language, developed there a new meaning and this meaning was borrowed back into English, for example ‘brigade’ was borrowed into Russian and formed the meaning ‘a working collective’. This meaning was borrowed back into English as a Russian borrowing. The same is true of the English word ‘pioneer’.

Morphemic borrowings are borrowings of affixes which occur in the language when many words with identical affixes are borrowed from one language into another. So that the morphemic structure of borrowed words becomes familiar to the people speaking the borrowing language, for example we can find a lot of Romanic affixes in English word-building system, that is why there are a lot words-hybrids in English where different morphemes have different origin, for example ‘goddes’, ‘beautiful’, etc.

Accordingly borrowings are subdivided into completely assimilated, partly assimilated and non-assimilated (barbarisms).

Completely assimilated words correspond to all phonetic, morphological and semantic loans of English and are not felt as the foreign words. Many of them belong to the basic word-stock.

Partly assimilated borrowings are subdivided into the following groups:

  • borrowings non-assimilated semantically, because they denote objects and notions peculiar to the country from the language of which they were borrowed, for example sari, sombrero, taiga, kvass, etc.
  • borrowings non-assimilated grammatically, for example nouns borrowed from Latin and Greek retain their plural forms (bacillus-bacilli, phenomenon-phenomena, datum-data, genius-genii), etc.
  • borrowings non-assimilated phonetically. Here belong words with the initial sounds /v/ and /z/, for example voice, zero. In native words these voiced consonants are used only in the intervocalic position as allophones of sounds /f/ and /s/ (loss-lose, life-live).

Borrowings can be partly assimilated graphically, for example in Greek borrowings ‘y’ can be spelled in the middle of the word (symbol, synonym), ‘ph’ denotes the sound /f/ (phoneme, morpheme), ‘ch’ denotes the sound /k/ (chemistry, chaos) and ‘ps’ denotes the sound /s/ (psychology).

The great number of borrowings brought with them new phono-morphological types, new phonetic, morphological and semantic features. On the other hand, under the influence of the borrowed element words already existing in English changed to some extent their semantic structure, frequency and derivational ability.

Through the history of the English language and the English people borrowing from different languages such as French, German, Italian, Russian considerably enlarged the English vocabulary and brought about some changes in the English synonymic groups, in the distribution of the English vocabulary through spheres of application and in the lexical divergence between the variants of the literary language and its dialects.

 Sources of borrowing in English

              Back in the Middle Ages, the English language has borrowed a lot of new words from the Scandinavian languages when  the English lived side by side with the Danish invaders in the land of England ( the X — the XI century.).

             In the 5th century Germanic tribes — the Angles, Saxons and Jutes migrated to the British Isles. There they met the aboriginal population of the islands — Celts. Celtic tribes were at a low cultural and economic level, so their language did not have a significant impact on the Anglo-Saxon language. In the modern English language preserved a few words from the Celtic languages. They are preserved mainly in dialectal vocabulary of ordinary people: farmers, ranchers, workers from provincial towns.

              For example, the British sheep farmers took advantage of the Cost Accounting numerals occurred from an ancient, long-vanished Cumbric.

              Time system Continuous is a carbon copy of the syntax of the Celtic languages. In other Germanic languages, this system is not currently available. Significantly more Celtic words penetrated into the English language in more subsequent periods of Gaelic (Ireland) and the Scots language. Here are loan words from Celtic language: dun — серовато-коричневый, bard- бард, певец, brat-ребенок, неуч,  bin -мешок, корзина (для вина, пшеницы), brock -барсук. On the same early period in the English moved from Celtic language Latin words, borrowed from the Celts to the Romans during the invasion of the British Isles. But these words are regarded as Celtic borrowing. Here are some of them: bannock-пресная лепешка, cross -крест, pillion-подушка для сидения, plaid -плед, mud-грязь . Among them some place names that are also early Celtic borrowings: Aberdeen , Ben Lomond,  Dunbar , Kildare , Dunstable , Billingshurt .

              The first group of Latin borrowing came into English through trade ties even on the continent, such as ( pepper — перец, wine-вино,  pear -груша).

              The second group of Latin borrowing came into the English language during the propagation of Christianity. ( Mass-месса, devil -дьявол, school — школа, priest -священник).

              In the 11-13 centuries, along with the Norman invasion in the English language there were a lot of Latin words. But many of these words has undergone changes in phonetics system, semantics and grammar. Since they were originally borrowed from Latin into French. A great many Latin words, caught in the English language are the book-borrowings. They were in a language not as a result of live communication, and came along with books, documents and other written sources.

              Book borrowing differ in that they have not changed. First of all, they kept their semantics. This is due to the fact that book borrowings for a long time were used mainly in the literary language. These borrowings mainly relate to abstract concepts, terminologies.

              Most of the book borrowing from Latin fell into English during the Renaissance in England, in the 15 — 16th centuries.

              The texts of the works of Chaucer, Lenglanda, Wycliffe used about a thousand of Latin words that were previously not used in the English language.

              The Renaissance enriched the English language with words from the field of theology, literature, medicine, of Technical Sciences.

              Scandinavian words entered the English language mainly as a result of oral communication. In written records of Old English culture can be found a few words of Scandinavian origin. Written sources appeared towards the end of the 12th century. They reflect dialectal forms, there is evidence of early oral borrowing of the Scandinavian languages. English and Scandinavian languages belonged to the same Germanic group. This enables the speakers at least to understand each other. In this case the mutual influence of languages was maifested. First of all borrowed nouns, adjectives and verbs. These are the words the majority of which were of great importance: the drag , husband , snare , fellow , skirt , leg  , skin , calf , cast , ill ,  low , wrong and many other words. In recent history, the Nordic loans are very rare.

              In English, there are a lot of borrowing from the Romance languages (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese) They came with the development of the history of England’s relations with these countries. From the 16th century from Italian to English penetrated many words related to the topic of culture and art. The musical terms : sonata, basso , adagio , trio , allegro , opera , in art and literature entered words: canto , cameo , studio , fresco. British travellers have described Italy, partly using Italian words that were later fixed in the English language: gondola, lava, volcano, casino , cicerone. Into the English language also penetrated and some political and commercial terms: bank , traffic. In our time, there are Italian drawings in the American version, which reflects the ethnic composition of the United States. Here are some recent borrowings: the paparazzi , the pasta , mafia .

              In the16 — 17th centuries there was the blossoming of Spanish literature, the influence of which extended to the whole Europe. At the same time, England was competing with Spain in the political arena. Spanish borrowings of this period: banana, sockets , armada , cigar , barbecue , cocoa , canyon , potato , cargo , the ranch , chocolate , hurricane .

              There are not many Portuguese words in the English language . And they came into the English language from the main languages of Africa, Indochina and India. Here are some of them: cobra , the veranda , mandarin , Madeira .

              Words penetrated into English from the Russian language can be divided into 3 groups: the early period, the Soviet period and the later period, that is the end of the 80s of the 20th century. Borrowings of the early period belong to the field of material culture, describe the nature, reflect the realities of Russian society: boyar , samovar , altyn ,  vodka , taiga , barzoi , tundra , nihilist . Drawings of the Soviet period mainly reflect characteristics of the political regime: the Soviets , artel , komsomol . At the same time from the Russian language passed words related to space issues: sputnik , cosmonavt . At the end of the 20th century English discovered such Russian words as perestroyka , glasnost .

The results of borrowing process

          The process of borrowing affects the development of the language. As a result new words and expressions appear. The borrowing language enriches the vocabulary, develops morphology.

          There appear word-hybrids. These are the words in which a root part of the word addes a borrowing. For example, artless -the root art -borrowed suffix, dislike — borrowed prefix — like .

              There are also exotisms and barbarisms.  Mixed languages like Creole, Pidgin — English appear. There are also pseudo-national and international words. These are all a result of the borrowing process.

Also as a result of borrowing, there are many doublets. Doublets — are the words with similar origin. They differ phonetically and in the meaning, as they moved from different languages.

              Doublets basically have a Latin origin. In English they penetrated through the French language. For example : canal- channel, major- mayor, liquor- liqueur, fact- feat. Doublets appear in different dialects belonging to the same language.

              Doublet steam is formed when an ambiguous word values cease to be bound. For example, from the Latin persona were formed two English words: person, parson. Also, as an exception, there are etymological triplets: cattle – chattel- Capital .

              Another result of this process are secondary loans, in this case in the language a new word appears next to the previously borrowed and already assimilated. A new word has a different meaning — homonyms. In English, there was a borrowed word pilot in the value of the pilot, that is the one who controls the aircraft. In the late 20th century, the word pilot began to be used in the sense of «an athlete, managing high-speed vehicle.» Word pilot in the second sense as well come from the French language. word pilot , Used to mean «a trial issue of the print edition,» «pilot project», «Trial TV show», that is the meaning of «trial release of something,» as well is the latest borrowing of the late 20th century.

              Sometimes borrowing in the host language takes on new meaning. Words formal fell into English from the German via French. It was used in the meaning «print sheet size». Later, word got to «a form of organization and presentation of data in the computer’s memory.» In such cases, you need to understand: these are the values of homonyms or ambiguous word. There is a principle of having common semantic components.

              Common semantic components suggest different meanings of an ambiguous word. For example, pilot within the meaning and pilot in the meaning of an athlete or pilot is a trial issue of the print edition with respect to the other meanings of the word.

              Borrowing had a very important influence on English grammar. In connection with the borrowing of the French structure of + Noun expressing relations accessories: leg of the table English lost the end.

