English

Alternative forms

• loan word

Noun

loanword ‎(plural loanwords)

1. A word directly taken into one language from another one with little or no translation.

   The word exit is a loanword from Latin.

   • 1921, H. L. Mencken, The American Language:

     New words, and particularly loanwords, are simplified, and hence naturalized in American much more quickly than in English. Employè has long since become employee in our newspapers, and asphalte has lost its final e, and manœuvre has become maneuver, and pyjamas has become pajamas.

Synonyms

• borrowing
• foreign word (informal)

Translations

See also

• calque
• semantic loan
• loan translation
• foreign word