PART 4. ETYMOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF MODERN ENGLISH VOCABULARY

Borrowing words from other languages is characteristic of English throughout its history. More than two thirds of the English vocabulary are borrowings. Mostly they are words of Romanic origin (Latin, French, Italian, Spanish). English continues to take in foreign words, but now the quantity of borrowings is not so abundant as it was before. All the more so, English now has become a “giving” language, it has become Lingva franca of the twentieth century.

Language interrelation over time can result in an important source of new words – borrowing. Borrowing or a loan word is a word or phrase which has been borrowed by one language from another. Partially the words are borrowed because of the historical circumstances which stimulate the borrowing process. Each time two nations come into close contact, certain borrowings are a natural consequence. The nature of the contact may be different including wars, invasions or trade and international cultural and sports relations.

In its 15 century long history recorded in written manuscripts the English language happened to come in long and close contact with several other languages, mainly Latin, French and Old Norse (or Scandinavian). The great influx of borrowings from these sources can be accounted for by a number of historical causes. Thanks to the great impact of the Roman civilisation Latin was for a long time used in England as the language of learning and religion. Old Norse was the language of the conquerors who were on the resembling level of social and cultural development and who merged rather easily with the local population in the 9th, 10th and the first half of the 11th century. French (to be more exact its Norman dialect) was the language of the other conquerors who brought with them a lot of new notions of a higher social system – developed feudalism, it was the language of upper classes, of official documents and school instruction from the middle of the 11th century to the end of the 14th century.

In the study of the borrowed element in English the main emphasis is usually placed on the Middle English period. Borrowings of later periods became the object of investigation only in recent years. These investigations have shown that the flow of borrowings has been steady and uninterrupted. The greatest number has come from French. They refer to various fields of social-political, scientific and cultural life. A large portion of borrowings (41%) is scientific and technical terms.

The number and character of borrowed words dive the possibility to find out about the relations between the peoples, the level of their culture, etc. It is for this reason that borrowings have often been called the milestones of history. Thus if we go through the lists of borrowings in English and arrange them in groups depending on their meaning, we shall be able to obtain much valuable information with regard to England’s contacts with many nations. Some borrowings, however, cannot be explained by the direct impact of certain historical conditions, they do not come along with any new objects or ideas. Such were, for example, the words air, place, brave, gay borrowed from French.

The number and character of borrowings do not only depend on the historical conditions, on the nature and length of the contacts, but also on the degree of the genetic and structural proximity of languages concerned. The closer the languages, the deeper and more versatile is the influence. This largely accounts for the well-marked contrast between the French and the Scandinavian impact on the English language. Thus under the influence of the Scandinavian languages, which were closely connected with Old English, some classes of words were borrowed that could not have been adopted from non-related or distantly related languages (the pronouns they, their, them, for instance); a number of Scandinavian borrowings were felt as derived from native words (they were of the same root and the connection between them was easily seen), e. g. drop (AS.) – drip (Scand.), true (AS.)-tryst (Scand.); the Scandinavian impact even accelerated to a certain degree the development of the grammatical structure of English.

Borrowings come in the language in two ways: through oral speech (by immediate contact between the peoples) and through written speech (by indirect contact through books, etc.). Oral borrowing took place mainly in the early periods of history, whereas in recent times written borrowing gained importance. Words borrowed orally (e. g. L. inch, mill, street) are as a rule short and they undergo considerable changes in the act of adoption. Written borrowings (e. g. Fr. communiqué, belles-lettres, naïveté) preserve their spelling and some peculiarities of their sound-form, their assimilation is a long process.

Though borrowed words undergo changes in the adopting language they preserve some of their former peculiarities for a comparatively long period. This makes it possible to work out some criteria for defining whether the word belongs to the borrowed element.

Sometimes the pronunciation of the word (strange sounds, sound combinations, position of stress, etc.), its spelling and the correlation between sounds and letters are an indication of the foreign origin of the word. This is the case with waltz (G.), psychology (Gr.), soufflé (Fr.), etc. The initial position of the sounds [v], [dз], [з] or of the letters x, j, z is a sure sign that the word has been borrowed, e. g. volcano (It.), vase (Fr.), jungle (Hindi), gesture (L.), giant (OFr.), zeal (L.), zero (Fr.), zinc (G.), etc.

