Day 9 – Foreign Words

Words borrowed from foreign languages that retain both the spelling and pronunciation as found in original language.

Greek words: 

Atlas, bacterium, cynicism, chaos, cloth, chronology, herculean task, galaxy, membrane, rhinoceros, Europe, and many more.

Some prefixes also come from Greek like anti-, bio-, centro-, dys-, pseudo- 

Latin Words: 

Acumen, agony, atrocity, avarice, aplomb, insipid, mundane, novice, nocturnal, optical, perturb, rapport, sacrosanct, ubiquity and many more

Most of the medical terms have been borrowed from Latin, like  benign, malignant, biopsy, cardiology, ophthalmology, nephrology, physiology, pediatrics, dermatitis, and many more.              

French words:

Attache’, avant garde, apostrophe, au revoir, avenue, avalanche, ballet, baguette, bon voyage, cabaret, connoisseur, detour, deja vu, elite, fait accompli, faux pas, laisse faire, massacre, papiermache , zest, and many more .

German words: 

Angst,  kindergarten, festschrift, iceberg /eisberg, uber, Volkswagen, Gestapo , café etc.

Japanese words: 

Bonsai, kaftan, karaoke, kimono, geisha, origami, sayonara, sudoku, sumo, tofu, tycoon, zen.

Italian and Spanish words:

Balcony, bonanza, cafeteria, confidant, Fiesta, pasta, pizza, macaroon, cappuccino, graffiti, persona, opera, tango etc.

Korean words:

digital, burberry,   manicure, surf, etc.

Indian words in English:

Avatar, Arya, bhai, bhakti, bungalow, Buddha, chat, chai, chutney, cheetah, dharma, dosa, Geeta, haldi,  jungle, maharaja, mahatma, masala, neem, pakka, pardah, pajama, samosa, sambar, raita, roti, etc. OUP has a dedicated a full section to include words from Indian languages.           

 

This was the final part of the blog series. I hope it was useful to the readers. I would love to hear from you; how useful it was, what I can add to it, any corrections, etc. I am very curious about how the blog series has been received, very eager to read all the feedback, good and bad.

Hoping to publish this into a booklet soon. Thank you for reading.

 

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