Questions about words borrowed by English from another language.
2
votes
4answers
844 views
What's up with the hyphen in “orang-utan”?
For most of my life 'till about a couple of years ago, I had only seen the spelling orangutan written to describe those delightful red-headed apes from the tropical forests of Borneo. Lately, though, ...
10
votes
1answer
5k views
Why is the “a” in “cocoa” silent?
Not being a native speaker of English, one of those words that tripped me up is “cocoa”. Besides having its vowels inverted from “cacao”; it also is pronounced exactly the same as “coco”, whereas ...
5
votes
4answers
771 views
Why are there so few words in English that are derived from Welsh?
Why are there so few words in English that are derived from Welsh?
Wikipedia mentions only 11.
4
votes
2answers
75 views
Use of 'blancbec' in English
In the March 4 issue of TLS a Mr. Brown wrote a letter recalling how when he was an undergraduate at Columbia and Allen Ginsberg came to give a reading, it was in fact the students that heaped scorn ...
26
votes
1answer
2k views
From which language has English borrowed the most words?
From which language has English borrowed the most words?
6
votes
3answers
3k views
“Shnide”? “Schneid”? Which is it and what's this term's origin?
"Getting off the shnide." (Obviously I'm not sure of the spelling.) It's an expression I hear almost exclusively in sports commentary to indicate a team has finally won a game after a protracted ...
3
votes
4answers
527 views
What loan-words keep their native pronunciation?
Being a non-native English speaker I recently discovered that for some words you don't use English pronunciation. For instance you seem to be omitting the l's when saying tortilla.
Yet this isn't ...
4
votes
6answers
992 views
Example of sentence using “sang-froid”
In which context should sang-froid be used?
Can you provide an example?
7
votes
2answers
297 views
Should capitalization be preserved in loanwords?
The fundamental principle of gestalt perception is the law of prägnanz (German for pithiness).
In German, all nouns are capitalized. Should the above text be written as is, or with "the law of ...
6
votes
3answers
412 views
Did “et cetera” gain its popularity from “The King and I”?
Is it possible that et cetera gained its popularity thanks to the 1956 movie The King and I?
Since I wasn't around before 1956, I'm not sure how common "et cetera" was in day to day speech. Or was it ...
21
votes
5answers
2k views
How do you spell Muammar Qaddafi?
This name, which is spelled القذافي in Arabic, is spelled in so many different ways in the Latin alphabet:
Gadafi, Gadaffi, Gaddafi, Gaddaffi, Gadhafi, Gadhaffi, Ghadafi, Ghadaffi, Ghaddafi, ...
1
vote
3answers
290 views
Is there a term for French words adopted by the English language, such as “hors d'oeuvres” or “objet d'art”
I would call them "Frenchisms" or some such -ism, but I figured I'd at least ask first. So is there a name for such adopted foreign phrases? Also, how about those adopted from languages other than ...
11
votes
5answers
862 views
Diacriticals and non-English letters in anglicized loan words: keep 'em, dump 'em, italicize the words, or what?
Take an expression like déjà vu. This is a French term which is frequently seen in English. In fact, it is included in English dictionaries. But it is often seen in English in a variety of forms:
...
1
vote
6answers
1k views
Does 'soi-disant' have a close English equivalent?
I considered 'self-proclaimed' but that, I believe, suggests an element of self-promotion (the proclamation aspect) whereas soi-disant, at least as I think of it, is more about self-presentation and ...
6
votes
3answers
5k views
Does the casual use of “a la ___” in English preserve the French meaning?
In English, we us a la carte and a la mode, but it is also common for people to add their own word to the basic construction.
For example, one might comment on someone's dancing:
He showed us ...
5
votes
1answer
429 views
What's the term for flickering eye movement
If you're looking out of the window of a moving train and at things as they go by (rather than a single object that you're leaving behind), your eyes appear to be flickering. There's a specific term ...
16
votes
8answers
2k views
How should foreign words (with foreign characters) be written in English text?
This question is not about italicisation or how to construct plurals. I wonder what are general guidelines for writing foreign words based on a Latin alphabet in English text. I know that, for ...
5
votes
2answers
5k views
How is the word “qua” used?
I play Scrabble. I'm learning words with the letter 'q'. What is the usage of the word 'qua'?
3
votes
6answers
338 views
How do you say 'Twisted' Congress power balance?
Currently Japan’s ruling party (Democratic Party) holds a majority in the Lower House, but fewer seats in the Upper House than the opposition party (Liberal Democratic Party). We call the state of ...
3
votes
1answer
154 views
Literal echelons?
Merriam-Webster and the OED list only figurative senses of the word echelon (i.e. military formations and organizational ranks). Would it be incorrect to use it in the literal sense of the French word ...
6
votes
1answer
1k views
Why is baba ghanouj pronounced with a final “sh” sound?
Baba ghanouj is a delicious Middle Eastern dip made from roast eggplant and garlic. I've found the name spelled a multitude of different ways on the internet, but there are two peculiar things about ...
8
votes
2answers
393 views
Do the Eskimo/Inuit languages really have more words for snow than English
I've read in some sources that there are more words in the Eskimo/Inuit language to describe types of snow that have arisen out of necessity. I've also read in other sources that this is just urban ...
6
votes
1answer
488 views
Interjection “et voila”
I know et voila is a French interjection and means there it is.
It is very much used in the US. Why is the use of et voila so popular in the US?
Which historical fact has made it so popular?
10
votes
5answers
797 views
fait accompli – to italicize, or not to italicize
Background
I was looking up the rule about italicizing foreign phrases and found an apparent consensus that the criterion is if the phrase is familiar. Well, who gets to decide that? I know perfectly ...
5
votes
3answers
3k views
How do I pronounce Gaudí, the architect?
How do I pronounce 'Gaudi', in the name of Antoni Gaudí (the architect)?
6
votes
4answers
805 views
Plurals of foreign words
What rules of thumb govern when to pluralise a foreign word as it should be in the original language and when it should be pluralised as an English word?
For example, you'd get some funny looks using ...
6
votes
3answers
2k views
Naïve, naïf, naïvety, naïveté
I have two related questions about the word "naïve" and its relatives. The first is, shouldn't it be "naïf" if the subject is male? I've been told that it's correct to use the correct ending of ...
13
votes
5answers
872 views
Should nouns borrowed from Japanese be pluralized?
As someone who has watched a lot of subtitled Japanese animation, it seems odd to hear a word such as ninja (used in the plural) in the dialogue and see it transliterated as ninjas.
It somehow seems ...