The morphological structure of the word and its grammatical forms may also bear witness to the word being adopted from another language. Thus the suffixes in the words neurosis (Gr.) and violoncello (It.) betray the foreign origin of the words. The same is true of the irregular plural forms papyra (from papyrus, Gr.), pastorali (from pastorale, It.), beaux (from beau, Fr.), bacteria, (from bacterium, L.) and the like.

But some early borrowings have become so thoroughly assimilated that they are unrecognisable without a historical analysis, e. g. chalk, mile (L.), ill, ugly (Scand.), enemy, car (Fr.), etc.

It is essential to analyse the changes that borrowings have undergone in the English language and how they have adapted themselves to its peculiarities.

All the changes that borrowed elements undergo may fall into two large groups. On the one hand there are changes specific of borrowed words only. These changes aim at adapting words of foreign origin to the norms of the borrowing language, e. g. the consonant combinations [pn], [ps], [pt] in the words pneumatics, psychology, Ptolemy of Greek origin were simplified into [n], [s], [t]. The initial [ks] was changed into [z] (as in Gr. xylophone).

By analogy with the great majority of nouns that form their plural in -s, borrowings, even very recent ones, have assumed this inflection instead of their original plural endings. The forms Soviets, bolsheviks, kolkhozes, sputniks illustrate the process.

Degree of assimilation is determined by the time of the borrowing. The general principle is: the older the borrowing, the more thoroughly it tends to follow normal English habits of accentuation, pronunciation, etc. It is but natural that the majority of early borrowings have acquired full English citizenship and that most English speaking people are surprised at first hearing, that such everyday words as window, chair, dish and so on have not always belonged to their language. Late borrowings often retain their foreign peculiarities.
Exercise 1. Explain the etymology of the words in bold type.

1. His anger poured over me like lava. 2. I finished my chops, leaned back in my chair, and lit a cigarette. 3. He took out a long cigar and placed it in his mouth. 4. The robot looked at him impassively out of its faceted eye. 5. On the tray there was a pot of coffee and two cups. 6. “Here’s Len Minogue, he’ll play a polka for us,” he roared, dragging a little man with an accordion, over to the piano. 7. She was dressed in a heavy silk kimono of authentic manufacture. 8. She went into the kitchen and filled a glass with equal portions of vodka and orange juice. 9. I’ve been taking karate lessons, and I gave him a sample. 10. A horde of mosquitoes gathered immediately in the lee of the car. 11. Then they dined at a tiny seafood restaurant. 12. Everyone had to get used to handling dog teams and building igloo shelters. 13. She had left the flat to buy some sandwiches at a delicatessen near Sloane Square. 14. Myra had potato chips and a dish of tiny pieces of herring and some tomatoes.

Borrowings can be classified in compliance to different criteria: a) according to the degree of assimilation, b) according to the language from which the word was borrowed. (In this classification only the main languages from which words were borrowed into English are described, such as Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Russian.)

The degree of assimilation of borrowings is determined by the following factors: a) from what group of languages the word was borrowed, if the word belongs to the same group of languages to which the borrowing language belongs it is assimilated easier, b) in what way the word is borrowed: orally or in the written form, words borrowed orally are assimilated quicker, c) how often the borrowing is used in the language, the greater the frequency of its usage, the quicker it is assimilated, d) how long the word lives in the language, the longer it lives, the more assimilated it is.

Borrowed words are adjusted in three main areas of the new language system: the phonetic, the grammatical and the semantic.

The nature of phonetic adaptation is best shown by comparing Norman French borrowings. The Norman borrowings have for a long time been fully adapted to the phonetic system of the English language. Such words as table, plate, courage bear no phonetic traces of their French origin. Some of the later borrowings sound surprisingly French: matinee, ballet, cafe. In these cases phonetic adaptation is not completed.

Grammatical adaptation is based on a complete change of the former paradigm of the borrowed word. Yet, this is also a lasting process. For instance, words phenomenon (pl. phenomena), criterion (pl. criteria) are not fully adopted. Other borrowings have two plural forms – the native and the foreign, e. g. vacuum (L.) – vacua, vacuums, virtuoso (It.) – virtuosi, virtuosos.

