List of calques


A calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word translation. This list contains examples of calques in various languages.

English

From Mandarin Chinese

Running dog calques p=zǒu gǒu.brainwashing calques p=xǐ nǎo – usage via U.S. military during Korean War.lose face calques p=diū liǎnPaper tiger calques p=zhǐ lǎohǔPotsticker calques p=guōtiēLong time no see calques p=hǎojiǔ bùjiàn.

From French

By heart probably calques Middle French par cœurFree verse calques vers libreOld Guard calques Vieille Garde Flea market calques marché aux pucesMarriage of convenience calques French mariage de convenanceNew Wave calques Nouvelle Vaguerhinestone calques caillou du Rhin "Rhine pebble"that goes without saying calques cela va sans direForget-me-not calques Old French ne m'oubliez myecrime of passion from crime passionnel

From German or Dutch

Masterpiece: probably translation of Dutch meesterstuk or German Meisterstück: Dutch meester and German Meister, master + Dutch stuk and German Stück, piece of work.

From Dutch

Iceberg from the Dutch ijsbergSuperconductor calques Dutch supergeleiderPineapple calques Dutch pijnappel, which calques French pomme de pin freebooter calques Dutch ''vrijbuiter''

From German

Antibody calques AntikörperAssault rifle calques SturmgewehrBall lightning calques KugelblitzBeer garden calques BiergartenConcertmaster and concertmeister calque KonzertmeisterEarworm calques OhrwurmFlamethrower calques FlammenwerferForeword perhaps calques Vorwort, which itself calques Latin præfatio "preface"Heroic tenor calques HeldentenorIntelligence quotient calques IntelligenzquotientLoan translation calques LehnübersetzungLoanword calques LehnwortNostalgia calque Heimweh "home sore"Overman and superman calque ÜbermenschPower politics calques MachtpolitikRainforest calques RegenwaldStandpoint calques StandpunktSuperego calques Überich "over-I"Stormtroopers calques SturmtruppenSubliminal calques unterschwellig, "beneath the threshold"Thought experiment calques GedankenexperimentWatershed calques WasserscheideWorldview calques German ''Weltanschauung''

From Hebrew

Scapegoat is a calque of עזאזל as ez ozel. This neologism is attributed to Tyndale's 1530 Bible translation.Passover calques, somewhat phonologically, פֶּסַח .

From Latin

Commonplace calques locus commūnis, which itself is a calque of Greek koinos toposDevil's advocate calques advocātus diabolī, referring to an official appointed to present arguments against a proposed canonization or beatification in the Catholic ChurchWisdom tooth calques dēns sapientiae, which in turn calques Arabic aḍrāsu 'lḥikmi, which calques Greek σωΦρονιστῆρες, used by Hippocrates.Milky Way calques via lacteaRest in peace calques requiescat in paceIn a nutshell calques ''in nuce''

From Spanish

Blue-blood calques sangre azulFifth column calques quinta columnaKiller whale from ballena asesinaMoment of truth calques el momento de la verdad, the final sword thrust in a bullfight.

From other languages

Deep state calques Turkish derin devletGospel calques Greek εὐαγγέλιον 'good news'Hotdish calques Scandinavian varmrett/''varmrätt

Latin

From Greek

Latin calques many terms from Greek, many of which have been borrowed by English.compassion calques συμπάθεια "sympathy" deus ex machina calques ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός insectus calques ἔντομον locus communis calques κοινὸς τόπος, and was later calqued in English as commonplacemusculus "muscle" calques μῦς "muscle" magnanimus calques μεγαλόψυχος
  • quinta essentia calques πέμπτη οὐσία.
  • quod erat demonstrandum 'which was to be demonstrated' is a calque of ὅπερ ἔδει δεῖξαι 'what needed to be has been shown'.similaris 'similar' calques ὁμοιομερής.
  • Many grammatical terms: participium 'participle' from μετοχή, declinationem 'declension' from κλίσις, etc.