              Part of native English words, which is about 2/3 of the language came under the influence of borrowing. There are the Anglo-Saxon word options: face, money, war. Part of ancestral words passed into conversational and colloquial, compared with borrowed. Compare the English cow, pig, calf and the corresponding words of Scandinavian origin of beef, pork, veal.

              One of the results of the borrowing process are international words. International is the word, resulting in a borrowing spread in many languages of the world. A group of international words is mainly composed of the Greek words of Latin origin: analysis, Autonomy , system , Latin: volume , Principle , progress , the nation . The group of international words are also the words of the other national languages (Italian balcony , sonata , fazade; French: Gallant , etiquette , an omelette ; Arabic coffee , alcohol , algebra , Indian the verandah , punch , the jungle , Russian nihilist , steppe .)

              In different languages internationalisms are written and pronounced differently. This should be considered when translating. For example the word Ambition. In French and English, the word has a neutral meaning of «the pursuit of goals.» In Russian, the word ambition has sharper almost a negative value.

              Another example: family (Eng), familia (Spanish), familie  (German) are used in the sense of a family. A similar Russian word in this sense is rarely used and is considered obsolete.. Such words are called pseudo-national or «false friends.» They are lexical units of two languages. They are similar in sound and spelling, but differ in meaning. Such words can be divided into groups depending on the degree of similarity:

1) The words that have the same spelling and pronunciation, but a completely different value ( accurate-точный, а не аккуратный; complexion- цвет лица, а не комплекция; magazine -журнал, а не магазин).

2) The words except spelling and pronunciation are the same in some values, but not always in the most are common ( authority-власть, реже-АВТОРИТЕТ; Pretend -притворяться, реже претендовать, solid-твердый, а не только солидный).

3) The words are close, but not identical in spelling and sound, and therefore have different values.  (Adapt — приспособить, Adopt — принимать, data -данные, date -дата, later- позже, the latter -последний из перечисленных, letter- буква, письмо).

4) Names measures consonant but not coincident number pound (англ. из лат. через нем.)  453,59 кг., г, Pfund (нем.) – 500 г,фунт (русс.) – 409,5 г,;centner(англ.из лат.через нем .) – 45,36 кг ,Zentner(нем.) – 50 кг ,центнер(русс.) – 100 кг .)

METHODS of TRANSLATION of the BORROWINGS

Latin borrowings

   Latin words appeared in English mainly in the XI — the XIII century in the period of the Norman conquest. Phonetics, grammar and semantics of these words have undergone changes in the Norman language. Most of Latin origin words in English are book borrowing. These words came to the English language, together with the written sources: books, documents. Book borrowing has its own peculiarities. Due to its limited use in literary form they are least susceptible to change, especially semantic. These loans are mostly abstract, abstract meaning or the terms.

              In Renaissance England in the XV — the XVI centuries English also included many Latin words. During this period in the English language there were the words from the area of technological disciplines, theology, literature and medicine. For example : Sanatorium, radius, intertia, genus , vacum, curriulum, datum. Latin borrowing have residues morphological features. For example, the verb suffix — ate — the infinitive, formed from the past participle of the Latin verb conjugations 1. Miditate, separate, translate, exaggerate, congratulate.

              Borrowings are verbs whose infinitive suffix is — ute -, formed from the stem of the past participle. A communion of these in turn relate to the group of Latin verbs 3 conjugation: to execute , to prosecute , the adjectives are formed from the Latin present participles with a basis on — ant -, — the ent -, such as the patient , Obedient , Evident ,  triumphant , transparent , Apparent .

               Modern English has Latin borrowing, not subjected to any assimilation. They are used as Latin quotes and rarely used .. These words and expressions are used mainly in scientific prose, in business documents, in oratory style. For example, sine qua non (обязательное условие), bona fide(подленно, добросовестно), ex officio (официальный), alma mater.

Let’s Consider some Latin borrowing and means of their translation.

              Ad hominem

              This borrowing has come into English from Latin. This term was coined by the Roman emperors, and represents an appeal to the emotions, beliefs, prejudices listener, literally, «to the man.» In modern English acts as an adjective and means «апелляция к предубеждению, эмоциям, особым интересам, касающихся личных качеств»»

1)ad personem- переход на личности,2)ad hominem circumstantiae- объяснение точки зрения оппонента его личными обстоятельствами,3)ad hominem in quique- “и ты тоже”, указание на то, что сам оппонент действует вопреки аргументу.

It is tralated in 2 variants:

  1. апелляция к чувствам или предубеждениям читателя или слушателя (descrtive translation)«апелляция к предубеждению, эмоциям, особым интересам, касающихся личных качеств»

2)касающийся личных качеств, а не доводов собеседника (descriptive translation)  In the English-language newspaper The Sunday Times we find an example of the use of the loan: The Sunday Times 1 December 2013 “On Your Head: The fancy job title shows that you’re just a drone»

“My own world of academia has not been immune. Can you distinguish between the following types of professor? Adjunct, ad hominem, associate, emeritus, honorary, regius, special, visiting, titular». Furnham: The Sunday Times-Можете ли вы определить различие между следующими преподавателями относительно личных качеств: младший преподаватель, заслуженный преподаватель, почетный преподаватель, королевский профессор, частный преподаватель, репетитор, штатный преподаватель.

Type of translation transformation: descriptive translation.

Let us consider another example:

The Sunday Times “Dead bulls” Published: 29 September 2011

           «When writing about the first papal attempt to ban bullfighting, he notes that Pius V was heavily implicated in the Inquisition And he manages to combine ad hominem argument with startling arrogance when he writes of Álvaro Múnera -. A prominent bullfighter who later came to condemn the former profession that he «became an animal rights protester because other people told him to».Rowlands : the Sunday Times. -Если речь идет о первой попытке папы запретить корриду ,надо отметить , что ПийV был сторонником инквизиции. И ему удается с поразительным высокомерием выдвинуть аргумент, рассчитанный на чувства, когда он пишет об Альваро Мунера, видном тореадоре, который позже стал осуждать свою профессию, и выступать за права животных вместе с другими людьми.  Type of translation transformation: descriptive translation.

Alumnus

This word came into the English language about in the middle of the 17th century. Literally meaning «ученик», «воспитанник». In modern English plays a role of a noun in feminine. It ndicates бывшая студентка, питомица, выпускница колледжа или университета. Masculine noun «выпускник», «бывший студент», питомец» ; plural alumnae . Translated into Russian: 1) бывший студент, 2)выпускник (колледжа, университета). In the first case the descriptive translation; 2) in the second  regular lexical correspondences.

              The Independent of The Exclusive: Bullying and discrimination are serious to still Issues for women at work, study of the Cambridge FEMALE alumnae Reveals / on Thursday 06 March 2014

              «Around 1,000 alumnae of Murray Edwards college , aged from their twenties to their seventies, were asked about the biggest problems they had faced in their lifetimes. The college’s most notable graduates since it was founded 60 years ago include scientist Lizzy Hawker, BBC’s Radio 4 presenter Mishal Husain, TV’s Claudia Winkleman and pianist Joanna Macgregor «. Pagano: The Independent of The Exclusive.

             Около 1000 выпускникам колледжа Мюррей Эдвардс, за период с 20-х по 70-е годы были заданы вопросы о самых больших проблемах, с которыми они столкнулись в своей жизни. Поскольку колледж был основан 60 лет назад, то среди наиболее известных выпускников ученый Лиза Хокер, ведущая радио ВВС4 Мишель Хусейн, ведущая Клаудия Уинклман и пианистка Джоанна МакГрегор.  In this example is a regular lexical correspondences.

cum laude

              It is an Americanism of Latin origin. The English language has got it in the 90-s in the 19th century. In Latin, literally it has the meaning «to praise.» Cum- in Latin «with». Cum laude in Russian translated as «с отличием» in the diploma.

Guardan:  Barack Obama , 9 May 2007

              «At the age of 27, Obama was accepted to Harvard University’s law school, where he graduated magna cum laude — with great honours — and was elected president of the Harvard Law Review, responsible for editing US jurisprudence’s most prestigious publication». 

             В возрасте 27 лет Обама был принят на юридический факультет Гарвардского университета, который окончил с отличием — с большим отличием — и был избран президентом Гарвардского журнала Law Review, редактором наиболее престижного журнала по юриспруденции. In this example the method of translating: tracing.

a prima facie case

              The word came from Latin to English in the second half of the 15th century. Its meaning is «first appearance» in Latin. It is «at first sight» in English. In Russian it is translated as «на неопределенный срок» — in this case the method of specification is used, «без назначения новой даты».

Hollywood reporter 7/1/2013 of Edward Snowden: Hollywood Joins Asylum The Petition to Ecuador.   

               ‘The petition to Korea on  Snowden ‘s behalf, in support of which has already collected 23,000 signatures, in particular said «The charging someone of spying ,who have not committd acts of espionage, is a prima facie case vidence of political persecution.”- В прошении к Корее от имени Сноудена, в поддержку которого уже собрано 23000 подписей, в частности говорится: «Обвинение кого-то в шпионаже, кто не совершал шпионских действий, с первого взгляда является серьезным доказательством политического преследования». Here the method of translation is tracing .

Alma mater

              In Latin, the expression literally means «кормящая благодетельная

мама». It is an ancient name of the informal education institutions (universities, which initially gave mostly theological and philosophical education) as organizations that feed the spirit. In today’s lexicon means figuratively institution in which a person has received or is receiving education; the place of employment for professional scientists.

              In English it began to be used for the first time in 1710. This expression is used as a noun. It has the following values: 1) school, college or university where someone was trained, so usually talk about already finished high school, 2) the official anthem at school or college — in American values. 