By semantic adaptation is meant adjustment to the system of meanings of the vocabulary. When a word is taken over into another language, its semantic structure as a rule undergoes great changes. Polysemantic words are usually adopted only in one or two of their meanings. Thus the word timbre that had a number of meanings in French was borrowed into English as a musical term only. The words cargo and cask, highly polysemantic in Spanish, were adopted only in one of their meanings – ‘the goods carried in a ship’, ‘a barrel for holding liquids’ respectively.

In the process of its historical development a borrowing sometimes got new meanings that were not to be found in its former semantic structure. For example, the verb move in Modern English has acquired the meanings of ‘propose’, ‘change one’s flat’, ‘mix with people’ and others that the French mouvoir does not possess. As a rule the development of new meanings takes place 50 – 100 years after the word is borrowed.

The semantic structure of borrowings changes in other ways as well. Some meanings become more general, others more specialised, etc. For example, the word umbrella, borrowed in the meaning of a ’sunshade’ or ‘parasol’ (from It. ombrella < ombra – ’shade^’) came to denote similar protection from the rain as well.

Borrowed words according to the degree of assimilation fall into three groups: а) completely assimilated, b) partially assimilated, c) unassimilated words or barbarisms.

Completely assimilated borrowings occur in all layers of older borrowings. They are also called denizens. They follow all morphological, phonetic and orthographic standards e. g. husband, table, street, take. Being very frequent and stylistically neutral, they may occur as dominant words in synonymic groups. They take an active part in word -formation.

The second group containing partially assimilated borrowings can fall into 4 groups. Such words are also called aliens.

1. Borrowings that are not assimilated semantically, because they denote objects and notions peculiar to the country from which they are borrowed: sherbet, toreador, sari, sombrero, taiga.

2. Borrowings that are not assimilated grammatically, for example nouns borrowed from Latin and Greek which keep their original plural forms crisis – crises, phenomenon – phenomena, genius – genii, bacillus – bacilli.

3. Borrowings that are not assimilated phonetically. For example, some of the French words borrowed after 1650 keep the accent on the final syllable. Some words comprise sounds or combinations of sounds that are not standard for the English language: boulevard, foyer, camouflage, bourgeois.

4. Borrowings that are not assimilated graphically. This group is quite numerous. Usually such words are from the French origin. In these words the final consonant is not pronounced and they keep a diacritic mark. Some of them have variant spelling: Cliché, naïve, chateau, troussaeu.

The third group is unassimilated borrowed words. They are also called barbarisms. They are words from other languages used by English people in conversation or in writing but not assimilated in any way, and for which there are corresponding English equivalents: e. g. coup d’etat, eureka, persona grata, etc. (see Table 7)/

partially assimilated

(denizens)

unassimilated (barbarisms)

not assimilated grammatically

not assimilated semantically

not assimilated graphically

not assimilated phonetically

French borrowings. The largest group of borrowings are French borrowings. Most of them appeared in English at the time of the Norman Conquest. French effected not only the vocabulary of English but also its spelling, because documents were written by French scribes as the local population was chiefly illiterate, and the ruling class was French. There are the following semantic groups of French borrowings: a) words relating to government: administer, empire, state, government; b) words relating to military affairs: army, war, banner, soldier, battle; c) words relating to jury: advocate, petition, inquest, sentence, barrister; d) words relating to fashion: luxury, coat, collar, lace, pleat, embroidery; e) words relating to jewelry: topaz, emerald, ruby, pearl; f) words relating to food and cooking: lunch, dinner, appetite, to roast, to stew. Words were borrowed from French into English after 1650, mostly through French literature, but they were not as numerous and many of them are not completely assimilated. There are the following semantic groups of these borrowings: a) words relating to literature and music: belle-lettres, conservatorie, brochure, nuance, piruette, vaudeville; b) words relating to military affairs: corps, echelon, fuselage, manouvre; c) words relating to buildings and furniture: entresol, chateau, bureau; d) words relating to food and cooking: ragout, cuisine.

Italian borrowings. The earliest Italian borrowing came into English in the 14-th century, it was the word bank /from the Italian banko - bench/. Italian money-lenders and money-changers sat in the streets on benches. When they suffered losses they turned over their benches, it was called banco rotta from which the English word bankrupt originated. In the 17-th century some geological terms were borrowed: volcano, granite, bronze, lava. At the same time some political terms were borrowed: manifesto, bulletin. But in the main Italian is famous by its impact in music: alto, baritone, basso, tenor, falsetto, solo, duet, trio, quartet, quintet, opera, operette, libretto. Among the 20-th century Italian borrowings we can mention: gazette, incognitto, autostrada, fiasco, diletante, graffitto, etc.

