A Wanderwort (German:[ˈvandɐvɔʁt], 'migrant word', sometimes pluralized as Wanderwörter, usually capitalized following German practice) is a word that has spread as a loanword among numerous languages and cultures, especially those that are far away from one another. As such, Wanderwörter are a curiosity in historical linguistics and sociolinguistics within a wider study of language contact.[1] At a sufficient time depth, it can be very difficult to establish in which language or language family a Wanderwort originated and into which it was borrowed.
Frequently, they are spread through trade networks, sometimes to describe a previously unfamiliar plant, animal or food.
Examples
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Typical examples of Wanderwörter are cannabis, sugar,[2]ginger, copper,[1]silver,[3]cumin, mint, wine, and honey, some of which can be traced back to Bronze Age trade.
Tea, with its Eurasian continental variant chai (both have entered English), is an example[1] whose spread occurred relatively late in human history and is therefore fairly well understood: tea is from Hokkien茶tê, specifically Amoy dialect, from the Fujianese port of Xiamen, hence maritime; while 茶chá (whence chai)[4] is used in Cantonese and Mandarin.[5](See etymology of tea for further details.)
Chocolate and tomato were both taken from Classical Nahuatl via Spanish into many different languages, although the specific origin of chocolate is obscure.
Farang, a term derived from the ethnonymFrank through Arabic and Persian, refers to (typically white, European) foreigners. From the above two languages, the word has been loaned into many languages spoken on or near the Indian Ocean, including Hindi, Thai, and Amharic, among others.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Wanderwort, and is written by contributors.
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