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Calque Used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another

language while translating its components so as to create a new lexeme in the

target language.

"Calque" itself is a loanword from a French noun, and derives fromthe verb "calquer" (to trace, to copy), while loanword is a calque of

the German "Lehnwort", and loan translation a loan translation of

"Lehnbersetzung".

Proving that a word is a calque sometimes requires more documentation than does

an untranslated loanword, since in some cases a similar phrase might have arisen in

both languages independently. This is less likely to be the case when the grammar

of the proposed calque is quite different from that of the language proposed to be

borrowing, or the calque contains less obvious imagery.

Calquing is distinct from phono-semantic matching. While calquing includes

(semantic) translation, it does not consist ofphonetic matching (i.e. retaining the

approximate sound of the borrowed word through matching it with a similar-

sounding pre-existent word ormorpheme in the target language).

False friends (French: faux amis) are pairs ofwords orphrases intwo languages ordialects (or letters in two alphabets) that lookorsound similar,

but differ in meaning. An example is Portuguese raro "rare" vs.Spanish raro "strange" (similarly, Spanish exquisito "exquisite" vs. Portuguese

esquisito "strange").

Often, there is a partial overlap in meanings, which creates additional

complications: e.g. Spanish lima, meaning "lime" (the fruit) and "lime" (thecalcium-based material), but also "file" (the tool).

The term should be distinguished from "false cognates", which are similar words in

different languages that appear to have a common historical linguistic

origin (whatever their current meaning) but actually do not.

As well as complete false friends, use ofloanwords often results in the use of aword in a restricted context, which may then develop new meanings not found inthe original language.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexemehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loanwordhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nounhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phono-semantic_matchinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonetichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loanwordhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphemehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homonymhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_(fruit)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_(material)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_(tool)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_cognatehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loanwordhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loanwordhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_cognatehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_(tool)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_(material)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_(fruit)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homonymhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphemehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loanwordhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonetichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phono-semantic_matchinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nounhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loanwordhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexemehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verb

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A loanword (or loan word) is a word borrowed from a donor language and

incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a

related concept where the meaning oridiom is borrowed rather than the lexical

item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of

the German Lehnwort, while calque is a loanword from French. Theterms borrow and loanword, although traditional, conflict with the ordinary

meaning of those words because nothing is returned to the donor

languages. However, note that this metaphor is not isolated to the concept

of loanwords, but also found in the idiom "to borrow an idea." An additional issue

with the term loanword is that it implies that the loaning is limited to one single

word as opposed to phrases such as dj vu, an English loanword from French.

While this phrase may be used as one lexical item by English speakers, that is to

say, an English speaker would not say only dj to convey the meaning associatedwith the full term dj vu, in the donor language (French), speakers would be

aware of the phrase consisting of two words. For simplicity, adopt/adoption or

adapt/adaption are used by many linguists, either in parallel to, or in preference to,

these words. Some researchers also use the term lexical borrowing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calquehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiomhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_itemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_itemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_itemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_itemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiomhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calque