Spanish borrowings. Spanish borrowings came into English mostly through its American variant. There are the following semantic groups of them: a) trade terms: cargo, embargo; b) names of dances and musical instruments: tango, rumba, habanera, guitar; c) names of vegetables and fruit: tomato, potato, cocoa, banana, ananas, apricot, etc.

Germanic borrowings. English belongs to the Germanic group of languages and there are borrowings from Scandinavian, German and Holland languages. Scandinavian borrowings. By the end of the Old English period English underwent a strong impact of Scandinavian due to the Scandinavian conquest of the British Isles. Scandinavians and Englishmen had the similar way of life, their cultural level was the resembling, they had much in common in their literature therefore there were a lot of words in these languages which were almost identical, e. g. Esyster – sweoster – sister, fiscr – fisc – fish, felagi – felawe – fellow. However there were many words which were different, and some of them came in English, such nouns as: bull, cake, egg, kid, knife, skirt, window, etc., such adjectives as: flat, ill, happy, low, odd, ugly, wrong, etc., such verbs as: call, die, guess, get, give, scream and others. Even some pronouns and connective words were borrowed, such as: same, both, till, fro, though, and pronominal forms with “th”: they, them, their.

German borrowings. There are some 800 words borrowed from German into English. Some of them have classical roots, e. g. in some geological terms, such as: cobalt, bismuth, zink, quarts, gneiss, wolfram. There are also words denoting objects used in everyday life: iceberg, lobby, rucksack, Kindergarten, etc. In the period of the Second World War and after it such words were borrowed: Luftwaffe, SS-man, Bundeswehr, gestapo, gas chamber Berufsverbot, Volkswagen, etc.

Holland borrowings. Holland and England have constant interrelations for many centuries and more than 2000 Holland borrowings were borrowed into English. Most of them are nautical terms and were mostly borrowed in the 14-th century, such as: freight, skipper, pump, keel, dock, reef, deck, leak and many others.
Exercise 2. Classify the borrowings in bold type according to the degree of their assimilation. State from what languages they are borrowed.

1. The walls had been panelled (at cost price) by a good decorator and on them hung engravings of theatrical pictures by Zoffany and de Wilde. 2. That rate literary phenomenon, a Southern novel with no mildew on its magnolia leaves. Funny, happy, and written with unspectacular precision. 3. When Mike Noonan's wife dies unexpectedly, the bestselling author suffers from writer's block. Until he is drawn to his summer home, the beautiful lakeside retreat called Sara Laughs. 4. The pair are the epitome of chic, living a glamorous lifestyle and entertaining friends at their house. 5. Henry VIII's invasion of France has gone badly wrong, and a massive French fleet is preparing to sail across the Channel. 6. In the hot and dusty main street the cars were parked nose to the kerb. 7. The breath of an inquisitive dog blew warm and nervous on her neck; she could feel her skin broiling a little in the heat and hear the small exhausted wa-waa of the expiring waves. 8. Stradlater was a goddamn genius next to Ackley. 9. When it finally gets too much, she can always simply die. 10. This innocent passion for the persons whose photographs appear in the illustrated papers made him seem incredibly naïve, and she looked at him with tender eyes. 11. She’s a dancer. А ballet and all. She used to practice about two hours every day, right in the middle of the hottest weather and all. 12. If she went into the café on her own, she had to give way to any white person who walked in and let them be served first. 13. I left a message on her answering machine. 14. He was a big, hulking Indian clad in approved white-man style, with an Eldorado king’s sombrero on his head. 15. She had bought “Le Temps” and “The Saturday Evening Post” for her mother, and as she drank her citronade she opened the latter at the memoirs of a Russian princess, finding the dim conventions of the nineties realer and nearer than the headlines of the French paper. 16. He still had at fifty-two a very good figure. 17. He kept saying they were too new and bourgeois. 18. It was dark as hell in the foyer, naturally, and naturally I couldn't turn on any lights. 19. “Who are you?” “Battle police,” another officer said. 20. He woke when he heard me in the room and sat up. “Ciao!” –, he said. 21. I arranged with the concierge to make my coffee in the morning. 22. The modest, well-bred, etcetera, English gentleman. 23. “How many corridas you had this year?” Renata asked.

