Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The following are lists of words in the English language that are known as "loanwords" or "borrowings," which are derived from other languages. For Old English -derived words, see List of English words of Old English origin .
English words of African origin; List of English words of Afrikaans origin; List of English words from Indigenous languages of the Americas; List of English words of Old English origin; List of English words of Australian Aboriginal origin
Linguistic purism in the English language is the belief that words of native origin should be used instead of foreign-derived ones (which are mainly Romance, Latin and Greek). "Native" can mean "Anglo-Saxon" or it can be widened to include all Germanic words.
Loanwords, or sometimes more precisely called borrowed words, have entered the English language from foreign languages by a process of naturalisation, or specifically anglicisation, which is carried out mostly unconsciously (a similar process occurs in all other languages). [12]
The Germanic tribes who later gave rise to the English language traded and fought with the Latin speaking Roman Empire.Many words for common objects entered the vocabulary of these Germanic people from Latin even before the tribes reached Britain: anchor, butter, camp, cheese, chest, cook, copper, devil, dish, fork, gem, inch, kitchen, mile, mill, mint (coin), noon, pillow, pound (unit of ...
For examples, see Lists of English words by country or language of origin and Anglicisation. Some English loanwords remain relatively faithful to the original phonology even though a particular phoneme might not exist or have contrastive status in English. For example, the Hawaiian word ʻaʻā is used by geologists to specify lava that is ...
English words gave way to borrowings from Anglo-Norman following the Norman Conquest as English lost ground as a language of prestige. Anglo-Norman was used in schools and dominated literature, nobility and higher life, leading a wealth of French loanwords to enter English over the course of several centuries—English only returned to courts of law in 1362, and to government in the following ...
Generally, words coming from French often retain a higher register than words of Old English origin, and they are considered by some to be more posh, elaborate, sophisticated, or pretentious. However, there are exceptions: weep, groom and stone (from Old English) occupy a slightly higher register than cry, brush and rock (from French).