Loanwords vs. Calques

Languages are like living, breathing organisms. They grow, they change, and they interact with the world around them. And just like people, they borrow things from their neighbors. When a language encounters a new concept, object, or idea from another culture, it faces a choice: what do we call this new thing? The answer almost always falls into one of two fascinating categories: taking the word itself, or just taking the idea.

Think about the word “email.” In German, it’s E-Mail. In Spanish, it’s el email. In French, while the official term is courriel, you’ll hear email constantly. In this case, the English word was so dominant and convenient that it was simply picked up and dropped into other languages, sometimes with a slight change in pronunciation.

Now, consider “skyscraper.” In French, it’s a gratte-ciel (scrapes-sky). In German, it’s a Wolkenkratzer (cloud-scraper). In Spanish, it’s a rascacielos (scrapes-skies). Here, the languages didn’t take the English word; they took the *concept*—a building that metaphorically scrapes the sky—and created their own word for it using their own linguistic building blocks.

This is the fundamental difference between a loanword and a calque, two of the most important ways languages enrich themselves. Let’s dive in.

What is a Loanword? The Familiar Stranger

A loanword, also known as a borrowing, is the simpler of the two concepts. It’s a word adopted directly from a foreign language with little to no modification.

English is absolutely bursting with loanwords, so much so that it’s often described as a language that “has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” While that’s a bit dramatic, it’s true that a huge portion of English vocabulary is borrowed. We barely notice them anymore:

• From French: cuisine, ballet, entrepreneur, résumé, depot
• From German: kindergarten, angst, pretzel, zeitgeist
• From Japanese: sushi, karaoke, tsunami, typhoon
• From Arabic: alcohol, algebra, coffee, lemon
• From Spanish: patio, plaza, siesta, vanilla

The word “email” is a modern example of this process in action. As digital communication exploded, the English term became the global standard. It was short, easy to say, and directly associated with the technology. For most languages, it was simply more efficient to adopt “email” than to invent a new term from scratch.

What is a Calque? The Hidden Imitation

A calque (from the French verb calquer, “to trace” or “to copy”) is more subtle and, in many ways, more creative. A calque is a “loan translation.” Instead of borrowing the foreign word itself, a language borrows the structure and meaning of a phrase and translates its individual components literally into the new language.

The “skyscraper” example is a perfect illustration. The English word is a compound of “sky” and “scraper.” Other languages saw this, understood the metaphor, and created their own versions:

• French: gratte-ciel (“scrapes-sky”)
• German: Wolkenkratzer (“cloud-scraper”)
• Dutch: wolkenkrabber (“cloud-scratcher”)
• Italian: grattacielo (“scrapes-sky”)

Once you know what a calque is, you start seeing them everywhere. Here are a few more common in English:

• Worldview: A calque of the German Weltanschauung (Welt “world” + Anschauung “view”).
• Flea market: A calque of the French marché aux puces (“market with fleas”), which supposedly alluded to the old, possibly flea-infested furniture and clothes sold there.
• Long time no see: Widely believed to be a calque of a Mandarin Chinese phrase (好久不见, hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn), which translates literally to “very long no see.”
• Adam’s apple: A calque from the Hebrew tappuach ha’adam, alluding to the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden.

Calquing is a testament to how a language can absorb a foreign idea while still dressing it in familiar, native clothing.

The Borrower’s Dilemma: Loanword or Calque?

So, why does a language sometimes opt for a direct loanword like “email” but other times prefer a creative calque like “skyscraper”? The decision is a complex negotiation between several factors.

1. Phonological & Morphological “Fit”

How easily does the foreign word fit into the sounds and grammar of the new language? “Email” is phonetically very simple and works in many sound systems. It’s also easy to treat as a noun (“I sent an email”) or verb (“I’ll email you”).

However, if a word contains sounds that don’t exist in the borrowing language or has a structure that’s hard to adapt, a calque often becomes the easier option. German, for example, calqued “television” into Fernseher (“far-seer”) and “computer” into Rechner (“calculator/reckoner”). These terms feel and sound inherently German.

2. Cultural Prestige and Necessity

Sometimes, using a foreign word is just… cooler. The source language might carry a certain prestige in a specific field. English speakers use French words like sauté and au gratin in cooking, and Italian terms like allegro and crescendo in music. It signals sophistication.

Today, English is the dominant language of technology and global business. Words like software, internet, marketing, and manager are often adopted as loanwords because they come packaged with the prestige and authority of the global tech and business worlds. “Email” falls squarely into this category. It arrived with a wave of new technology that was largely English-driven.

3. Linguistic Purism and National Identity

Some cultures or their linguistic academies actively resist the influx of foreign words to “preserve” the purity of their language. Calques are a powerful tool for these purists.

Iceland is famous for this. Instead of borrowing international words, Icelandic creates its own. A computer is a tölva (a combination of tala “number” and völva “prophetess”). A telephone is a sími (from an old word for “thread”).

The Académie française in France also famously tries to create French alternatives to English tech words. Their promotion of courriel for “email” is a perfect example. While courriel has found success, especially in Québec, the global dominance and simplicity of the loanword “email” mean it continues to thrive in everyday French.

4. Transparency

Perhaps the biggest advantage of a calque is its transparency. A native speaker can often guess the meaning of a calque even if they’ve never heard it before. A German hearing Wolkenkratzer for the first time can easily picture a “cloud-scraper.” The meaning is self-evident.

A loanword, on the other hand, is opaque. If you don’t know Japanese, the word tsunami tells you nothing about its meaning. You must learn it as a new piece of vocabulary. “Skyscraper” is a descriptive, metaphorical compound, making it a perfect candidate for transparent translation. “Email” is an abbreviation for “electronic mail”, making it less of a descriptive image and more of a technical label, which lends itself better to being borrowed whole.

The Ever-Evolving Tapestry of Language

The choice between a loanword and a calque is rarely a conscious one made by the masses. It’s a natural, organic process shaped by convenience, culture, clarity, and identity. These borrowings are not a sign of weakness or impurity; they are proof that a language is alive, engaged with the world, and constantly weaving new threads into its rich tapestry.

So the next time you send an email while looking out your office window at a rascacielos, remember that you’re witnessing the beautiful, intricate, and never-ending dance of cultural exchange, played out one word at a time.