1. Improved structural techniques and materials and the quest for greater speed made the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s. 2. The hotel was run by a trio of brothers. 3. In Classical music, the most important combination of four instruments in chamber music is the string quartet. 4. It faced into the prevailing wind and a land airdrome could be easily made. 5. They walked past stalls selling huge sprays of crimson, saffron and cobalt flowers. Cobalt is primarily used as the metal, in the preparation of magnetic, wear-resistant and high-strength alloys. 6. They must appeal; a petition too might be started in the last event. 7. Support the keel with timber blocking to take most of the weight of the hull. 8. Also, Dr Vize wants me in Angola as soon as I can get free of the inquest formalities. 9. It was early days but she would have been in the top echelon of players. 10. Her sister was at the window, hanging her head low, a poor figure. 11. Alice dropped her eyes at the odd question. 12. A crowd was waiting at the dock to greet them. 13. Bismuth – a heavy brittle diamagnetic trivalent metallic element. 14. Zink can refer to another name for the cornetto, a Renaissance wind instrument. 15. In fact, he sometimes lurks by one of his bronzes and plays devil's advocate. 16. Entresol – a low story in a building between the ground floor and the floor above. 17. Chateau is a large French country house or castle, often giving its name to wine made in its neighbourhood. 18. The nose wheel is raised backward into front fuselage. 19. Ruling an empire wasn't getting any easier; he rarely had a minute to himself anymore. 20. In her confused state of mind, she had convinced herself that he loved her. 21. This was also seen on blouses and box pleat skirts. 22. Albs were originally quite plain, but about the 10th century the custom arose of ornamenting the borders and the cuffs of the sleeves with strips of embroidery, and this became common in the 12th century. 23. The general tenor of her speech was so understandable. 24. Cocoa beans are growed for preparing of a drink. 25. Three sailors stood in the dock. 26. It proved the final blow for the Neptune; the ship slowly keeled over and sank. 27. Bananа is a long curved fruit with yellow skins. 28. If a man tries to imitate a woman’s voice he does it by speaking in a falsetto voice. 29. Bearing in mind that the company had sold a car with an air-cooled engine since 1948, this was a natural choice for the new four cylinder.

As the process of borrowing is mostly connected with the appearance of new notions which the loan words serve to express, it is natural that the borrowing is seldom limited to one language. Words of the same origin that occur in several languages as a sequence of simultaneous or successive borrowings from one ultimate source are called international words.

The etymological sources of this vocabulary reflect the history of world culture. Expanding global contacts cause the considerable growth of international vocabulary. All languages depend on their changes upon the cultural and social matrix in which they operate and various contacts between nations are part of this matrix reflected in vocabulary.

Such words usually convey concepts which are important in the field of communication (cf. Eng. Telephone, organization, inauguration, industry, Ukr. телефон, організація, інаугурація, індустрія). If it is a noun, it is certain to adopt, sooner or later, a new system of declension; if it is a verb, it will conjugate in accordance to the rules of the recipient language.

International words play an especially prominent part in various terminological systems including the vocabulary of science, industry and art. Many of them are of Latin and Greek origin. A large number of names of science are international, e. g. philosophy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, linguistics, lexicology. There are also numerous terms of art in this group: music, theatre, drama, tragedy, comedy, artist, primadonna. The etymological sources of this vocabulary reflect the history of the world culture. Thus, for instance, the mankind’s cultural debt to Italy is reflected in the considerable number of Italian words related to architecture, painting and especially music that are borrowed into most European languages: allegro, andante, aria, arioso, barcarole, baritone (and others names of voices), concert, duet, opera (and others names of pieces of music), piano and many more.

It is quite natural that political terms often occur in the international group of borrowings: politics, policy, revolution, progress, democracy, communism, anti-militarism.

The English language also contributed a great number of international words to world languages. Among them the sport terms occupy a prominent position: football, volley-ball, baseball, hockey, cricket, rugby, tennis, golf, etc.

Fruits and foodstuff imported from exotic countries frequently transport their names too and, being at the same time imported to many countries, become international: coffee, cocoa, chocolate, coca-cola, banana, mango, avocado, grapefruit.