In Russian it literally means, in the context of matters «university, college or any other educational institution in which someone was trained.

The Independent: Once upon a time, Stephen Hawking was just another schoolboy… the Sunday, 2 February 2014.

              «Stephen Hawking is about to speak at a fundraising event for his alma mater in St. Albans. The school is often overlooked in the formation of the famous physicist, says his former classmate Michael Church». Church: The Independent-  Стивен Хокинг собирается выступить на мероприятии по сбору средств для своей альма-матер в Сент-Олбанс . Часто не замечают, какое значение имела в формировании личности известного физика»,— говорит его бывший одноклассник Михаил Чоч.  The method of translating is semantic development.

French borrowing

               In 1066 the Normans conquered England. Normandy was a French duchy. In 912 the territory was given to Normand Vikings by the French King Charles the Simple. By 1066 the Vikings have long mixed with the local population and took over the French. In England they came as carriers of the French language and French culture.

              The Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror dismissed all British authorities and the priests, and in their place put his. From the Norman dialect formed the Anglo-Norman language, which became the official language and lasted until the end of the 14th century. During this time, the English language has borrowed a huge number of French words. In English there are about 80000 of the most common words. About 25000 of them are the French borrowings. French borrowings reflect all aspects of life. Let us consider some of them found in the English-language print media.

A la carte

              This French phrase was adopted into the English language in 1826, a decade before it became used as an English word menu. A la carte in French meaning «on the card». In English, it serves as a:

1) The adjective «offered for selection (usually in a restaurant)

2) The role of the adverb «по выбору из меню»

3) The Russian language has the meaning of «заказ из предварительного списка».

The Hollywood Reporter Study: Only 14 Percent of Cable Customers Satisfied; 73 Percent Want a la Carte 9/25/2013.

              «A la carte restaurant television programming is a popular concept for Among Consumers the who presume for They’d the save money by ditching the channels for They do not watch, But Given That only 38 percent would be willing to pay more than $ 3 per channel each month, it’sе not likely the idea will catch on with TV providers who are not inclined to stray from bundling «Bond: the Hollywood Reporter.  -Телевизионные программы на заказ популярная услуга среди потребителей, которые могут сэкономить деньги, отказавшись от ненужных каналов. Учитывая, что только 38% были готовы платить больше, чем 3 доллара за канал в месяц, провайдерам не придется ловить потребителей, не желающих платить за весь комплект каналов.This lexical translation transformation, the principle of semantic specificity.

Bete noire

              This borrowing has come into English from French in the middle of the19th century, literally it means «черная скотина» (о человеке). In modern English, it acts as a noun meaning «a person or thing is particularly unpleasant or terrible.» Translated into Russian 1) «предмет особой ненависти или отвращения» (descriptive translation), 2) пугало (modulation).

The New York Times: June 1, 1991 «Japan’s Newest Bete Noire Is French Prime MINISTER»

              «The verdict that finally goes against libel tourism: Fatal blow for individuals with little or no link to UK trying to bring claims»

              «Browder, who runs of Hermitage Capital Management, became a hated man of the Russian leadership after the loud campaign for the officials and inspectors responsible for tax evasion in the amount of $ 140 million and as a result of the death of Magnitsky, who suffered because of the beatings in prison and died after he was denied medical treatment. Браудер, который руководит Hermitage Capital Management, стал ненавистным человеком из российского руководства после громкой кампании по проведению к ответственности чиновников и следователей за уклонение от уплаты налогов на сумму 140 миллионов долларов и в результате смерти Магницкого, который пострадал из-за избиения в тюрьме и умер после того, как ему было отказано в медицинской помощи. In this context, the English expression beter noir is translated as an adjective ненавистный. This is a replacement of parts of speech.  

Bon voyage

              This phrase comes from the French in English in the second half of the 17th century. Literally means «приятное путешествие.»  In Russian it is translated as «доброго пути» — the method of modulation.

              The Moscow News: Breaking the ice on the Moscow River 16/11/2009.

              «Could it be the perfect romantic date for breaking the ice — a winter tour on the Moscow River aboard an ice-breaking cruise ship.

              A fleet of five ships — Scarlet, Ferdinand, Bon Voyage, Celebrity and Capella — has been constructed by a Turkish dockyard over the course of 1 ½ years at a cost of $ 2 million apiece »Tohey: The Moscow News. -Это может стать идеальным романтическим свиданием- зимний тур по Москве-реке на борту ледокола. Эскадра из пяти кораблей – «Скарлет», «Фердинанд», «Бон Вояж», «Знаменитость» и «Капелла », каждый из которых стоимостью в 2 млн долларов, были построены на турецкой верфи за полтора года. In this case, the translation method is transliteration.

Deja vu

              It came into English from French in the early 20th century. Literally means «что-либо уже увиденное.» In English it is a noun having the values:

1) psychological sense- impression that this event has already happened.

2) emotionally — negative feeling of the repeated event.

              In Russian it is translated дежавю, the method of translation transliteration.

The Independent 14/03/2014 / A Lovely Way To Burn, By Louise Welsh: Book review

              «There are downsides to Welsh’s sixth novel, chiefly an inescapable sense of deja vu». Kidd: The Independent — Есть недостатки в шестом романе Уэлша, главным образом неизбежное чувство однообразия.               The method of translation is the holistic rethinking.

Express the Daily / » the Bayern Munich You take Arsenal back to the future» 1.20.2014

Nouveau riche

              It came from the French in the early 19th century. Literally means «new rich», quickly became rich people usually in times of social change, revolution. In the English language it is a noun. The meaning of the word — the rich «upstart» from the nonaristocratic surroundings.» In the Russian translation:

1) новоявленный богатый (tracing)

2) нувориш (transcription with transliteration elements).

The New York T imes: How a Nouveau Riche China Is Investing in Art Published: October 30, 2013

              «It’s apparent that we’ve» seen this movie before. «The Times is to be commended for exposing how a nouveau riche China is falling into the predictability of another boom and bust cycle of artwork speculation, monetized investment and boneheaded thinking»Это очевидно, что мы «видели этот фильм раньше . Газета Times заслуживает похвалы за разоблачение нуворишей Китая.

There a lexical transformation— transcription with elements of transliteration is used.

German borrowing

              In English, there are many German borrowings. This is mainly philosophical and socio-political concepts. Most of them are preserved in the English language in the form of tracing. This is due to the close relationship of the English and German languages. The first German words entered the English language in the 16th century. These are the words relating to trade, military affairs. For example: junker (юнкер), kreuzer (крейцер, название монеты), groschen (грош), the drilling (тренировка), plunar (грабеж), staff (штаб), fieldmarshal (фельдмаршал) and others.

              In the 16th century in England developed ore mining, iron and steel industry. During the times of the Queen Elizabeth Tudor two industrial companies, led by the Germans were organized. The new German words began to enter into the English language as a result of direct communication between people, certain terms of the mining industry are firmly entered in English written sources from the 17th century. For example, zinc, bismut, cobalt.  In the second half of the 18th century in the English language penetrated such terms of geology and mining as wolfram, iceberg, nickel.

              In the 19th century borrowing enriched English Dictionary considerably. There were the words, relating to science, art, politics, domestic sphere of life, such as: marzipan, Vermuth, Middle English (Mittelenglisch), loanword, folk the etymology of (Folksetymologie), Humoresque. Names of animal: poodle, spits.

             Words of the 20th century mainly relate to the theme of war. Here are some of them: blitzkrieg, the Third Reich (Third Reich), the Luftwaffe , bunker , Gauleiter , and so on.

              Many German borrowings occur in the English-language press. Let us consider some of them.

Kitsch

              It comes from the German word kitschen, literally meaning «мазать,пачкать.»It appeared in English in the early 20th century. It acts as a noun. It means something inartistic, cheap, tasteless in relation to works of art. Translated into Russian:

1) мазня (о картине)- reception specification

2) kitsch (о кино) — transcription elements with transliteration

3) безвкусица (о книгах, кино) — generalization

Moscow News :Moscow shop Brings back ancient jewelry Traditions

07/06/2013.  «Of The inventory a Etnicheskaya Lavka — simply» Ethnic Shop » — . Is not kitsch, HOWEVER, like much of the Soviet paraphernalia in tourist spots around Moscow» Этческая лавка− просто «Магазин народных промыслов−это вовсе не кич, как и большая часть советской атрибутики в туристических местах вокруг Москвы. In this example, the translation method is transcription.

Verboten

              From German into English this word came about in the early 20th century. In German Verboten — is the past tense of the verb «to prohibit, impede». In English, the word has an adjective meaning «something which is forbidden.» In the Russian language -запрещенный, the participle. The method of translation is a replacement of parts of speech.

  Today USA: Top 10 weird / Strange foreign laws /, May 15, 2013

              «..Run out of gas in Germany. Precisely more, IT’s verboten to the stop on the the nation’s fast-paced the autobahns, where clause German motorists to Tend to the get all Fahrvergnugen behind the wheel ».Clark: USA Today-Запрещено останавливаться в быстром потоке на федеральных трассах.

This is a grammatical replacement, as there was a replacement for a participle of the word «prohibited».

Spanish borrowing     

               Spanish borrowing in English reflect the economic and political ties. Earlier Spanish borrowing entered English through French, some of them are of Arab origin, reflecting the influence of Eastern culture. For example: cotton , zenith, lemon, tare(container).

              In the first half of the 16th century thanks to the dynastic ties to the English language there were included Spanish words associated with the traditions of the Spanish society: mulatto , duenna , dona , armada , infanta , renegade , hidalgo . In the 17th century  such words , as a toreador, castanet, matador, embargo, parade were included.

