A language borrows a word (and doesn’t give it back, but keeps it) when it doesn’t have a word
of its own for something new or a new idea.
When the Vikings (who spoke Old Norse) came and settled in England, many words arrived with them:
Words from Old Norse:
Anger, bag, birth, bleak, both, cake, call, club, crooked, die, drag, egg, fellow, freckle, gaze, get,hit, husband, kid, kindle, knife, law, leg, lift, loose, meek, oaf, raft, rag, raise, reindeer, root, rug,same, scalp, scare, seem, skirt, sky, snare, take, they, Thursday, tight, troll, trust, ugly, want,
wand, window, wrong, wise,
Half of English vocabulary came from Norman French because of the conquest in 1066.
Some examples:
archer, assault, bacon, bail, beef butcher, button, chivalry, comfort, court, courtesy, curfew, crime,custom, defeat, eagle, enemy, dungeon, elope, embezzle, evidence, eagle, error, fashion, gallon, felony,grammar, grief, grocer, honor, injury, joy, judge, jury, justice, lavender, leisure, liberty, lease, lever,majesty, manor, marriage, matrimony, mutton, noble, noun, nurse, occupy, odor, parliament, pedigree,perjury, pinch, platter, pleasure, pocket, pork, push, prison, quarter, question, quiet, rape, reason,recover, remedy, rent, repeal, reward, river, robe, royal, salary, salmon, search, sermon, sewer, sir, shop,slander, sail, spy, squirrel, suitor, surplus, surrender, survive, syllable, tax, toil, treason, uncle, usher,valley, veal, venison, vice, virgin, vulture.
Christian monks, and later scientists, brought in many Latin words
Words from Latin:
Abdomen, actor, agriculture, creditor, crisis, December, demonstrator, dictator, dilemma, diploma,distribute, doctor, dogma, drama, duplex, duplicate, echo, educator, ego, editor, elevator, emphasis,exterior, exit, enema, exterminate, extra, exterior, extreme, factor, favor, fetus, focus, formula, fungus,genius, gladiator, geranium, gusto, honor, horizon, horror, humor, icon, idea, ignoramus, illustrator,incubator, index, inertia, inferior, insomnia, instructor, inferior, inspector, investigate, janitor, labor,junior, legislate, liberate, major, minor, maximum, medium, minimum, minister, minus, minor,moderator, monitor, motor, museum, narrator, nausea, navigator, neuter, masculine, feminine, object,opera, orator, peninsula, perpetrate persecute, person, petroleum, platinum, possess, prospect,quantum, quota, radius, ratio, recipe, saliva, senator, senior, junior, simile, sinister, sinus, stadium,status, stimulus, superior, tenor, terror, thesis, translate, trio, tuba, tumor, tutor, vacuum, vapor,verbatim, vertigo, veto, vice, versa, vigor, vim, virus.
Greek was most useful to provide words for ideas, medicine, drama, and government.
Words from Greek
Atlas, Bible, barbaric, biography, biology, captain, cardiac, catalyst, catastrophy, category, catholic, cell,cemetery, center, chaos, character, charisma, choir, chronic, classic, climate, code, coa comedy, comma,cost, crisis, criticism, cube, cycle, cylinder, democracy, demon, dialog, diagnosis, diagonal, diagram,diameter, cereal, cloth, echo, hypnosis, narcissus, panic, academic, acrobat, agony, air, allergy, alphabet,amnesia, amphibian, anatomy, apology, architecture, aristocrat, arithmetic, aroma, atheism, athlete,atmosphere, autobiography, dilemma, diploma, dogma, drama, dynamic, eccentric, echo, economic,ecstasy, elastic, electricity, energy, epidemic, epitaph, ether, eulogy, exodus, fable, genealogy,generosity, geography, gigantic, government, grammar, graph, gymnastics, harmony, helium, hero,
hexagon, history, holocaust, homonym, horizon, hygiene, hypocrite, idea, irony, lesbian, mania,
mathematics, mechanics, megaphone, melody, metaphor, meteorology, method, microbe, microscope,monogamy, monopoly, music, mystery, narcotic, neurotic, nostalgia, nymph, ocean, octagon, odyssey,octopus, orgy, orchestra, organ, organization, orphan, palm, panacea, pandemic, panic, paradise,paragraph, parallel, paralysis, parasite, patriot, pentagon, period, pharmacy, philanthropy, phlegm,phobia, photo, photosynthesis, phrase, physics, planet, pneumonia, political, practice, problem program,prophet, psalm, pseudonym, psychiatry, psychology, rhapsody, rhyme, sarcastic, scene, schism,schizophrenia, school, serial, sperm, sphere, star, statistic, stigma, stomach, strategy, syllable, symbol,sympathetic, synonym, system, talent, technical, telegram, telephone, theater, toxic, tropical, tyranny
Words from Spanish:
adios, albino, alfalfa, alligator, avocado, banana, barracuda, barbecue, bronco, burro,
cafeteria, canary, cannibal, canyon, chihuahua, chili, chocolate, cigar, cocaine, cockroach,
comrade, embargo, fiesta, filibuster, guacamole, guerrilla, hammock, hacienda, hurricane,
iguana, jaguar, lasso, llama, machete, macho, maize, margarita, matador, marijuana, mesa,
mosquito, negro, oregano, papaya, patio, pimento, pinata, pina colada, plaza, poncho, potato,
pueblo, puma, ranch, rodeo, rumba, salsa, savanna, savvy, shack, siesta, sombrero, spaniel,
stampede, stevedore, tobacco, taco, tango, tequila, tomato, toreador, tornado, tortilla, tuna,
vamoose, vanilla, vigilante, yucca.
Words from Arabic:
Admiral, adobe, albatross, alcohol, alkaline, almanac, alfalfa, amber, arsenal, assassin, azure,
borax, caliber, candy, chemistry, cipher, coffee, cotton, crimson, divan, gauze, gazelle, gerbil,
ghoul, giraffe, harem, hashish, hazard, henna, jar, lilac, lemon, lime, loofah, macramé, mafia,
magazine, mattress, mocha, monsoon, mummy, muslin, nadir, orange, racket, safari, safflower,
sash, sherbet, soda, sofa, sugar, tahini, talc, tariff, zero.
