loanword

or loan word

[ lohn-wurd ]

/ ˈloʊnˌwɜrd /

Save This Word!

noun

a word in one language that has been borrowed from another language and usually naturalized, as wine, taken into Old English from Latin vinum, or macho, taken into Modern English from Spanish.

QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Also called loan.

Origin of loanword

1870–75; translation of German Lehnwort

How to use loanword in a sentence

Each was called by a local name and not by a loan word, a most demonstrable evidence of local origin.
Degeneracy|Eugene S. Talbot
For example, ingel, meaning boy (it is a Slavic loan-word in Yiddish), has been obliterated by the English word.
The American Language|Henry L. Mencken
Here, obviously, we have an example of a loan-word in decay.
The American Language|Henry L. Mencken
Lallapalooza is also probably an Irish loan-word, though it is not Gaelic.
The American Language|Henry L. Mencken

Line 18 of the passage shoves that aṣammu is a Sumerian loan word.
An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic|Anonymous

British Dictionary definitions for loanword

loan word

noun

a word adopted, often with some modification of its form, from one language into another

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012