              Drawings of the 18th century were mainly related to cultural life, family life, social and political life. For example , bolero, guardille, marinade, caramel , picador, cigar, tango, rumba, alligator, banana , cargo, zenith, cotton.

There are recent and widely used borrowings: macho, amigo, dinero, gringo, of el nino.

 Let us consider some borrowings.

              Macho

              This is the Spanish word got into the English language in the early 20th century. Literally means «male animal» as an adjective to mean «manly, mature adult.»

              Translated into Russian: 1) мачо (transcription), 2) крутой парень (descriptive translation), 4) настоящий мужчина, самец (descriptive translation), 3) мужественность (modulation).

Holliwood news :   «The reaction of the fighters on the sudden death of a courageous Rendi Sevidzha»  » Macho Man Randy Savage reportedly PASSED away today as he is involved in a-car accident That may have Occurred the when of He had a heart attack».To Gazza : Holliwood news

«Реакция борцов на внезапную смерть мужественного Рэнди Сэвиджа» Настоящий мужчина Рэнди Сэвидж якобы погиб в автомобильной аварии, которая вероятно произошла в тот момент, когда у него случился сердечный приступ.

              The method of translation of the header is replacement of parts of speech, and in the text is a descriptive translation.

              Amigo

             The Spanish word amigo literally means «друг», «соратник», «единомышленник.» It was borrowed about in the 30 s of the 19th century. In the English language it is used as a noun and means «friend», «like-minded». In the Russian language it is translated — «друг.»

Moscow News of the Hangover Part II of / 28/07/2011 20:28.

              «(Originally, Stu (Ed Helms ), the groom, thought that a lackluster brunch at a mediocre diner would pass for a stag party, but his friends, Phil (Bradley Cooper), Alan (Zach Galifianakis), and Doug (Justin Bartha ) were having none of it.) So his three amigos flew to Thailand to attend the wedding and, of course, have a proper stag party «Таким образом, три его друга улетели в Таиланд, чтобы посетить свадьбу, а также устроить предназначенную только для мужчин вечеринку. Khrustaleva: Moscow news.  This example uses descriptive translation.

Portuguese borrowing

               The words that came out of the Portuguese language are basically the terms of trade.

              Trade relations developed between England and Portugal in the era of mass Discovery. But compared to the Spanish borrowings, the Portuguese take up less space in the English language.

              Portuguese borrowing mainly relate to the theme of life, manners and customs of the indigenous population of the colonies. Also, a lot of words denoting the names of plants and animals are of colonial territories trade items. Many of these loans have come through the French language. Through the Portuguese language in English penetrated the words belonging to languages ​​of the peoples of Africa, Guiana, Brazil, and India.

              Here are some borrowing from the Portuguese: marmalade, flamingo, madeira, buffalo , coco (nut), port

(Wine), guinea, caste, mandarin.

Let us consider some of them.

Flamingo

              This borrowing, which literally means, «painted in the colour of fire,» came into the English language in the mid-of16th century. In English, the word is used as a noun. This zoological term, so called large, similar in size to the stork bird with fiery plumage.

           Travel Weekly / Another Anantara in Abu Dhabi / 02 July 2013

              «The hotel has 30 villas on the eastern shore of the island with 21 on the beach and nine, including the only two bedroom villas, over look the lagoon where the flamingos hang out». Weekly the TravelВ отеле имеется 30 вилл на восточном берегу острова . 21 вилла расположена на пляже. В том числе девять вилл имеют 2 спальни с видом на лагуну , где неподалеку гуляют фламинго.               In Russian it is translated as «фламинго» — a transliteration.

Marmalade

              In Portuguese it means «варенье из айвы »In English it has come at the beginning of the 16th century. It acts as a noun with the meaning «canned jelly, which are small pieces of fruit, fruit pulp, such as that of oranges and lemons.» The method of translation into Russian is modulation.

New York Times / February 19, 2014 / of Orange Marmalade the Cake / a recipe.

              «This beautiful, tender, citrus- scented loaf cake filled with bits of candied orange peel is everything you want with your afternoon tea. The key is finding the right marmalade; it needs to be the thick-cut (also known as coarse-cut) marmalade made with bitter oranges, which will be laden with big pieces of peel «. Clarc: the New York Times — Настоящий джем должен быть густым, сделанным из апельсинов с толстыми горькими корками и содержать в себе цукаты этих корок.

When transferring the borrowing we used modulation .

Conclusion

           The vocabulary of the English language is rich and varied. It came to us from ancient times, great tales and ballads. It’s the language spoken by kings and historical figures, each of which is itself a legend. Hundreds of masterpieces of world literature were written in English . This language is one of the world’s major languages ​​of communication.

              In a rapidly changing world the vocabulary of a language reflects the historical changes. Words come out of active use with the concepts denoted by them or phenomena. And new words appeared, reflecting the peculiarities of his time.

Updating language vocabulary stock is in many ways — derivation and borrowing. Borrowing foreign words reflect not only historical processes, but also geographical location of socio-cultural country in the world.

              The process of borrowing is very diverse. This process has its own reasons, stages of development and results. The borrowings appear due to internal and external influences on the language system.

              As a result, borrowing is constantly updated dictionary of the English language. Language adapted to the realities of each new era is alive and growing with the cultural community of people.      

We have analyzed the English loan words and ways of their translation into Russian, as independent lexical units, as well as in the context of the examples of the printed English-language press.

              It may be noted that the formal lexical transformations occur more frequently than others. From formal lexical transformations often occur elements of transcription and transliteration. Thse are basically the words that have become international, such as the nouveau riche, kitsch, macho, flamingos, monsoon, the meaning of which is clear and without translation in many languages. Flamingo and monsoon are terminological tokens.

              Also, when translating frequent borrowing lexical and grammatical transformation we often use descriptive translation. Descriptive (explanatory translation) conveys the meaning of a word or phrase that is difficult to find equivalents in the target language. This can be seen in such borrowings as of ad hominem, bete noire , a pied — a — terre , Favela . These words do not fully assimilated into the English and their translation needs some clarification of the meaning.

              It should also be noted that the translation of the English language borrowing is very rarely encountered regular lexical correspondences. This is probably due to the fact that loans have their own shades of meaning, despite the presence of English words with a similar meaning.

              For example, amigo — in the sense of «cоратник» is synonymous with this borrowing friend — «friend, companion, friend, colleague, companion, friend» and others.

              We note that borrowing supplement and enrich any language. A translation task is to convey shades of meaning of a word in a particular context.

              Translation transformations- are such transformations, which allow to move from the original text units to the units of the text in another language. All translation transformation are divided into lexical, grammatical and complex, lexical and grammatical. Lexical transformations include: translator transcription and transliteration, tracing and lexicosemantic substitution (concretization, generalization, and modulation). Grammatical transformations contain a literal translation, the sentence division , the sentence union , grammatical replacement (word forms, parts of speech, of the sentence). There are also complex lexical and grammatical transformations, including antonymic translation, descriptive translation and compensation. Most often combine different types of transformations in translation.

              In this work, by analyzing the translation transformation, we came to the conclusion that in the translation of foreign borrowing from English into Russian often used formal lexical transformation. This type of transfer has been met 26 times among 65 translational transformations of all our examples Thus, the hypothesis is confirmed.

              The complex nature of translation transformations make translation difficult and interesting pastime. The process of borrowing is inevitable, it develops language.  The contacts between peoples lead to interaction between their languages. In all languages there is a expanding supply of loanwords. This is a unity of the human civilization, which is embodying the historical experience of mankind.

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http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/1016043/orange-marmalade-cake.html

15. Cristiano Ronaldo learning French ahead of potential Paris Saint-Germain switch. [E resource ] // Mirror— 10/20/2013 http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/cristiano-ronaldo-learning-french-ahead-2473149

16. Eliasoph Philiph. How a Nouveau Riche China Is Investing in Art. [E resource ] / P. // Eliasoph of The the New York Times — 30.10.2013

17. Furnham Adrian. On Your Head: The fancy job title shows that you’re just a drone. [E resource ] /Furnham.A .// of The Times the Sunday -01.12.2013

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/Appointments/article13466

18. Gazza Jonathan. Wrestlers react to Macho Man Randy Savage’s sudden death. [E resource ] / J.GAzza // Hollywood news / 20.05. 2011 http://www.hollywoodnews.com/

19. Khrustaleva Olga. The Hangover Part II. [E resource ] // O.Khrustaleva of The Moscow news- 28.07.2011

http://www.themoscownews.com/russia/20110728/188882797.html

20 . Pagano Margaretta. Bullying and discrimination are still serious issues for women at work, study of female Cambridge alumnae reveals. [E resource ] / M.Pagano // of The The Independent Exclusive .— 06.03. 2014

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/exclusive-bullying-and-discrimination-are-still-serious-issues-for-women-at-work-study-of-female-cambridge- alumnae-reveals-9171643.html

21 . Rowlands Mark. Dead bulls. [E resource ] /M.Rowlands//The the Sunday Times -29.09.2011 http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article786066.ece

22. Sanger E. David. Japan’s Newest Bete Noire Is French Prime Minister. [E resource ] / DESanger // from the New York of The Times — 01.06.1991 by / of The The Independent / 14.10.2013

23 . Walkner Peter. Edward Snowden: Hollywood Joins Asylum Petition to Ecuador. [E resource ] / P.Walkner // of The Hollywood reporter-1/7/2013 http://www.theguardian.com/global/2013/jun/23/edward-snowden-leaves-hong-kong-moscow-live

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Languages freely borrow terms from each other. This usually occurs when a new object or institution is created for which the borrowing language lacks a word. If you are searching for what those words maybe, you are on the right page. 

