Words by Jamie Conway
Ah, English – one of the most widely spoken languages on earth but just how pure is the English language? Turns out many quirky, cool, colloquial and sophisticated English words have been begged, borrowed and even stolen from the tribes before us. Suffice to say, English would be lacking something important, a quality of diversity, an absence of meaning if it didn’t pinch a few apples from the lingo tree. We don’t like to pull the “thief card” but let’s be honest, English definitely stole some of its words from its friendly neighbours. In fact, nearly 80% of the language is comprised of other language’s linguistic contributions. Here’s ten beautiful borrowed words you thought we came up with all by ourselves:
Ten Borrowed Words in the English Language
1. Cigar – Many of the world’s greatest writers of all time smoked cigars while they scribbled their thoughts. Authors such as Ernest Hemingway and Mark Twain loved to light up for literature. But what you may not know is that the word “cigar” actually comes from the Spanish word “cigarro”. Funnily enough, the Spanish language also stole this word from the Mayans! A long cycle of word-theft.
2. Person– That’s right, English stole the people! The word “person” was taken from the Latin “persona”, which was then absorbed by French and eventually English. Let this be a lesson: we cannot thrive alone, people need people!
3. Genre – Would we even have different kinds of novels if it were not for Latin? Borrowed from “genus” and later utilised by the French, we have some important word debt here! And we’re starting to see a pattern.
4. Cartoon – Saturday morning cartoons were a big part of our childhood and helped us grow into the people we are today. Many laughs, many lessons and many reasons to be thankful to the Italians for letting us take it for a spin past our bedtimes!
5. Alchemy – Now this is just magic! Major props to Spain for this one, because if we didn’t get this loan, maybe Paulo Coelho would never have graced us with his masterpiece, The Alchemist!
6. Dollar – We all know that choosing the life of a writer can be committing yourself to the starving artist trope. That’s why we admire Dutch so much for giving us a chance to making a living from literature!
7. Coffee – Every writer’s fuel! We’ve all been visited by the midnight muse before, but she can’t keep us awake long enough to write something meaningful. Massive shout-out to Arabic for giving us the liquid of the poetry gods!
8. Chess – Did you know that many famous writers, like Edgar Allen Poe and Lewis Carrol, played chess to keep their minds sharp? And if their minds were not sharp, we may never have gotten the pleasure to read their generation-changing works! We have the Persian language to thank for this one.
9. Pyjamas – Sometimes we just have one of those days, where we stay in our pyjamas for hours and curl up in bed with a good book and a cup of tea. We owe those days to Urdu – we’ll forever be grateful for the break!
10. Bio – And finally, all life on earth. Most words in the English language are rooted in some way from Greek, and this is one of the most important ones! Without life, there’d be no escapism in literature. Greece, take a bow!
Our English language is beautiful – some of the greatest novels and poems of all time are in English. But we must never forget our roots, for we are comprised of many beautiful languages, people and places. If you’re looking to make your work a bit more diverse and incorporate some more borrowed words, hit up Room206. We’ll give you a loan!