English is full of “loan words” that we don’t realize that these words are loaned from other languages.
Fun fact, English is spoken by more than one-fourth of the world‘s population. That makes it the second most spoken language in the world after Mandarin. Interestingly, English is known to be a melting pot of many words and phrases from other languages. The language, especially English, is constantly evolving, which means that sometimes some words and phrases get redundant, and many new words from different languages are added to the English language. These words are known as “loanwords”, which are borrowed and eventually became part of linguistics. Here are some of them.
Loot.
We use the word loot very frequently in English without realizing that the word is actually a Hindi word. Yes, the word “loot” comes from the Hindi word “loot”, which means stolen goods. Interestingly, they mean the same thing in both languages.
Safari.
Are you surprised to know that even safari is not an English word? The word originates from the Arabic word, safar, which essentially means “journey”. The word is also developed from a Swahili verb “kusafiri”, which also means voyaging or touring.
Genre.
The word comes from the heart of Europe, France. The French word “genre” literal translation is gender, but it does also roughly mean type. That is very close to the English meaning of the word and the context in which it is used.
Tsunami.
Many of us are unaware of the fact that the word “Tsunami” is not an English word. It is, in fact, a Japanese word that means “harbour wave”. The word was used for the very first time in the famous National Geographic magazine in the year 1896. It was used to describe the wave that was ridden due to the earthquake.
Fest.
At first, it seems that the word fest is a short form in English word festival. The word festival is in return, came from Latin roots and became a part of the English dictionary somewhere in the 14th century. But the word is derived from the German word which means celebration. So, Fest is not an abbreviation rather a loanword.
Kindergarten.
Another word that has German origins is the word “Kindergarten”. In German, the word’s literal translation is “children’s garden”. The word rather concept was coined by Friedrich Froebel, an educator in Germany. So, which one of them surprised you?