Romance languages

Examples of Romance language expressions calqued from foreign languages include:
  • French lune de miel, Catalan lluna de mel, Spanish luna de miel, Portuguese lua-de-mel, Italian luna di miele and Romanian luna de miere calque English honeymoon
  • French gratte-ciel, Catalan gratacels, Spanish rascacielos, Portuguese arranha-céus, Romanian zgârie-nori and Italian grattacielo calque English skyscraper
  • French sabot de Denver calques English Denver boot
  • French jardin d'enfants, Spanish jardín de infancia and Portuguese Jardim de infância calque German Kindergarten
  • Spanish baloncesto and Italian pallacanestro calque English basketball
  • Spanish balonvolea and Italian pallavolo calque English ''volleyball''

French

Spanish

Many calques found in Southwestern US Spanish come from English:
  • Spanish escuela alta calques English high school
  • Spanish grado calques English grade (in school)
  • Spanish manzana de Adán calques English Adam's apple, which in turn is a calque of French pomme d'Adam
Also technological terms calqued from English are used throughout the Spanish-speaking world:
  • Spanish rascacielos calques English skyscraper
  • Spanish tarjeta de crédito calques English credit card
  • Spanish alta tecnología calques English high technology
  • Spanish disco compacto calques English compact disc
  • Spanish correo electrónico calques English electronic mail
  • Spanish alta resolución calques English high resolution
  • Spanish enlace calques English link
  • Spanish ratón calques English mouse (computer)
  • Spanish nave espacial calques English spaceship
  • Spanish en un momento dado calques Dutch op een gegeven moment
  • Spanish Red Mundial calques English World Wide Web
  • Spanish videograbadora calques English ''VCR''

Italian

  • Italian aria condizionata calques English air conditioned
  • Italian fine settimana calques English week-end
  • Italian ferrovia calques French Chemin de fer or the German Eisenbahn

Germanic languages

Afrikaans and Dutch

  • Afrikaans aartappel and Dutch aardappel calque French pomme de terre
  • Afrikaans besigheid calques English business
  • Afrikaans e-pos calques English e-mail
  • Afrikaans hardeskyf and Dutch harde schijf calque English hard disk
  • Afrikaans klankbaan calques English sound track
  • Afrikaans kleurskyfie calques English colour slide
  • Afrikaans sleutelbord calques English keyboard
  • Afrikaans tuisblad calques English homepage
  • Afrikaans wolkekrabber and Dutch wolkenkrabber calque German Wolkenkratzer.
  • Afrikaans melkskommel calques English milkshake
  • Afrikaans werkswinkel calques English workshop
  • Afrikaans geheuestokkie calques English memory stick
  • Afrikaans biertuin calques German ''Biergarten''

German

Fußball calques English "football", referring specifically to association footballTeddybär calques English teddy bearWolkenkratzer calques English skyscraper
  • Entwickeln calques French "developer"Flutlicht calques English floodlightDatenverarbeitung calques English data processingGroßmutter and Großvater calques French grand-mère and grand-père Rundreise calques French tournéeFernsehen calques English television Fernsprecher calques English telephone Löwenzahn calques French dent-de-lion
  • Überleben calques Latin supervivo
  • Treppenwitz calques French l'esprit de l'escalier
  • herunterladen calques English download
  • Wochenende calques English ''week-end''

Icelandic

  • Icelandic rafmagn, "electricity", is a half-calqued coinage that literally means "amber power".
  • * raf translates the Greek root ἤλεκτρον, which means "amber"
  • * magn, "power", is descriptive of electricity's nature but not a direct calque from the source word "electricity"
  • Samviska.
  • One of the early suggestions for an Icelandic translation of helicopter was þyrilvængja, twirling wings, a calque of the Greek helico-pteron. This was later replaced with þyrla.