In this post, we will be providing you with answers to the question “What are loanwords?” and how loanwords came to be.

We will also be enumerating the different loanwords from other languages and explaining the importance of getting ourselves acquainted with them. Please continue reading. 


Loanwords are words that have been borrowed from other languages and utilized by speakers of that language (the source language). A ‘borrowing’ is another term for a loan word. The process by which speakers incorporate words from a foreign language into their native tongue is referred to as abstract noun borrowing. 

The terms ‘loan’ and ‘borrowing’ are both metaphors, as there is no such thing as a literal lending procedure. There is no translation from one language to another, and there are no words that ‘return’ to the originating language. They simply became popular within a linguistic community that spoke a language other than the one in which they originated.

Borrowing occurs when two language populations come into contact culturally. Word borrowing can occur in both ways between two languages in touch, although there is generally an asymmetry, with more words flowing from one side to the other. The source language community has some influence, reputation, and wealth in this situation, which makes the goods and ideas it brings appealing and beneficial to the borrowed language group. 

Borrowing is a complicated procedure that requires numerous usage occurrences. In most cases, some speakers of the borrowed language are also fluent in the source language or at least know enough to use the appropriate words. When speaking the borrowed language, they use them. They may speak the words the same or similar to how they are pronounced in the source language if they are bilingual in the source language, which is typically the case. 

Those who first use the new word may do so solely with speakers of the parent language who are already familiar with it, but eventually, they will use it with those who are unfamiliar with it. The word may appear ‘strange’ to these speakers. The word can be classified as a foreign word at this stage when the majority of speakers are unfamiliar with it and believe it comes from another language. 

However, a novel foreign word might become more familiar to more speakers over time. The user community can expand to the point that even those with little or no knowledge of the original language can understand and utilize the new word. The new term becomes established. 


What Is the Purpose of Borrowing Words from Other Languages?

Loanwords exist in all languages. What is the reason for this? The answer is complicated, involving past and current history, location, language size and power, and linguistic structure. Languages are generally influenced by their surroundings. 

There is no language – or component of language – that is completely ‘loan-proof’. Any term in one language might theoretically be replaced with a word from another. 

Here are the reasons and explanations why we borrow words from other languages. 

  • Loanwords contribute to the enrichment, expansion, and development of the language.
  • Other languages may better convey a concept, such as ‘schadenfreude’ which means pleasure in the misery of others. 
  • To introduce a new idea/product/sport/food/etc. for which no English word exists, borrowing is required. 
  • There has never been a formally acknowledged national academy in an English-speaking country to oversee the terms of entering and leaving the language.

How Do Borrowed Words Work in English?

Words are borrowed and lent due to cultural contact between two communities that speak different languages. The dominant culture (or the culture seen to have more prestige) frequently donates more words than it borrows, resulting in an uneven exchange mechanism. 

Many of the words that are borrowed are part of the dominant group’s material culture. Food, plants, animals, and tools travel with the people who use them, and the words used to describe them do as well. 

It is no surprise that physical and linguistic exchanges occur when other cultures come into contact with those new people, their goods, and their language. Since these objects have corresponding names already, the borrowing culture prefers to use them rather than create new ones. 

The new loanwords that the receiving language integrates into its lexicon frequently sound foreign at first. They may only be used by a small group of people until they gradually spread to more speakers over time. Pronunciation changes occur as a foreign word gets phonologically transformed to make it easier to utter in the language where it was borrowed from, a process known as naturalization or assimilation.

A loanword has been conventionalized when a large percentage of the population utters it on a regular basis, and what it is no longer needs to be defined and explained. Loanwords can either maintain traces of their former self (i.e., they can still be seen as foreign in some sense) or totally disappear into the new language. It is a loanword once the word no longer appears foreign.

Semantic Loan (Borrowing)

A semantic loan is related to the generation of calques in that it involves borrowing semantic meaning (rather than lexical objects) from another language. 

However, in this scenario, the whole word in the borrowing language already exists; the difference is that its meaning is expanded to accommodate another meaning in the lending language that its existing translation contains. 

When two languages are in close proximity, semantic loans are common and can take several forms. The source and target words could be cognates, which may or may not share any current meaning in common; they could be a loan translation or parallel construction (composite of matching terms); or they could be unrelated words with a shared meaning.


Loan Translation (Calque)

A calque (or loan translation) is a word-for-word translation from one language to another in linguistics. A calque is when you take a phrase in French and literally translate it into English root-for-root or word-for-word. 

To calque, as a verb, means to take a phrase or word from another language and reassemble it into a new lexeme in the chosen language. It is a type of loan in which words or phrases are taken from another language and then translated into the target language. It means adhering to the target language’s syntactical structures.

By avoiding using foreign terms directly, calque contributes to the richness of a target language. Calque is a construction, not a loan, which is a phonological and morphologic modification.

The French term ‘souris’, which means ‘mouse’ (the animal), is a good example. When French speakers began speaking of computer mice after the English term mouse acquired the additional sense of ‘computer mouse’, they did so by expanding the meaning of their own word ‘souris’ in the same way that English speakers had extended the meaning of mouse. 

It would have been a borrowing if French speakers had started using the term ‘mouse’; it would have been a calque if they had developed a new lexeme out of various French morphemes, as with ‘disque’ dur for ‘hard disk’.



Some Fun Facts About Loanwords

The people of the British Isles did not need borrowed terms before 1066. They spoke an Old English dialect of German. It has something to do with what we are talking about right now. France’s William the Conqueror invaded Britain in 1066. The nobles’ language became French. The common people, on the other hand, the common people continued to speak Old English. 

As a result, English has acquired a dual vocabulary. Pork, for example, was a hit with everyone. The nobles referred to it as ‘porc’, while the common people referred to it as swine. In modern English, both words exist, although ‘pork’ is more prevalent. More words from various European countries seeped into English as Christianity flourished.

Here are some fun facts about borrowed words:

  • The English language has borrowed words from up to 350 other languages.
  • Although all languages borrow words, many of them alter the rules to meet their phonetics.
  • Latin (29%), French (29%), Greek (6%), other languages (6%), and proper names (4%) are the languages from which present English is derived, meaning only 26% of today’s English is actually English. 
  • According to Dictionary.com, nearly 80% of the terms in an English dictionary were borrowed from another language.
  • Overall, Latin is the most common source of loanwords, but French is the most important provider of new loanwords.
  • When the alphabets are different, English transliterations normally rely on the source language to provide a starting point.
  • Since World War II, English has surpassed all other languages as the largest exporter of loanwords, including ubiquitous terms like ‘OK’, ‘Internet’, and ‘hamburger’.
  • Languages having richer grammar, such as German or Icelandic, are more hesitant to borrow because their grammar systems risk collapsing if there is an excessive flood of loans.

What are Some of the Common Loanwords?

Language is, at its core, a means of communication. It is an all-encompassing human phenomenon. It is a way to convey our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and messages. A language must be capable of expressing these phenomena. 

However, a language may not always have all of the words necessary to represent all of one’s experiences. It will have to borrow words and phrases from various languages.

Here are the most common ‘loan words’: 

African 

The majority of African-derived words in English are nouns that describe creatures, plants, or cultural traditions that originated in Africa, mostly sub-Saharan African. 

apartheid banana banjo basenji

bongo buckra chimpanzee cola

dengue fandango goober jambalaya

jive jukebox jumbo mamba

mambo samba voodoo zebra


Arabic

The following terms were learned either directly from Arabic or indirectly through the translation of Arabic into other languages and subsequently into English.

alcohol algebra average caravan

gazelle giraffe harem kebab

lemon magazine mattress mosque

oud safari shawarma sofa

sugar sultan tariff zenith


Australian

Some of the words of Australian Aboriginal origin, such as kangaroo and boomerang, are commonly used in Australian English. Many of these words have been leased into languages other than English, while others are unique to Australian English.

aborigine ballarat billabong bombora

boomerang bunyip dingo gymea

humpy kangaroo koala mallee

nugget swagman waddy walkabout

wallaby willy willy wombat wonga


Chinese

The English language, as well as many other European languages, has adopted certain Chinese words. The majority of them were loanwords from Chinese, a phrase that refers to members of the Sino-Tibetan language family who speak Chinese. 

china chopsticks chow mein cumquat

dim sum feng shui ketchup kowtow

kung fu lychee soy tai chi

tea tofu typhoon wok


Dutch

Both English and Dutch are West Germanic languages. However, in most cases, English spellings of Dutch loanwords suppress vowel combinations from the source term that do not exist in English and substitute them with existing vowel combinations.

bamboo blister boulevard brandy

cashier commodore dapper decoy

elope filibuster geek iceberg

knapsack mannequin onslaught pickle

pump school sketch stove


French

Many French words have found their place in the English language, just as many Latin ones have.

ballet casserole chancery cinema

croissant embassy entrepreneur faux pas

genre helicopter limousine parachute

pastry porridge renaissance rendezvous

silhouette stew television thermometer


Greek

Because the living Greek and English languages did not come into direct touch until modern times, borrowings had to be indirect, coming via Latin (through texts or French and other vernaculars) or Ancient Greek texts, rather than the living spoken language.

alchemy bacterium bishop chair 

elixir garbology gas helicobacter 

hydrant hydrodynamics kerosene metalinguistic

photography priest symbiont taxonomy 

telegram telescope television zoology 


German

Many of these terms may be traced back to a Germanic source (typically Frankish), making them cognate with a large number of native English words from Old English, resulting in etymological twins. Many of these are Franco-German words or words with Germanic roots in French.