The rate of change in technology, political, social and artistic life has been greatly accelerated in the 20th century and so has the rate of growth of international wordstock. A few examples of comparatively new words due to the progress of science will suffice to illustrate the importance of international vocabulary: algorithm, antenna, antibiotic, automation, bionics, cybernetics, entropy, gene, genetic code, graph, microelectronics, microminiaturisation, quant, quasars, pulsars, ribosome, etc. All these show sufficient likeness in English, French, Russian and several other languages.

The international wordstock is also growing thanks to the influx of exotic borrowed words like anaconda, bungalow, kraal, orang-outang, sari, etc. These come from many different sources.

At least some of the Russian words borrowed into English and many other languages and thus international should also be mentioned: balalaika, bolshevik, cosmonaut, czar, intelligentsia, Kremlin, mammoth, sambo, soviet, sputnik, steppe, vodka.
Exercise 4. In the sentences given below identify international words and state to what sphere of human activity they belong.

1. But I still lacked the confidence to try to take charge when Vadim seemed particularly out of control. 2. ‘The injection should take effect soon, love,’ he called in. and the doctor said it would make you sleepy.’ 3. The Moroccan frontier is about three miles away and clearly we are here in case the hordes of fellagha sitting on the other side think the coming referendum heralds a return home to Algeria. 4. He is a sadist and delights in the discomfort of others. 5. He didn’t even know if he was going to college. 6. I hold out a ziplock bag containing banana muffins. Becki hesitates, then accept one. 7. The horse remained amazingly calm during what looked a painful procedure. 8. But just like on a battlefield, where the sergeant knew more than the grunt, and the lieutenant more than the sergeant, and so on, the trick of gathering intelligence was to capture higher ranking officers from the other side, debrief them, and then launch a counterstrike. 9. Five dozen fiascos of oxygen he’s had all together, yesterday and to-day, the soak! 10. He came into the barracks like a tornado. 11. It all helps patients to come to terms with what is happening and regain control of their lives. 12. The battle would have a profound effect on the rest of the war. 13. The decision to postpone the referendum on the euro will also mean that the Convention gets an absolutely clear run in the next year. 14. He is a sadist and delights in the discomfort of others. 15. College leavers to find out what they have gone on to do. 16. I hold out a ziplock bag containing banana muffins. 17. Candidates may be required to undergo an adaptation procedure. 18. But just like on a battlefield, where the sergeant knew more than the grunt, and the lieutenant more than the sergeant, and so on, the trick of gathering intelligence was to capture higher ranking officers from the other side, debrief them, and then launch a counterstrike. 19. Her husband, knowing she could not play, shut the piano to avoid a fiasco. 20. Britain is tornado hotspot Britain is five times more likely to be hit by a tornado than the United States, research reveals today. 21. We'll adopt a policy of localism that lets local people choose what's right for their neighborhood. 22. Industry sector experience provide commercially aware, client focused advice throughout the process. 23. In some units, the idea of creating soviets was discussed. 24. Elton John has remained a close mentor to Ryan during his move to solo artist. 25. Progress toward nuclear disarmament, which constitutes their primary disarmament objective. 26. Radio crackled into life once more, only for us to discover they had still not turned up at camp.

International words should not be confused with pseudo-international words (false cognates, “translator’s false friends”) which have the same origin different semantic structures.

1. “All right, from that perspective, I can buy it. We’ll call social services”, he said. 2. These then are the three men who will have principal control over us during the coming weeks. 3. “I think this could be my salvation from a lunatic asylum which is the alternative if I have to go on publishing wheelbarrow”. 4. We returned to Sully and the two prisoners were paraded in front of Captain Glasser in his office. 5. That left two pages on four-year-old Tika, who’d been shot on a dog bed, and one paragraph on five-month-old ViVi, who’d been suffocated in her crib. 6. Liz laughed, intrigued by the prospect. 7. Phil rattled off a geographic profile of the Harringtons’ known activities and organizations. 8. I wondered what we left behind – a watch or two, a few cents photograph or a magazine and some ammunition. 9. The only thing he didn’t like was the wine list. 10. Selfishness runs in the family, Liz thought drily.

Sometimes a word is borrowed twice from the same language. Consequently, we get two different words with different spellings and meanings but historically they come back to one and the same word. Such words are called etymological doublets. In English they fall into some groups.

