Loanword
(Redirected from Loan word)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
A loanword is a word (or more precisely, lexeme) that at some point in the history of a language was borrowed from another language. A word that is not a loanword is called a native word (or inherited word).
Term properties
The spelling loan word is also sometimes used.
Synonym
Origin
Apparently loanword was created on the model of German Lehnwort. In English, the verb to loan is hardly used in a linguistic sense, but in German entlehnen 'to loan' is the normal linguists' word for 'to borrow'.
other languages
German Lehnwort