attaché blitz bourgeoise delicatessen

fest flak gesundheit kindergarten

lager noodle poodle pretzel

rucksack sauerkraut schadenfreude schnitzel

strudel waltz zeitgeist zeppelin


Hebrew

It is not unexpected that Hebrew had an influence on English. Because European languages lacked a decent equivalent, or the translators weren’t sure what the word meant, many early translators took words directly from Hebrew.

abacus amen cherub cider

corban glitch golem jacket

jubilee macabre pascal pharaoh

pharisee rabbi sabbatical schmoose

schwa shalom shivah torah


Hindi/Sanskrit

Many old Greco-Roman words that are now part of modern English can be traced back to Sanskrit.

candy cashmere cough crimson

daughter dental grass ignite

jungle karma lilac mantra

neem nirvana pepper rice

shampoo shawl tank yoga


Italian

Many words from the Italian language and its Latin-derived relatives have made their way into English, particularly those related to art, music, and cuisine.

balcony coda extravaganza fresco

maestro motto novel piano

presto quarantine regatta solo

soprano stanza studio tempo

trio umbrella violin zucchini


Japanese

Japanese words have made their way into a wide range of languages. Some of the words are simply transliterations of Japanese language words for cultural concepts, but others are words of Chinese origin that were first introduced to English through Japan.

anime bento bonsai geisha

kamikaze karaoke karate katsu

mochi ninja nori origami

samurai shoyu sudoku sumo

sushi tsunami tycoon wasabi


Latin

Even though no one speaks Latin anymore, many aspects of the language can still be found in word components. Many languages have taken vocabulary from Latin, particularly in the areas of arithmetic, science, and medicine.

affidavit agenda alias alibi

alma mater alter ego alumni bonus

etcetera exit fact maximum

post mortem post-partum propaganda spectrum


Portuguese

The majority of loanwords and derivations stem from the Age of Discovery, when the Portuguese spoken at sea was widely regarded as the most widely understood vernacular (lingua franca) of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, according to several studies.

albino buffalo caramel cashew

caste cobra creole embarrass

flamingo indigo Labrador lingo

marmalade massage molasses mulatto

palaver port potato tapioca


Spanish

The impact of Spanish, being one of the major Romance or Latin languages, can be heard all over the world, particularly in English. Because of the Spanish colonization of a substantial section of the Americas from 1492 until 1832, the influence of Spanish on the English language is particularly noticeable in American English.

alligator avocado barrio breeze

burrito cafeteria canyon cargo

cigar fiesta hacienda hurricane

macho mosquito oregano patio

ranch stampede tequila tornado



Where Can We Usually Find Loanwords?

Everyday words are popular loanwords. You may not even be aware that some of them are from a different language. 

The majority of well-known loanwords are the outcome of cross-cultural encounters. There are a plethora of methods to highlight English’s global ingredients, but it would take as many years to do so properly as it did for English to develop into the rich stew it is now.

Loanwords in Academics

Loanwords have been discussed and explained by academics like Lyle Campbell, together with Ugandan-born British linguist Francis Katamba and even author and linguistic researcher Kerry Maxwell. Continue reading to see what they had to say about it.

Lyle Campbell

“One reason terms from another language are adopted is for prestige, as the foreign phrase is held in high regard for whatever reason. ‘Luxury’ loans are used to describe loans used to gain prestige. For example, English could have done just fine with only native terms for ‘pig flesh/pig meat’ and ‘cow flesh/cow meat,’ but pork (from French porc) and beef (from French boeuf), as well as many other terms of ‘cuisine,’ were borrowed from French; ‘cuisine’ itself is from French cuisine ‘kitchen’, because French had a higher social status and was considered more prestigious than English during the Norman French dominance of England (1066-13).”


Francis Katamba

“Bilingual speakers may be expressing something about themselves and how they want to relate to their interlocutor by using a specific language. For example, if a patient initiates a Yiddish conversation with a doctor in the doctor’s office, it could be a show of solidarity, implying that you and I belong to the same sub-group. Instead of selecting between languages, these two people would prefer code-switching. They may produce sentences that are partially written in English and partially written in Yiddish. If foreign terms are often employed in code-switching, they may gradually flow from one language to another, becoming fully integrated and no longer being considered foreign. That is most likely how Yiddish phrases like chutzpah (brazen impudence), schlemiel (a clumsy, bungling person who is constantly a victim), schmaltz (cloying, bland sentimentality), and goyim (gentile) came to be. The fact that these Yiddish words have no graceful English equivalent was undoubtedly a factor in their acceptance.”



Loanwords in Pop Culture

As the following comment from the late British actor Geoffrey Hughes, who also played Paul McCartney in the film “Yellow Submarine,” demonstrates, loanwords function in a range of languages.

Geoffrey Hughes

“Scholars use a three-part distinction drawn from German to classify loanwords according to their degree of assimilation in the new host language. The sound, spelling, and meaning of a Gastwort (‘guest word’) are all preserved. Examples are ‘passe’ – a French word, ‘diva’ – an Italian word, and ‘leitmotiv’ – a German word. A Fremdwort (‘foreign term’), like the French ‘garage’ and ‘hotel’, has experienced partial assimilation. ‘Hotel,’ which was initially pronounced with a silent ‘h’, has been spoken like an English word for some time, with the ‘h’ sounded; ‘garage,’ which has evolved a secondary, Anglicized pronunciation (‘garrij’) and can be employed as a verb. Finally, a Lehnwort (‘loan word’) has assimilated into the new language and has no distinguishing features. As a result, the loan word is an example of itself.”


Kerry Maxwell

“Fauxcellarm, a clever blend of the French loan term faux, meaning ‘false’, ‘cell’, from ‘cellphone’, and ‘alarm’, which when pronounced out loud sounds similar to ‘false alarm’, is a tongue-in-cheek alternative to ringxiety.”




Why Should We Be Familiar With ‘Loanwords’?

You are now aware that English has many words that have been borrowed from other languages. 

In reality, the majority of English terms are from other languages. Many of the words in the English language have cognates in different languages. Knowing what many of these common word components signify will help you expand your English vocabulary. 

As such, it is a must that you familiarize yourself with these terms and where they are from as this will surely come in handy not just in academic settings but also in social settings. 


Additional FAQs — Loanwords

How Many Loanwords are There in the English Language? 

Out of the (approximately) 171 476 words in the English language, 80% are borrowed or loaned from other languages. Studies show that these loanwords are from 350 different languages, most of which are from Latin and French. 

How do Loanwords Happen?

Borrowing of words usually occurs when a new object or institution is created for which the borrowing language lacks a word.
In some instances, the word’s spelling is altered to fit in a country’s standard spelling. Other times, the borrowed words stay as they are, with no modifications and alterations. 


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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Studies that estimate and rank the most common words in English examine texts written in English. Perhaps the most comprehensive such analysis is one that was conducted against the Oxford English Corpus (OEC), a massive text corpus that is written in the English language.

In total, the texts in the Oxford English Corpus contain more than 2 billion words.[1] The OEC includes a wide variety of writing samples, such as literary works, novels, academic journals, newspapers, magazines, Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, blogs, chat logs, and emails.[2]

Another English corpus that has been used to study word frequency is the Brown Corpus, which was compiled by researchers at Brown University in the 1960s. The researchers published their analysis of the Brown Corpus in 1967. Their findings were similar, but not identical, to the findings of the OEC analysis.

According to The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists, the first 25 words in the OEC make up about one-third of all printed material in English, and the first 100 words make up about half of all written English.[3] According to a study cited by Robert McCrum in The Story of English, all of the first hundred of the most common words in English are of Old English origin,[4] except for «people», ultimately from Latin «populus», and «because», in part from Latin «causa».

Some lists of common words distinguish between word forms, while others rank all forms of a word as a single lexeme (the form of the word as it would appear in a dictionary). For example, the lexeme be (as in to be) comprises all its conjugations (is, was, am, are, were, etc.), and contractions of those conjugations.[5] These top 100 lemmas listed below account for 50% of all the words in the Oxford English Corpus.[1]

100 most common words

A list of 100 words that occur most frequently in written English is given below, based on an analysis of the Oxford English Corpus (a collection of texts in the English language, comprising over 2 billion words).[1] A part of speech is provided for most of the words, but part-of-speech categories vary between analyses, and not all possibilities are listed. For example, «I» may be a pronoun or a Roman numeral; «to» may be a preposition or an infinitive marker; «time» may be a noun or a verb. Also, a single spelling can represent more than one root word. For example, «singer» may be a form of either «sing» or «singe». Different corpora may treat such difference differently.

The number of distinct senses that are listed in Wiktionary is shown in the polysemy column. For example, «out» can refer to an escape, a removal from play in baseball, or any of 36 other concepts. On average, each word in the list has 15.38 senses. The sense count does not include the use of terms in phrasal verbs such as «put out» (as in «inconvenienced») and other multiword expressions such as the interjection «get out!», where the word «out» does not have an individual meaning.[6] As an example, «out» occurs in at least 560 phrasal verbs[7] and appears in nearly 1700 multiword expressions.[8]

The table also includes frequencies from other corpora. Note that as well as usage differences, lemmatisation may differ from corpus to corpus – for example splitting the prepositional use of «to» from the use as a particle. Also the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) list includes dispersion as well as frequency to calculate rank.

