English Loanwords From Around the World: Hindi, Japanese, Dutch and More

How English borrowed words from dozens of languages, with everyday examples from Hindi, French, Norse, Dutch, Japanese and others.

English is a magpie of a language. Over more than a thousand years, it has borrowed from almost every language it has met, and many of the words we use every day started somewhere else.

Why English borrows so much

Conquest and contact: Norse settlers and the Norman conquest brought huge waves of vocabulary.
Trade and empire: contact with India, Asia, Africa and the Americas brought new goods and words.
Learning and religion: Latin and Greek supplied technical vocabulary.
Migration and food: each wave of settlers brings new words.
Technology and pop culture: new words travel fast.

Old Norse

Vikings settled in England from the ninth century, and many basic words come from their language: sky, egg, window, knife, skin, they, them, their, law, anger, husband.

French

After the Norman Conquest of 1066, French became the language of the English court and law. As a result, English gained thousands of words: justice, court, judge, beef, pork, mutton, royal, government, parliament, castle, art, fashion. Notice the animal-versus-meat pairs: cow and beef, pig and pork, sheep and mutton, from Old English farmers and French-speaking diners.

Latin and Greek

Formal, scientific and technical vocabulary borrowed extensively: democracy, philosophy, biology, atmosphere, library, curriculum, alphabet.

Italian

Piano, opera, balcony, pizza, studio, umbrella, volcano, graffiti, broccoli.

Spanish

Canyon, patio, tornado, mosquito, guitar, siesta, plaza, bonanza.

Dutch

Dutch sailors and traders gave English many nautical and everyday words: yacht, cookie, boss, skipper, dock, easel, landscape, decoy.

Hindi and Urdu

Contact with India during the colonial period added words that are now everyday English:

shampoo (from chāmpo, to massage)
jungle (jangal, wilderness)
bungalow (banglā, of Bengal)
pyjamas (pājāma, leg garments)
loot (lūṭ, plunder)
thug (ṭhag, swindler)
cot (khāṭ, bed)
veranda and cushy (from khush, pleasant)

Persian and Turkish

bazaar, caravan, paradise, pajamas (Persian in origin)
yoghurt, kiosk, coffee (via Turkish; coffee originally from Arabic)

Japanese

More recently: tsunami, karaoke, sushi, tycoon, emoji, origami, sudoku, manga.

Other sources

Malay: orangutan, amok.
Chinese: tea and ketchup (both probably from Hokkien words), kowtow and kung fu.
Native American languages: canoe, moccasin, raccoon, skunk.
African languages: safari (Swahili, from Arabic), banana (probably West African), jazz (uncertain).
German: kindergarten, rucksack, angst, hamburger.

What loanwords tell us

They show where English speakers travelled, what they traded and which cultures influenced them. A dictionary's etymology section is like a small history lesson.

Adaptation

Borrowed words are often adapted to English spelling and pronunciation: jangal became jungle, pājāma became pyjamas.

Practice

Look up ten of the words in this list, and check their etymologies. Then find five more everyday words that come from other languages.

Discover word origins with English Dictionary →