Have you ever realized that there are very foreign sounding words which we English speakers commonly use without a second thought?
There are in fact many words that English has borrowed from other languages; when these words are adapted and integrated into English, they are often called loanwords, but when they maintain their original spelling and general pronunciation, they are obviously foreign to English and therefore are categorized as foreign words.
Here is a list of several of the most commonly used foreign words and loanwords in English from a handful of languages.
Arabic
Algebra
The word algebra comes from an Arabic word which was originally used to mean putting broken pieces together.
Average
This word originally came from an Arabic word that referred to damage to goods, but the meaning of average has since changed.
Zero
Zero is a loanword originally from Arabic, which passed through Spanish, Italian, and French before entering English. Up until more recent history, zero wasn’t considered a number by many.
Chinese
Gung Ho
This phrase means work together in Chinese, but it is often used in English to describe someone as being excited or enthusiastic about something.
Ketchup
Ketchup is believed to have come from a Chinese word that means tomato sauce.
Dutch
Boss
Boss is a loanword that comes from the Dutch word baas, meaning master.
Coleslaw
This is a loanword from the Dutch word koolsla, which literally translates to cabbage salad.
Cookie
Cookie is a loanword originating from the Dutch word koekje, or the Dutch informal word koekie, which unsurprisingly means cookie.
Flag
The English word flag appears to have come from the Dutch word vlag, translating to flag.
Landscape
Landscape is a loanword from the Dutch landschap, from Middle Dutch lantscap, which essentially translates to landship (land + -ship).
Smelt
Smelt is a loanword from the Dutch word smelten, which means to melt.
Wildebeest
This creature’s name comes from the combination of the Dutch words wilde and beest, literally translating to wild beast.
Witloof
Witloof is a broadleaved vegetable that is typically grown for blanching. The word witloof comes from the Belgian Dutch, also known as Flemish, words wit and loof, literally meaning white leaf.
Yankee
Yankee is a loanword from the Dutch personal name Jan Kees, which was used as a derogatory remark. Yankee was later used to describe the citizens of the Dutch colonial city of New Amsterdam, modern day Manhattan. The term is now often used to refer to Americans in the New England states, Americans in the northern states, or Americans in general.
French
Buffet
Buffet is a French word, which came from the Old French word bufet, meaning stool.
Café
Café is simply the French word for coffee or coffee house.
En masse
En masse is a French phrase which translates to in mass.
Restaurant
This word comes from the French word restaurer, which means to provide food for, but its literal translation is to restore.
Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur is a loanword from French, which came from the word entreprendre, meaning to undertake.
Faux
This is merely a French word which translates to fake, false, wrong, or counterfeit.
Fuselage
Fuselage is an important word when it comes to aircraft, since the fuselage is the main body of an aircraft, but the word itself is derived from the French words fuseler, meaning to taper, and fuseau, meaning spindle.
Pâté
Pâté is simply a French word meaning paste.
Rendezvous
Rendezvous comes from the French phrase rendez-vous, which is now used to mean appointment, but it more directly translates to the phrase present yourselves; it is the imperative of se rendre, meaning surrender.
Roux
Roux itself is the French word for red or tan. Roux is used in English to describe a mixture of fat, typically butter, and flour that are mixed together and cooked until they are thickened and browned to the desired level; in this sense, roux comes from the French phrase beurre roux, which means brown butter.
German
Delicatessen
Delicatessen, which is often abbreviated as deli, either came from the German delikatessen, meaning delicacies, or the Dutch delicatessen, also meaning delicacies, which in turn came from the French délicatesse, from délicat, meaning delicate.
Gesundheit
You may have heard someone say gesundheit when someone else has sneezed, but did you know that it is literally the German word for health or healthiness?
Hamburger
Hamburger is just the demonym of the German city of Hamburg, in other words, hamburger is used to label someone or something that is from the city of Hamburg; it’s like saying New Yorker.
Kaput
Kaput is a loanword that is sometimes used to describe something that is broken or useless, or something that is no longer functioning; it comes from the German word kaputt, meaning broken or ruined.