Word Parts of speech OEC rank COCA rank[9] Dolch level Polysemy
the Article 1 1 Pre-primer 12
be Verb 2 2 Primer 21
to Preposition 3 7, 9 Pre-primer 17
of Preposition 4 4 Grade 1 12
and Conjunction 5 3 Pre-primer 16
a Article 6 5 Pre-primer 20
in Preposition 7 6, 128, 3038 Pre-primer 23
that Conjunction et al. 8 12, 27, 903 Primer 17
have Verb 9 8 Primer 25
I Pronoun 10 11 Pre-primer 7
it Pronoun 11 10 Pre-primer 18
for Preposition 12 13, 2339 Pre-primer 19
not Adverb et al. 13 28, 2929 Pre-primer 5
on Preposition 14 17, 155 Primer 43
with Preposition 15 16 Primer 11
he Pronoun 16 15 Primer 7
as Adverb, conjunction, et al. 17 33, 49, 129 Grade 1 17
you Pronoun 18 14 Pre-primer 9
do Verb, noun 19 18 Primer 38
at Preposition 20 22 Primer 14
this Determiner, adverb, noun 21 20, 4665 Primer 9
but Preposition, adverb, conjunction 22 23, 1715 Primer 17
his Possessive pronoun 23 25, 1887 Grade 1 6
by Preposition 24 30, 1190 Grade 1 19
from Preposition 25 26 Grade 1 4
they Pronoun 26 21 Primer 6
we Pronoun 27 24 Pre-primer 6
say Verb et al. 28 19 Primer 17
her Possessive pronoun 29, 106 42 Grade 1 3
she Pronoun 30 31 Primer 7
or Conjunction 31 32 Grade 2 11
an Article 32 (a) Grade 1 6
will Verb, noun 33 48, 1506 Primer 16
my Possessive pronoun 34 44 Pre-primer 5
one Noun, adjective, et al. 35 51, 104, 839 Pre-primer 24
all Adjective 36 43, 222 Primer 15
would Verb 37 41 Grade 2 13
there Adverb, pronoun, et al. 38 53, 116 Primer 14
their Possessive pronoun 39 36 Grade 2 2
what Pronoun, adverb, et al. 40 34 Primer 19
so Conjunction, adverb, et al. 41 55, 196 Primer 18
up Adverb, preposition, et al. 42 50, 456 Pre-primer 50
out Preposition 43 64, 149 Primer 38
if Conjunction 44 40 Grade 3 9
about Preposition, adverb, et al. 45 46, 179 Grade 3 18
who Pronoun, noun 46 38 Primer 5
get Verb 47 39 Primer 37
which Pronoun 48 58 Grade 2 7
go Verb, noun 49 35 Pre-primer 54
me Pronoun 50 61 Pre-primer 10
when Adverb 51 57, 136 Grade 1 11
make Verb, noun 52 45 Grade 2 [as «made»] 48
can Verb, noun 53 37, 2973 Pre-primer 18
like Preposition, verb 54 74, 208, 1123, 1684, 2702 Primer 26
time Noun 55 52 Dolch list of 95 nouns 14
no Determiner, adverb 56 93, 699, 916, 1111, 4555 Primer 10
just Adjective 57 66, 1823 14
him Pronoun 58 68 5
know Verb, noun 59 47 13
take Verb, noun 60 63 66
people Noun 61 62 9
into Preposition 62 65 10
year Noun 63 54 7
your Possessive pronoun 64 69 4
good Adjective 65 110, 2280 32
some Determiner, pronoun 66 60 10
could Verb 67 71 6
them Pronoun 68 59 3
see Verb 69 67 25
other Adjective, pronoun 70 75, 715, 2355 12
than Conjunction, preposition 71 73, 712 4
then Adverb 72 77 10
now Preposition 73 72, 1906 13
look Verb 74 85, 604 17
only Adverb 75 101, 329 11
come Verb 76 70 20
its Possessive pronoun 77 78 2
over Preposition 78 124, 182 19
think Verb 79 56 10
also Adverb 80 87 2
back Noun, adverb 81 108, 323, 1877 36
after Preposition 82 120, 260 14
use Verb, noun 83 92, 429 17
two Noun 84 80 6
how Adverb 85 76 11
our Possessive pronoun 86 79 3
work Verb, noun 87 117, 199 28
first Adjective 88 86, 2064 10
well Adverb 89 100, 644 30
way Noun, adverb 90 84, 4090 16
even Adjective 91 107, 484 23
new Adjective et al. 92 88 18
want Verb 93 83 10
because Conjunction 94 89, 509 7
any Pronoun 95 109, 4720 4
these Pronoun 96 82 2
give Verb 97 98 19
day Noun 98 90 9
most Adverb 99 144, 187 12
us Pronoun 100 113 6

Parts of speech

The following is a very similar list, subdivided by part of speech.[1] The list labeled «Others» includes pronouns, possessives, articles, modal verbs, adverbs, and conjunctions.

Rank Nouns Verbs Adjectives Prepositions Others
1 time be good to the
2 person have new of and
3 year do first in a
4 way say last for that
5 day get long on I
6 thing make great with it
7 man go little at not
8 world know own by he
9 life take other from as
10 hand see old up you
11 part come right about this
12 child think big into but
13 eye look high over his
14 woman want different after they
15 place give small her
16 work use large she
17 week find next or
18 case tell early an
19 point ask young will
20 government work important my
21 company seem few one
22 number feel public all
23 group try bad would
24 problem leave same there
25 fact call able their

See also

  • Basic English
  • Frequency analysis, the study of the frequency of letters or groups of letters
  • Letter frequencies
  • Oxford English Corpus
  • Swadesh list, a compilation of basic concepts for the purpose of historical-comparative linguistics
  • Zipf’s law, a theory stating that the frequency of any word is inversely proportional to its rank in a frequency table

Word lists

  • Dolch Word List, a list of frequently used English words
  • General Service List
  • Word lists by frequency

References

  1. ^ a b c d «The Oxford English Corpus: Facts about the language». OxfordDictionaries.com. Oxford University Press. What is the commonest word?. Archived from the original on December 26, 2011. Retrieved June 22, 2011.
  2. ^ «The Oxford English Corpus». AskOxford.com. Archived from the original on May 4, 2006. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
  3. ^ The First 100 Most Commonly Used English Words Archived 2013-06-16 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^ Bill Bryson, The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way, Harper Perennial, 2001, page 58
  5. ^ Benjamin Zimmer. June 22, 2006. Time after time after time…. Language Log. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
  6. ^ Benjamin, Martin (2019). «Polysemy in top 100 Oxford English Corpus words within Wiktionary». Teach You Backwards. Retrieved December 28, 2019.
  7. ^ Garcia-Vega, M (2010). «Teasing out the meaning of «out»«. 29th International Conference on Lexis and Grammar.
  8. ^ «out — English-French Dictionary». www.wordreference.com. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  9. ^ «Word frequency: based on 450 million word COCA corpus». www.wordfrequency.info. Retrieved April 11, 2018.

External links

new-words-in-english

By
Last updated:

March 26, 2022

The English language is very much alive and growing, with more new words added to the dictionary every year. Today, we’re going to learn 25 brand-new English words that native speakers use all the time.

But before we get to that list, you may be wondering where new English words come from, and some quick tips to master them in the shortest time possible.

Contents

  • Where Do New Words Come From?
  • The Quickest Ways to Master New English Vocabulary
  • Trendy English Words Worth Learning in 2022
    • 1. To Chillax
    • 2. Whatevs
    • 3. Freegan
    • 4. Hellacious
    • 5. Awesomesauce
    • 6. Cringe
    • 7. Stan / To Stan
    • 8. Sober-curious
    • 9. B-day
    • 10. Beardo
    • 11. Sriracha
    • 12. Ghost
    • 13. EVOO
    • 14. Manspread
    • 15. Facepalm
    • 16. Froyo
    • 17. Hangry
    • 18. Photobomb
    • 19. Binge Watch
    • 20. Fitspiration
    • 21. Mansplain
    • 22. Glamping
    • 23. Side-eye
    • 24. Fast Fashion
    • 25. Staycation


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Where Do New Words Come From?

Every year, hundreds of new words are added to the English dictionary. Of course, not all new words make it into the dictionary. The ones that do are those that have been used frequently in a wide range of contexts and are found to be useful to English communication.

New English words may come from foreign words that have been adapted into the English language over time. For instance, if you love spicy food, you’ll be pleased to know that the word sriracha (a spicy chili and garlic sauce invented in Thailand) has been added to the dictionary.

Some new words are actually old words that have been given new or additional meanings. For example, ghost is no longer a word you only use around Halloween time, to refer to a spirit. It now has an additional meaning, which we’ll show you in our list below.

New slang words aren’t just old words used in new ways. New words may also be formed from the blending or shortening of certain words or phrases. For instance, a key ingredient in Italian cuisine is extra virgin olive oil—it’s a real tongue twister, but thankfully, it’s now been shortened to simply EVOO as you’ll see soon.

Or you can learn more about this right now, if you want a learn 12 of the twenty-five trendy words below via video.

The Quickest Ways to Master New English Vocabulary

  • Make your own personal dictionary: One of the most effective ways to master English vocabulary is to create your own dictionary of words that are most important or difficult for you. Write down a list of new words you wish to learn and make notes about their meanings and usages.

Mastering new vocabulary takes time and practice, so be sure to keep your personal dictionary with you to reference and refresh your memory whenever you need to. This will help prevent you from forgetting words easily.

  • Watch authentic English-language media. Watching, reading, or listening to authentic English-language content is a fantastic way to learn the words and phrases native speakers use every day in context.

Thankfully, there are many platforms with subtitled videos for you to choose from. FluentU, for example, is a language learning app and website based on authentic English-language videos. Each video has interactive subtitles that you can click on for example sentences, pronunciation, and more, which could help you expand your vocabulary and learn words in context.