Dano-Norwegian

Note: From a technical standpoint, Danish and the bokmål standard of Norwegian are the same language, with minor spelling and pronunciation differences. For this reason, they will share a section.
  • Danish børnehave and Norwegian barnehage calque German Kindergarten: barne = børne = Kinder = children; hage = have = Garten = gardenhjemmeside calques English home page.
  • Danish hjerneflugt and Norwegian hjerneflukt calque English brain drain.
  • Danish idiotsikker calques English "foolproof".loppemarked calques French marché aux puces.mandag, from Old Norse mánadagr calques Latin dies lunæ.
  • Danish overhoved and Norwegian overhode calques German Oberhaupt.
  • Danish samvittighed and Norwegian samvittighet calques Latin conscientia.
  • * From sam- and vittig
  • Norwegian tenåring calques English teenager: femten = fifteen, åring = ''annual harvest''

Swedish

skyskrapa calques skyscraper.tonåring calques English teen-ager: femton = fifteen, åring = ''annual harvest''

Slavic languages

Serbian

  • Serbian 'misliti izvan kutije' calques English 'to think outside of the box':
  • * Sr. 'misliti' = Eng. 'to think'
  • * Sr. 'izvan' = Eng. 'outside'
  • * Sr. 'kutija' = Eng. 'box'

Macedonian

  • Macedonian ракопис calques Latin-derived 'manuscript' and 'handwriting':
  • * Mac. root рака = Lat. manus = 'hand'
  • * Mac. root пис- = Lat. scribo = 'to write'
  • Macedonian правопис calques Greek-derived 'orthography':
  • * Mac. root право = Gr. ορθός = 'correct';
  • * Mac. root пис- = Gr. γράφειν = 'to write'
  • Macedonian православие calques Greek-derived 'orthodoxy':
  • * Mac. root право = Gr. ορθός = 'correct';
  • * Mac. root славие = Gr. δοξα = 'glorification'
In more recent times, the Macedonian language has calqued new words from other prestige languages including German, French and English.
  • Macedonian натчовек = calques German-derived 'overman'
  • * Mac. root над- = Ger. über = 'over'
  • * Mac. root човек = Ger. mensch = 'people'
  • Macedonian облакодер = calques English skyscraper:
  • * Mac. root облак
  • * Mac. root дере
  • Macedonian клучен збор = calques English keyword:
  • * Mac. root клуч
  • * Mac. root збор
Some words were originally calqued into Russian and then absorbed into Macedonian, considering the close relatedness of the two languages. Therefore, many of these calques can also be considered Russianisms.

Russian

The poet Aleksandr Pushkin was perhaps the most influential among the Russian literary figures who would transform the modern Russian language and vastly expand its ability to handle abstract and scientific concepts by importing the sophisticated vocabulary of Western intellectuals.
Although some Western vocabulary entered the language as loanwords – e.g., Italian salvietta, "napkin", was simply Russified in sound and spelling to салфетка – Pushkin and those he influenced most often preferred to render foreign borrowings into Russian by calquing. Compound words were broken down to their component roots, which were then translated piece-by-piece to their Slavic equivalents. But not all of the coinages caught on and became permanent additions to the lexicon; for example, любомудрие was promoted by 19th-century Russian intellectuals as a calque of "philosophy", but the word eventually fell out of fashion, and modern Russian instead uses the loanword философия.
  • Russian любомудрие calqued Greek-derived 'philosophy':
  • * Russ. root любить = Gr. φιλεῖν = 'to love';
  • * Russ. root мудрость = Gr. σοφία = 'wisdom'
  • Russian зависимость calques Latin-derived 'dependence':
  • * Russ. root за = Lat. de = 'down from'
  • * Russ. root висеть = Lat. pendere = 'to hang; to dangle'
  • Russian совпадение calques Latin-derived 'coincidence':
  • * Russ. prefix со- = Lat. co- = 'in; with; together'
  • * Russ. prefix в- = Lat. in- = 'in; into'
  • * Russ. root падать = Lat. cidere = 'to fall'
  • Russian полуостров calques Latin-derived 'peninsula':
  • * Russ. root полу- = Ger. halb = 'half; semi-'
  • * Russ. root остров = Ger. Insel = 'island'
  • Russian детский сад calques German ''Kindergarten