Kindergarten
Kindergarten is a loanword that is the combination of the German words kinder, meaning children, and garten, meaning garden.
Nix
Nix can be used as a pronoun to mean nothing, but it can also be used as a verb meaning to put an end to or to cancel. Nix is a colloquial variant of the German word nichts, which means nothing.
Rucksack
Rucksack is a loanword that is derived from the German words rücken, meaning back, and sack, meaning bag or sack.
Sauerkraut
Sauerkraut is a loanword that is the combination of the German words sauer, meaning sour, and kraut, meaning cabbage or herb.
Greek
Alphabet
The loanword alphabet is based on the first two letters in the Greek alphabet: α, and β. These letters are pronounced alpha and beta (alpha + bet).
Dinosaur
Dinosaur is a loanword that is based on the Greek words δεινός (deinos), meaning terrible, and σαύρα (savra), meaning lizard.
Galaxy
The English word for galaxy is based on the Greek word for galaxy, γαλαξίας (galaxias), which itself is based on the Greek word γάλα (gala), meaning milk, in reference to the Milky Way.
Phobia
This word comes from the Greek φοβία (fovia), meaning fear.
Planet
Planet is based on the Greek word πλανώμαι (planomai), meaning to wander, which is because planets were thought to be wandering stars.
Italian
America
America is believed to have come from the name of the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who sailed along the west coast of South America in 1501.
Bandit
Bandit comes from the Italian word bandito that translates to outlaw, which came from the Italian verb meaning banned.
Broccoli
Broccoli is the plural of the Italian word broccolo, which means cabbage sprout.
Mozzarella
Mozzarella is based on the Italian word mozzare, which means to cut or to cut off. I am not going to ask why the verb to cut is associated with cheese.
Pizza
Pizza simply came from the Italian word pizza, which literally meant pie.
Japanese
Karaoke
This word comes from Japanese, which literally means empty orchestra.
Tsunami
Tsunami is the combination of the Japanese words tsu, meaning harbor, and nami, meaning wave.
Latin
Cum Laude
This Latin phrase literally translates to with praise.
De Facto
This phrase is used to mean in fact, in effect, or whether by right or not. De Facto literally translates to of fact.
E Pluribus Unum
In God We Trust is the official motto of the United States, however, there is at least one de facto, or unofficial, motto of the United States: E Pluribus Unum. This Latin phrase literally translates to out of many, one.
Et Cetera
Et Cetera, which can be abbreviated as etc, is a Latin phrase that literally means and the rest.
Facsimile
Facsimile, which is often abbreviated as fax, is a loanword that came from the Latin words fac, meaning make, and simile, meaning like or similar.
Vice Versa
This Latin phrase translates to in-turned position, in the sense that the positions are inverted.
Spanish
Guerrilla
Guerrilla, not to be confused with gorilla, is a loanword that comes from the Spanish word guerra, which translates to war.
Patio
Patio is a Spanish word that means yard or courtyard.
Piñata
The loanword piñata came from a Spanish word with the same spelling that literally translated to pot.
Plaza
Plaza is a Spanish loanword that translates to square, but in the 17th century, the word literally translated to place.
Vanilla
Vanilla is a loanword that is based on the Spanish word vainilla, from vaina, meaning pod or sheath.
Yiddish
Klutz
Klutz is a loanword from Yiddish that is based on the word for wooden block.
Schmooze
Schmooze is a loanword from Yiddish that comes from the word for converse or chat.
Schmear
I’m not going into the whole schmear about this loanword, but I can tell you that it came from the Yiddish word for flatter or grease. Schmear can also be spelled as shmear, schmeer, or shmeer.
Tchotchke
The origin of the loanword tchotchke isn’t very clear, but it appears to have come from a Slavic language and then it was later adopted into Yiddish; the word has been used by Jewish Americans for many years and it has gained popularity among English speakers in the last several decades.
What is your favorite foreign word or loanword?
Onward American 🇺🇸
Source: English Words that Come from Other Languages
Source: English Words of Dutch Origin
Source: English Words that are Actually Greek
Onward American 