  • Talk to people: Another way to master new vocabulary is to use the words in real English conversations. The more you repeat the word, the more fluent you’ll become at using it. By talking to native English speakers, you’ll also pick up new vocabulary from them. Now that’s a bonus!

Here are some great tips to find English speaking partners no matter where you currently live.

Trendy English Words Worth Learning in 2022

1. To Chillax

If you blend (mix) the words chill (relaxed) and relax, you get the verb to chillax.

This word has become more and more common on the internet over the past couple of years, and it simply means to relax, to become calm or to take it easy.

Although people use it almost with the same meaning as to relax, I find chillax has more of a sarcastic meaning, as in “wow, calm down, this isn’t so serious, you’re overreacting.”

No matter the meaning it can have for different people, remember that this word is used in slang, so don’t go telling your boss or your teacher to chillax!

Hey man, just chillax! It’s just a horror movie, not the end of the world!

2. Whatevs

Whatevs is an informal word that means whatever.

I’ve normally seen it used in sentences in which the speaker wants to express irony and show they don’t care about what’s happening or being said.

You’ll normally see whatevs as a standalone interjection or at the end of sentences:

“I don’t love you anymore.”
“Whatevs… Bye!”

She didn’t give me the lipstick back, but whatevs.

3. Freegan

Freegans and freeganism have been popular for years, but it’s only recently that we’ve gotten a word to describe who and what they are.

Simply put, a freegan is a person who tries to buy a little as possible, uses discarded things and/or (especially) food, and recycles everything they can. They’re environmentally conscious and friendly, and they do their best to reduce waste.

Although this is a positive thing for the Earth, some people take it to the extreme. It’s because of this that the words freegan and freeganism are normally surrounded by negative connotations (associations, suggestions).

He became a freegan five years ago and hasn’t bought food ever since.

4. Hellacious

This word is a mix of the word hell and the suffix -cious, which is quite common in English (delicious, conscious, audacious, tenacious, etc.).

Hellacious can have different meanings, but it is normally used as an adjective meaning astonishing, remarkable or very difficult.

This word is obviously slang, so use it only in the appropriate contexts!

He got a hellacious amount of hate from his last post.

They got a hellacious time trying to leave the country in one piece.

5. Awesomesauce

Put together the words awesome and sauce and you will get awesomesauce, which basically has the same meaning as awesome with a pinch of even more awesomeness.

This slang word can be used in any informal situation, and it works like a normal adjective:

I’m reading an awesomesauce book about the influence of slang words in the English language. How am I doing?

6. Cringe

Have you ever heard someone say something so embarrassing you even felt sorry for them?

Have you been present in a situation where someone was acting so awkwardly (strangely, embarrassingly, gracelessly) that you wished you were not there?

If so, then you were cringing big time!

To cringe means to feel embarrassed and ashamed about what someone is doing or saying. You can even cringe at yourself, but let’s be honest here, we normally cringe at other people.

His mum was dancing with his best friend and he couldn’t help but cringe.

I cringe every time I read her lovey-dovey comments.

In more recent times, you can even use cringe instead of the adjective cringy to describe something that makes you cringe:

That outfit is so cringe.

7. Stan / To Stan

Stan can be used as a noun to describe a person and as a verb to describe an action.

A stan is a person who idolizes, loves to the point of obsession or is an overzealous (very devoted and loyal) celebrity fan.

To stan means to idolize, love obsessively or be an overzealous fan of a celebrity.

The slang word comes from the 2000 Eminem song titled “Stan,” which is about an obsessive fan whose love for a celebrity… well, let’s just say that it doesn’t end well.

Recently, this word has become much more common, and it can now be used in any context or situation where you want to say you love someone or something.

OMG (Oh My God)! I stan those clothes, Jenni!

I stan Katy. She’s my role model.

Sometimes, you might even see someone (usually online) say “we stan,” showing collective support (that is, support from everyone in the community).

8. Sober-curious

This word is wonderful in a terrible sort of way. You could even say it makes you cringe.

Sober-curious can be used to describe a person who questions their drinking habits or wants to try to change them because of health or mental reasons.

I’ve only seen it used in very specific contexts and always related to drinking habits and alcoholism, so hopefully, you won’t have to use it very often.

He’s sober-curious and wants to try to not drink for one week.

9. B-day

B-day is just an informal shortened version of the word birthday. You can see it written on social media quite a lot, especially when wishing someone a happy birthday:

Happy b-day, John! Hope you have an awesome one!

The way to pronounce this word is BEE-dey.

10. Beardo

A beardo is a person with a beard. Simple.

However, as often happens with other words like weirdo (an odd or eccentric person) it can have a pejorative (negative and unkind) meaning, especially if you put those two words together: weirdo beardo.

A weirdo beardo is a person with a beard who doesn’t have the best hygiene habits and is socially odd and awkward:

That weirdo beardo really needs a haircut!

11. Sriracha

If you love spicy food, you’ve probably heard of sriracha. It’s a Thai-inspired sauce made from a blend of hot chili peppers, garlic and spices that’s commonly used in cooking or as a dipping sauce.

Sriracha really adds a kick to your hamburger, but be sure you have a glass of water nearby!

12. Ghost

The meaning of the word ghost (when used as a noun) that most of us are familiar with is the spirit of a dead person, like the kind we often see appearing and disappearing in movies. Now the word ghost has a new, informal meaning that has to do with disappearing.

Used as a verb, to ghost means to suddenly cut off contact completely with someone (usually a romantic partner) by not answering their phone calls and text messages.

You’ll often hear it used in the past tense (ghosted)… since you don’t know you’ve been ghosted until it’s too late!

I haven’t heard from her in more than a week. She totally ghosted me.

13. EVOO

Try saying “extra virgin olive oil” a few times. This is a type of high-quality oil that makes Italian food so very delicious, and it’s quite a mouthful to say, isn’t it?

But no worries, now we can shorten it to EVOO with the first letters of those words. Ah there, isn’t that easier to say?

Remember to grab a bottle of EVOO on your way home. I’m making pasta tonight.

14. Manspread

Ever notice how some men sit with their legs so wide apart in public places that they take up more than one seat?

This behavior, commonly observed on public transportation such as trains and buses and in public waiting areas, is known as manspreading (man + spreading).

Wouldn’t it be nice if people would be more considerate about manspreading during busy times of the day?

15. Facepalm

Facepalm (you’ll also see it spelled as two words: face and palm) is a new word that describes the act of covering your face with your hand when you’re in difficult or uncomfortable situations. It’s a pretty natural thing to do when we’re feeling embarrassed, frustrated or very disappointed.

He had to facepalm when his boss pointed out typos in his report after he’d checked it three times.

16. Froyo

Here’s another new word that has to do with food: froyo. That’s right, it’s not hard to figure out that froyo is short for frozen yogurt, a cold dessert that’s similar to ice cream and a bit healthier.

On a hot day, you can call me up for a froyo any time.

17. Hangry

Have you ever been hangry? I know I have. Hangry (hungry + angry) is when you’re in a bad mood and feeling frustrated because you need to eat right now.

I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast. I’m hangry and you’re not going to like me very much.

18. Photobomb

Remember the time you posed for that perfect photo (or so you thought!) only to find that someone spoiled it by appearing in view when the photo was taken?

That’s a photobomb. The unintended person is a photobomber. They could be either a random stranger just walking by, or a prankster deliberately photobombing you.

You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to avoid photobombs when we were taking pictures at the beach.

19. Binge Watch

To binge watch is to watch many episodes of a TV series one after another without stopping. The word binge by itself means to overdo something.

I spent the whole weekend binge watching the TV series “Billions” with my roommate.

20. Fitspiration

Every end of the year, we take time out to plan our goals for the new year. What can we do? Eat healthier? Work out more? Get more fit? Yes, but we need inspiration!

So we look around and, yes, we have a new word for that.

Fitspiration (fitness + inspiration) refers to the people, pictures and social media posts that inspire us to keep pushing ourselves and staying committed to our fitness goals.

I was pretty impressed that my co-worker had stuck a picture of Chris Hemsworth on his office wall for fitspiration.

21. Mansplain

Similar to manspreading, the word mansplain (man + explain) refers to how some men explain things to a woman in a condescending (superior-seeming) way that sounds like he’s either better than her or he knows more than her.

Whenever he starts mansplaining, all the women in the room roll their eyes and stop paying attention.

22. Glamping

Those who don’t fancy camping in the outdoors with no proper facilities like toilets, etc. will be happy to know that there’s now a thing called glamping.

Glamping (glamorous + camping) refers to camping that comes with all of the modern facilities that you can think of like nice bathrooms, etc.

No, I won’t go camping with you. But if it’s glamping, I’m in.

23. Side-eye

Have you ever given someone a disapproving look with sideways glances of your eyes? This is called giving someone the side-eye to show you’re annoyed and don’t approve of them or their behavior.

I had good reason to give him the side-eye. He just kept yawning in front of me with his mouth open.

24. Fast Fashion

In the ever-changing world of fashion, the term fast fashion refers to the concept of big-name designers and manufacturers such as H&M, Esprit and Levi’s introducing the latest fashion trends to stores at affordable prices.

It seems she’s on a tight budget and can’t afford anything but fast fashion.

25. Staycation

Ever taken vacation days from work and have nowhere to go? Well, if you have no travel plans, then spend your vacation at home and have a staycation (stay + vacation).

I go see the world every chance I get. So everyone was surprised that I’m having a staycation this holiday.

So there you go, a list of exciting new words in English for you to start using today. Challenge yourself to master them all as quickly as possible. Remember, practice makes perfect. Happy practicing!


Download:
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can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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