Questions tagged [loan-words]

This tag is for questions about words borrowed by English from other languages.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
1 vote
2 answers
789 views

Why don't foreign phrases such as "mot juste" get anglicized when used in English?

English has borrowed (or stolen?) a lot of vocabulary from other languages such as Latin, German, Italian, French and Spanish etc. Most words that are borrowed are anglicized and are pronounce the way ...
user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
3k views

Why fiancé? Why "É"?

You usually use "fiancé" with "é" and not "e" as "fiance". Why? I know "É" is a letter of the Latin alphabet, and the word "fiancé" refers to mid 19th century: from French, past participle of ...
Peace's user avatar
  • 5,144
0 votes
1 answer
182 views

Is sombrero an english word?

A coworker told me that the word "sombrero" is an English word borrowed from Mexico. I had the idea is a foreign word. Is that right?
PySerial Killer's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
11k views

Is there any difference in pronunciation between the words "fiancé (a male)" and "fiancée (a female)"?

I see no difference between transcriptions above-mentioned words, and what words / variants would be better to use in those meanings? fiancé /fɪˈɑːnseɪ/ /fɪˈɒnseɪ/ /fɪˈɒ̃seɪ/ - ODO fiancée /fɪˈɒnseɪ/ ...
Jane's user avatar
  • 1,169
2 votes
2 answers
503 views

blonde or blond

https://www.lingq.com/learn/en/preview/item/431401/ I was on my bike, and I saw the thief as I cycled past. It was quite dark, but I could tell he was old, at least 35, with blonde hair. He was ...
AR AM's user avatar
  • 1,247
4 votes
1 answer
765 views

What does the phrase 'the absolute finito' mean here?

When I read the book Breakfast at Tiffany's, I encounter a sentence in the following context: Oh, he’s not my idea of the absolute finito. He tells little lies and he worries what people think ...
Henry Wang's user avatar
  • 1,881
0 votes
2 answers
880 views

Russian loan words in English [closed]

I have a task to make a research paper about Russian loan-words in English and can't find any informative material. Could you help me, please? I spent hours googling and got almost nothing. Is this ...
Pavel Savko's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
101 views

Has the word "phenomena" become a singular noun: even on mainstream media it is often used as if it is

This text was written by coffee1054 in this question: The phenomena of superconductivity was discovered in 1911. Is the sentence above acceptable, or should it be changed to "phenomenon"? I ...
TimR's user avatar
  • 123k
3 votes
3 answers
564 views

Plural for words borrowed directly from Russian

In Russian most plurals are formed by adding the “-i” sound to the end of the word. Since English has a tradition of borrowing the plural forms from other languages, I wonder whether it can be used ...
Anixx's user avatar
  • 1,890
4 votes
1 answer
352 views

Pronunciation of mathematical terms "Mahlo cardinal" and "mahloness" by native English speakers

There are terms Mahlo cardinal and mahloness used in set theory (a branch of mathematics). These terms originated from the name of Friedrich Paul Mahlo, a German mathematician. I've only ever seen ...
Vladimir Reshetnikov's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
5k views

Are terms of endearment such as "honey" or "darling" seen as old-fashioned or archaic?

Often times when we're overwhelmingly beclouded with love and want to put up a petting habit, these words would be a way to show it. Honey, Darling, Sweetie, Mine, Sweetheart, etc I was ...
user5678's user avatar
  • 149
4 votes
4 answers
7k views

Is "Nanjing" as likely to be understood as "Nanking"?

When describing the city in China, is the spelling "Nanjing" as likely to be understood by the general population of native English speakers as "Nanking" is? An examination of Google NGrams indicates ...
Golden Cuy's user avatar
  • 5,917
8 votes
4 answers
543 views

Can "bento" be used without "box"?

Is "bento" by itself likely to be understood by native speakers of English, and feel natural, without the word "box" afterwards? For example, can you say "This is a photo of a bento I ate yesterday"? ...
Golden Cuy's user avatar
  • 5,917
5 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is "First bite" genuine English, or wasei-eigo?

At a wedding a friend of mine attended in Japan, she saw the bride and groom feed each other a slice of cake. He was told by the MC that it was "first bite" (ファーストバイト), a commitment the bride and ...
Golden Cuy's user avatar
  • 5,917
18 votes
5 answers
16k views

Is rendezvous pronounced like run-they-who?

I know that pronunciation in English is not very consistent, but I heard rendezvous being pronounced like run-they-who, which felt very strange. Is this really the right way to pronounce it, and how ...
user avatar