wanderword
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From wander + word, a calque of German Wanderwort.
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈwɒndəˌwɔːd/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈwɑndɚˌwɔɹd/
- Hyphenation: wan‧der‧word
Noun[edit]
wanderword (plural wanderwords)
- (linguistics) Synonym of Wanderwort (“a loanword that has spread to many different languages, often through trade or the adoption of foreign cultural practices”)
- 1985, A. Richard Diebold, The evolution of Indo-European nomenclature for salmonid fish:
- Considering the mileage it has achieved as a horizon wanderword in divers shapes representable as sV(l)mV(n)-, the Latin salmo (salmonis) cited by Pliny and Ausonius is vexing as regards its etymology, a quality it shares with many other Roman and Greek [...]
- 1987, Martin Bernal, Black Athena:
- In this general context, Mallory's dismissal (1989, 150) of this “comparison that simply will not go away” as a mere “wander word” clearly illustrates his ideological position.
- 1997, James P. Mallory, Douglas Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture:
- It is perhaps, therefore, a late 'wander-word' of the southeast of the IE world, Semitic and Sumerian.
- 2009, Jopi Nyman, Post-national enquiries:
- Like the static Bangla she describes in the extract above — and like the traditional mother — Mukherjee's wanderwords usually stay at home, in narrative strands set in India, their local colour harmoniously interwoven with her fiction's literary English.