Greek

Διαδίκτυο from English InternetΓύρος from Turkish dönerΠοδόσφαιρο from English football, referring specifically to association footballΤηλεόραση from ''television''

Irish

uisce beatha, or whiskey, calques Latin ''aqua vitae''

Finnish

Since Finnish, a Uralic language, differs radically in pronunciation and orthography from Indo-European languages, most loans adopted in Finnish either are calques or soon become such as foreign words are translated into Finnish. Examples include:
  • from Greek: sarvikuono,
  • from Latin: viisaudenhammas,
  • from English: jalkapallo,
  • from English: koripallo,
  • from English: kovalevy,
  • from French: kirpputori,
  • from German: lastentarha,
  • from German: panssarivaunu,
  • from Swedish: pesukarhu,
  • from Swedish: moottoritie,
  • from Chinese: aivopesu,
  • from Spanish: ''siniverinen''

Modern Hebrew

When Jews immigrate to Israel, they often Hebraize their surnames. One approach to doing so was by calque from the original surname. For instance, Imi Lichtenfield, founder of the martial art Krav Maga, became Imi Sde-Or. Both last names mean "light field". For more examples and other approaches, see the article on Hebraization of surnames.mesilat barzel from German Eisenbahn ; "sach-rachok" from German "Fernsprecher"
  • "zarkor" from German "Scheinwerfer" iton from German Zeitung and Yiddish צײַטוּנג tsaytung tappuach adamah from French pomme-de-terregan yeladim from German Kindergartenkaduregel from English football; "kadursal" ; "kaduryad" ;...
  • "kelev yam" from German "Seehund"
  • "karnaf" from Greek rhinoceros, possibly via German Nashorn
  • names of many chemical elements are calqued from German and/or Greek: "meiman" from Wasserstoff, "pachman" from Kohlstoff, "chankan" from Stickstoff, "chamtzan" from Sauerstoff, zarkhan from Greek, and ashlagan from English
  • many computing terms are calqued from English: "luach em", "me'abed", "natav", akhbar, cartis reshet, sapak koach, mat'en.
According to linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann, the more contributing languages have a structurally identical expression, the more likely it is to be calqued into the target language. In Israeli one uses má nishmà, lit. "what's heard?", with the meaning of "what's up?". Zuckermann argues that this is a calque not only of the Yiddish expression ?וואָס הערט זיך, but also of the parallel expressions in Polish, Russian and Romanian. Whereas most revivalists were native Yiddish-speakers, many first speakers of Modern Hebrew spoke Russian and Polish too. So a Polish speaker in the 1930s might have used má nishmà not due to Yiddish vos hert zikh? but rather due to Polish Co słychać? A Russian Jew might have used ma nishma due to Что слышно? and a Romanian Israeli would echo ce se aude. According to Zuckermann, such multi-sourced calquing is a manifestation of the Congruence principle.

Malayalam

Modern Malayalam is replete with calques from English. The calques manifest themselves as idioms and expressions and many have gone on to become clichés. However standalone words are very few. The following is a list of commonly used calque phrases/expressions.All of these are exact translations of the corresponding English phrases.
  1. Simha bhagam lion's share
  2. Varikalkidayil vaayikuka reading between the lines
  3. Chuvarazhuthu the writing on the wall
  4. Moola kallu cornerstone
  5. Naazhikakallu milestone
  6. Ooshmala varavelppu warm welcome
  7. Thanuppan prathikaranam cold response
  8. Sheetayuddham Cold War
  9. Hridayabhedakam heart-rending/breaking
  10. Chekuttaanum kadalinumidayil between the devil and the sea
  11. vazhivittu sahaayikkuka go out of one's way
  12. kuthira kachavadam horse trading
  13. mrigeeya bhooripaksham monstrous majority
  14. kavya neethi poetic justice
  15. ambara chumbikal buildings; literally sky-kissers