The words shirt and skirt are of the same root. Shirt is a native word, and skirt is a Scandinavian borrowing. Their phonemic shape differs and yet they are similar and this reflects their common origin. Their meanings are also different but easily associated. They both mean clothing items.

Etymological doublets may enter the vocabulary by different roots. Some of these pairs (like shirt and skirt, scabby and shabby) consist of a native word and a borrowed one. Others are represented by two borrowings from different languages which are historically derived from the same root: canal (Latin) – channel (French), captain (Latin) – chieftan (French).

Still others were borrowed from the same language twice at different time: travel (Norman. Fr.) – travail (Parisian Fr.), cavalry (Norman. Fr.) – chivalry (Parisian Fr.).

A doublet may also include a shortened word and the one from which it was derived: history – story, fanatic – fan, shadow – shade.

Etymological hybrids are words whose elements came from different languages, e. g. eatable (native root + Romanic suffix), distrust (native root + Romanic prefix), beautiful (Romanic root + native suffix), etc.

Etymological triplets are groups of three words of common origin: hospital (lat) – hostel (Norm. Fr.) – hotel (Par. Fr.), to capture (Lat.) – to catch (Norm. Fr.) – to chase (Par. Fr.).

major – mayor, captain – chieftan, shirt – skirt, shriek – screech, canal – channel, corpus – corpse – corps, dike – ditch, travel – travail, shrew – screw, cart – chart, shadow – shade, naked – nude, lapel – label, ward – guard, hale – hail, shabby – scabby, pauper – poor, vast – waste, wine – vine, zealous – jealously, basis – base, deacon – dean, papyrus – paper, chief – chef, hospital – hostel – hotel, saloon – salon, suit – suite, camp – campus, street – stratum, catch – chase, cavalry – chivalry, dragon – dragoon – drake, plan – plane – plain, gentle – genteel – gentile, stack – stake – steak.

1. Chance rewarded our search for eatable vegetables, and one of the most useful products of the tropical zones furnished us with precious food that we missed on board. 2. I think – I think he's beautiful!" said Mary in a determined voice. 3. The mouse scampered up on his bald pate and sat there. I don't know if he remembered that he also had reason to distrust, Percy, but it certainly looked as if he did. 4. I know countless ways how to be happy. 5. I promise to love you as long as life endures. 6. Merciful and merciless are affixal antonyms.

The term “loan word” is identical to borrowing. By translation loans we indicate borrowings which are not taken into the vocabulary of another language more or less in the same phonemic shape in which they have been functioning in their own language, but are influenced by the process of translation. Translation loans are word-for-word (or morpheme-for-morpheme) translations of some foreign words or expressions. In such cases the notion is borrowed from a foreign language but it is expressed by native lexical units. Some translation loans came in English from Latin already in the Old English period, e. g. Sunday (solis dies). There are translation loans from the languages of Indians, such as: pipe of peace, pale-faced, from German masterpiece, homesickness, superman. They are only compound words, because each stem can be translated separately: e. g. 5 year-plan (from Russian пятилетка), first dancer (from Italian prima-ballerina), collective farm (from Russian колхоз), wonder child (from German wunderkind), etc.

Fatherland, fellow-traveller, first dancer, lightning way, milky way, local colouring, the moment of truth, mother tongue, pen name, self-criticism, Sisyphean labour, a slip of the tongue, a slip of the pen, swan song, sword of Damocles, thing-in-itself, word combination, world-famous.

1. A kibbutz is a collective farm, although increasingly it includes other industries as well. 2. The Seventh Five-Year Plan (1985-90) was cleared by the cabinet only in 1989, rendering it ineffective. 3. It was the swan song of my pension and the developed nations. 4. Three years of hard grind, and now it's the moment of truth for two of ballet's young hopefuls. 5. Most of them have no fatherland of their own, or someone else's. 6. But we ought to exercise enough self-criticism to ask ourselves whether it would not be better to pool competences in some cases. 7. We had a guesstimate of Pounds 20,000, which felt like the Sword of Damocles hanging over our heads. 8. While swimming and catching a tan, I met some fellow travelers from London. 9. A thing-in-itself is an object as it would appear to us if we did not have to approach it under the conditions of space and time.