Loan words and loan phrases borrowed from different languages:

Interestingly many loan words are nouns, pertaining to food and drink. This is perhaps because
the British couldn’t find English equivalents to many such culinary delights, so it was simple to
borrow the words from the other languages- such as sushi (from Japan) or chutney and samosa
(India)- into the English language. And, that’s how the Indian chai, basmati or balti, the French
aperitif, croissant, baguette, have been added to the English language. Be it latte, bistro, or the
Italian pizza, all these words are part and parcel of the English language. Words with spiritual
connotations such as guru, avatar, yoga, and karma are now intertwined into contemporary
English vocabulary.

Let’s look at a few more loan words and loan phrases borrowed from different languages:

French: jewel, painting, government, salon, brigade, infantry, grenade, quiche, beef, salmon,
ballet, café, croissant, entrepreneur, faux pas, genre, hors d’oeuvre, renaissance, rendezvous, art,
dance

Latin: agile, abdomen, anatomy, area, capsule, compensate, dexterity, discus, excavate,
expensive, fictitious, gradual, habitual, insane, janitor, meditate, notorious, orbit, peninsula,
physician, superintendent, ultimate, vindicate, agriculture, language, justice, science, forum,
circus, opium, dominatrix, religion, apostle, city, master, paper

Greek: odyssey, democracy, psyche, atlas, platonic, biology, comedy, tragedy, history,
anonymous, atmosphere, autograph, catastrophe, climax, comedy, critic, data, history, ostracize,
parasite, pneumonia, skeleton, tonic, tragedy

German: pretzel, lager, zeppelin, delicatessen, bum, dunk, feldspar, quartz, hex, lager,
knackwurst, liverwurst, loafer, noodle, poodle, dachshund, pretzel, pinochle, pumpernickel,
sauerkraut, schnitzel, zwieback, (beer)stein, lederhosen, dirndl

Italian: broccoli, spaghetti, parmesan, pesto, pizza, cappuccino, latte, alto, arsenal, balcony,
cameo, casino, cupola, duo, fresco, fugue, ghetto, gondola, grotto, macaroni, madrigal, motto,
piano, opera, pantaloons, prima donna, regatta, sequin, soprano, opera, stanza, stucco, studio,
tempo, torso, umbrella, viola, violin

Spanish: guitar, burrito, junta, guerrilla, macho, patio, plaza, piñata, siesta, armada, adobe,
alligator, alpaca, armadillo, barricade, bravado, cannibal, canyon, coyote, desperado, embargo,
enchilada, mesa, mosquito, mustang, ranch, taco, tornado, tortilla, vigilante

Dutch: buoy, cruise, dock, freight, dyke, yacht, easel, landscape, sketch, booze, coleslaw, cookie,
gin, avast, boom, bow, bowsprit, buoy, commodore, cruise, dock, keel, keelhaul, leak, pump, reef,
scoop, scour, skipper, sloop, smuggle, splice, tackle, yawl, yacht

Scandinavian: smorgasbord, ski, fjord, saga, sauna, maelstrom, slalom, ombudsman, anger,
blight, by-law, cake, call, clumsy, doze, egg, fellow, gear, get, give, hale, hit, husband, kick, kill, kilt,
kindle, law, low, lump, rag, raise, root, scathe, scorch, score, scowl, scrape, scrub, seat, skill, skin,
skirt, sky, sly, take, they, them, their, thrall, thrust, ugly, want, window, wing
Japanese: samurai, geisha, hara kiri, judo, jujitsu, kamikaze, karaoke, kimono, soy, sumo, sushi,
tsunami, ninja, karate, origami, tsunami

Arabic: Nadir, artichoke, arsenal, zenith, hijab, doner kebab, imam bayildi, sheshbesh, gal,
Hamas, Hezbollah, Taliban or Taleban, emir, jakir, gazelle, giraffe, harem, hashish, lute, minaret,
myrrh, salaam, sirocco, sultan, vizier, bazaar, caravan, alcohol, bedouin, harem, lute, algebra,
zero, zenith, giraffe, gazelle, sultan, caravan, mosque, sheikh

Sanskrit: avatar, karma, mahatma, swastika, yoga

Hindi: shampoo, bandanna, bangle, bungalow, juggernaut, jungle, loot, pajamas, punch (drink),
hintz, cot, cummerbund, dungaree

Portuguese: albino, dodo, emu, fetish, tempura

Persian: check, checkmate, chess

Russian: apparatchik, borscht, czar/tsar, glasnost, icon, perestroika, vodka, glasnost, Lunokhod,
Mir, Lunik, Politburo, sputnik, icon, mammoth, muzhik, samovar, Troika

Loanwords merge discreetly and undetectably, into a language, helping it develop, grow and
thrive. The openness of the English language has not only enhanced the spread of loan words
and usage, but benefited its assimilation of foreign words and creation of new words. Modern
loan words not only enrich English vocabularies but also make them productive.

English is now much more of a lender than a borrower. But English still continues to borrow
words in the 21st-century. Recent popular loanwords include wiki (a Hawaiian word describing a
user-controlled Website-Wikipedia), Sudoku (the Japanese puzzle in which missing numbers need
to be filled), and latte (an Italian coffee made with hot steamed milk and espresso. Although many
words from French, German, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, and Arabic have been used in the
English language, its wide usage, flexibility, and creativity make it possible to be the main body of
international language in the merging of vocabularies.