Loanwords

Hello everyone; I'm Hamidreza Ahmadi with Lingophoenix. English is so rich in its bank of vocabulary because, it’s been very liberal about foreign words becoming a part of it. Languages borrowing words from one another is quite common and I think that it would be interesting to know a few which are actually frequently used in English. Today, We’ll take a look at a few of these Loanwords that have found their way into English from French. I think it’s also quite intriguing to know that most of these words take on a formal register in English. Alright let’s get right down to it. In Farsi, when you want to take a shower, you say میخوام دوش بگیرم . Well, douche is a French word and it means shower. Now, If you want to wish someone a good shower, you can say ‘bonne douche’. As you can easily tell, bonne means good. So it translates verbatim, good shower. Let’s hear another one. The exclamation, bon voyage is a lot more common than the last one and is used when you want to wish someone a good and safe trip. Bon voyage means good journey, but voyage in English is more specific than simply trip. In English, voyage – which can be used as both a noun and verb - is a long journey which involves travel by sea or in space, and it is a rather less commonly used word. Again, we all know what coup d’état or its shortened form coup is, because we have the same word in Farsi, plus it’s an international word now. This word translates as blow of state, Coup d’état is when power is seized from the ruling government in a sudden and violent manner. With coup which means blow, we have the word coup de grâce which means a final blow or shot given to kill a wounded person or animal. I’m sure you’ve seen this in movies; A soldier is shot right in the stomach, and is losing a lot of blood; to put them out of misery, they ask their friend to shoot them so that they won’t be in pain much longer. Something like mercy killing. The word literally translates as blow of grace. Coup de grâce also can mean, an action that ends something that has been gradually getting worse, as in: “Jane’s affair was the coup de grâce to her disintegrating marriage.” Rendezvous in English means a meeting at an agreed time or place, and as a verb it means to meet at an agreed time or place. It could also be the place where a meeting takes place. For example, Naderi café used to be a popular rendezvous for writers and poets back in the day. The next word and the khatm of Podcast! A word that has gained a lot of popularity, entrepreneur, that can be a bit too difficult to pronounce even for native English speakers. Entrepreneur is a person who sets up a business especially when it involves risks. The word comes from French entreprendre which means ‘to undertake’. The word enterprise comes from the same origin. And just because I enjoy putting you guys in trouble, go ahead and practice saying its adjective entrepreneurial. There is another noun, entrepreneurship, which is the activity of setting up a business. Thanks for listening again and bonne chance with studying English.

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Loanwords is an episode from Lingo Phoenix's Podcasts.

This episode is 00:03:14 long.

This episode was published on Jun 12, 2021.

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