What Do You Know About Loan Words In Languages?

<< "____" is a very dirty word in both Russian, and Bulgarian >>

Well, then, shame on the person who taught it to me! It did figure heavily in a pretty clever (as wordplay goes) riddle in Russian, however.

Thankfully, you have us to clarify these misunderstandings. :)

One of the funniest things that happened to me while I was in Russia was when my host (a male university student) had taken me to visit some of his friends. Their wives were all in the kitchen fixing dinner, and I was left in the other room with the guys. After awhile they started speaking just to each other, in Russian. They assumed, rightly, that I wouldn't be able to follow their conversation if they spoke at their normal speed, so I wasn't really paying attention. Then one of them happened to mention the "H" word, and I glanced up. They all froze, and my friend asked me, "Do you know what 'hui' means?" I nodded, and they all looked extremely embarrassed and apologized profusely. But even then, I didn't realize it was considered to be a very bad word, because I'd noticed that this group of people seemed to consider any talk of sexual things in mixed company to be distasteful.

In response to JJM question on the word Perro meaning dog in Spanish I heard that the word might have come from an archaic form of Basque or a left over from the original Iberian tongue before the influence of Celtibrain or Latin. But, I really don't know for sure.

"Perro" is of uncertain origin. JGereco's suggestion is one possibility and probably the best one. Others I've heard are that is of onomopoeic origin from b-r-r-r or p-r-r-r the sound that Medieval Spanish shepherds used to call their dogs. Another is "Persus" the name of the Persian hunting dog which became popular in the Roman Empire. Still, another possibility is Gallo-Roman paraveredus "four-wheeler" the source of German Pferd and Dutch paard meaning "horse."

Old Spanish did have the word cán, however, from Latin canis for "dog."

From dictionary.com about the word 'dog':

[Middle English dogge, from Old English docga.]

The Spanish word "izquierda" (left, as opposed to right) comes from Basque. I believe the only Basque word in English is "silhouette", which is derived from a Basque surname (and obviously comes through French).

Deborah - russian curses are very numerous "Xy* and Xep mean the same but the last one isnt so hard while the first one considered to be one of the worst russian words.

Lazar,

You are almost right even though I wasn't aware that Silhouette was of Basque origin but it might be. 'Ancovy' and possibly 'bizarre' also have a Basque origin although have entered English by way of French. There is the Basque ball game 'jai alai' which is in English dictionaries although few English speakers use the word it or know about the game. Spanish has borrowed more like pizarra "slate / blackboard" , vega "meadow", chorro "jet of water," manteca "grease" (cf. mantequilla "butter") zorro "fox" cerdo "pig"; You mentioned izquierda also found in Catalan esquerre "left."

Ancovy = anchovy

Thanks, Linguist. No wonder those guys got so embarrassed.

Does anyone know if they are stats about the % of loanwords in various languages ?

% are you joking

'Silhouette' is the French spelling of the Basque surname, Zilhueta and it's variants Zulueta and Zuloeta.

'Chaparral' comes from Spanish 'chaparro', which came from Basque 'txapar'/'txaparra', meaning 'thicket' or 'scrub'

Also, there also was a well-crafted sword in Shakespeare's day called a 'bilbo', which comes from the Basque city of Bilbo, known for its excellent iron and steel goods.

Possible Basque derivation: 'agog' – from Old French 'en gogue', meaning 'merriment', from 'gogo', a Basque word encomposing the abstract concept of 'spirit, mind, soul, thought, desire, wish, will'.

A Spanish linguist postulated that the English 'slur' may have come from Gascon 'eslurro', meaning 'mudslide', borrowed from Basque 'lurra' (the earth). But Middle English 'slore', Middle Low German 'sluren' and Middle Dutch 'sloren', 'to trail in mud', all point to a Germanic origin. Could they all have come from Basque, or is this guy reaching?

A couple of posts ago, I asked whether anyone knew where the word "budala" came from. It means "idiot" in Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian etc. I discovered the other day that it also means "idiot" in Turkish. I'm presuming it is a loan word from Turkish as it sounds more Turkish than Slavic!