It’s true!
English speakers are word thieves!
75% of English words were stolen from other languages!
25% come from the vikings
28% come from the Romans
28% come from the Normans (a.k.a. the French)
And the rest — from all over the world!
Thieves! Robbers! Vocaburay Criminals!
Here are some English words you told me come from your language.
From Serbian: vampire
From Czech: robot
From Hebrew: armagedon
From Italian: zucchini (American English) (Brits use the French word “courgette”)
From Greek: grammar (!)
From Urdu: jungle
From Hungarian: biro (UK English) (Americans say “pen” or “ballpoint pen”)
Add To The List
Do you know a word that English stole from your language?
Click the big, blue button below and share it on the blog. And be sure to tell me 1) your native language, and 2) the word /s that Englishi stole.
And tomorrow I’ll share the story of the most infamous word theft in American history!
Italy….zucchini
Abruptly from Latin “ex abrupto”
SPA from Latin “SPA”
“pajama” from Persian
Except for the word “robot”, in the English language you can find other Czech words:
polka – a folk dance
pistole, in English pistol – this word comes from Hussite times and it was a gan.
The Chech word půlka (it means half of step in the dance) was changed on word polka (it means like Pol) after 1831 year (November’s Uprising} in honor of Poles or in honour of Polish singer Esmeralda (Polka it means in Polish Polish woman)
From Polish language in English exist:
1.Bigos-popular in Poland dish
2.Chech- word which origins from Polish
3.Kielbasa, in Polish kiełbasa
4.Paczki- in Polish pączki, typical Polish , smth sweet from special dough
5.Pierogi-typical Polish
6.Sejm
7.Spruce- in Polish “z Prus’, it means from Prussia, spruce (the wood) everyday was carted/transported in XIV century from Royal Prussia {part of Poland named like that in that time} to the British Isles, hence the name
8.Zloty- Polish zloty-polish currency
Cuvântul “mauntain “ – din limba romana
Buna,ești sigură, eu nu am găsit un cuvânt din limba română ,adoptat în limba engleză
Cele trei care sunt intraductibile cred că le sti.
DOR , DOINĂ, COLIND
O zi frumoasa !
1) houfnice
2) howitzer
Welcome in Prague!
from French :
buffet
From french: entrepreneur, rendez-vous
And probably a lot of other words because a lot of words are the same (but I don’t know who stole who..)
I wrote to you in my previous comment, that most of the words which describe the sciences in English vocabulary, are Greek words, such as mathematics, economy, pathology, geometry, cardiology, chemistry, physics etc…..Also many words of arts, like theater
1.”Haleluya” is from hebrew it means : god glorify.Its from the jewish bible.
2. “zion” its from hebrew .Its one of several words that describe Jerusalem
It is very interesting. In Utah (USA) there is Zion National Park .. interesting
I found the word ajvar,which is said the same in English and in Croatian . Ajvar is traditional dish in Croatia.
I don’t know if the word “cravat” is stolen or just incorporated into English. I read many times the word Cravat (stemed from French word cravate) was a corruption of the Serbo-Croatian word Hrvat, meaning “Croat”. The cravat was popularized by Croatian soldiers in the 17th century. (Up to a few decades ago, Serbian and Croatian languages were recognized as the same language.)
The word ” telegram” and every word that starts with “tele-” comes from ancient greek. The Greek “τηλε-” ( pronunciation “tile”)means “from distance”. In English they changed it in “Tele” and they use it in the same way.
I don´t know, I´m not very familar with linguistics.
Maybe the word from the resent past…
SKYPE – from Estonia
There is the Very Finnish problems in FB and you can find something interesting from there.
Booking from Bulgaryan
Hello! I think, it’s not really from English language, it’s most likely from Latin))
pasta
My natíve language is hungarian but I have not heard that word is biro….😄😄😄
Bravo! …is Italian word
In my native language, as in English, there are many words of old Latin origin. Well-known Polish vulgarisms have been adopted all over the world (but it’s actually from Latin). The names of dishes such as pierogi and bigos are also known from Polish words. Sometimes I come across words in English that sound slightly different today, but exactly the same word was used in Poland in ancient times, e.g. pound. In my opinion the word “dobre” I think everyone understands and it is a typical Polish word.
Όλη η ιατρική είναι με ελληνικές λέξεις Vig!!!!!
Θα πρέπει να σου γράφω ώρες για να σου αναφέρω ελληνικές λέξεις στην αγγλική γλώσσα
From Hungaran: hello
From vikings: Window
There are many words in English that come from Greek..harmony is one of them..it is the Greek armonia..I just read online that there are over 41,200 words in English that have Greek roots… ny God.. you are such big thieves!!!! 🙂
F.Chatzidali
A very big part of english vocabulary was stolen from Greek language
Hi mr vig how are you?
Good money mr vig i dificult spench inglish. See you tomorrow
I had to count: 75+25+28+28 ≠ 100. Difficult math example. Let´s go back to English or Comeback to English? 😉 Have a great time.
From Albanian fig
Italy pasta, spaghetti
We have în romanian language vampir from Dracula, antidot, a colabora, salata, pere for pears, crucial, munte for mountan, porc, vapor not sheep, air vapors =vapori de aer and more…
Apology
Emphasis
Epilogue
Hierarchy
Harmony
Synchronization
Parallel
Ethnic
Ethical
Organize
Economy
Genesis
Practice
Endemic
Antagonism
Monopoly
Ironic
Sarcasm
Emphatic
Stigma
Energy
Tactic
Method
Episode
Dialogue
Dogma
Melancholy
Phenomenon
Character
Chaos
Hypocrite
Climate
Protagonist
Gastronomy
Philanthropy
Misogyny
Trilogy
Chronological
Alphabetical
Static
Telephone
Photography
Utopia
Blasphemy
Scandal
Fantasy
Paradise
Crisis
Demon
Program
And many others from Greek language 🙂
That’s a lot!
Goulas= gulyás,
hussar=huszár (cavarly soldier)