In recent years, however, many English words have been borrowed directly from German. In many cases the loanword has assumed a meaning substantially different from its German forebear.Įnglish and German both are West Germanic languages, though their relationship has been obscured by the lexical influence of Old Norse and Norman French (as a consequence of the Norman conquest of England in 1066) on English as well as the High German consonant shift. hamburger), but most are comparatively rare. Some of the expressions are relatively common (e.g.
It is distinguished from a calque, or loan translation, where a meaning or idiom from another language is translated into existing words or roots of the host language. A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language without translation.
You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.Ī German expression in English is a German loanword, term, phrase, or quotation incorporated into the English language. This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness.
