Calque

In linguistics, a calque (pronounced /ˈkælk/) or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word (Latin: "verbum pro verbo") or root-for-root translation. For example, the common English phrase "flea market" is a phrase calque that literally translates the French "marché aux puces" ("market where one acquires fleas").1 Going in the other direction, from English to French, provides an example of how a compound word may be calqued by first breaking it down into its component roots. The French "gratte-ciel" is a word-coinage inspired by the model of the English "skyscraper"—"gratter" literally translates as "to scrape", and "ciel" translates as "sky". The same is true for the Swedish word "skyskrapa", Spanish word "rascacielos" and the Italian word "grattacielo" (literally, a "scrape-skies/sky"), the Hebrew words "גורד שחקים", the Estonian word "pilvelõhkuja" (literally: "cloud breaker"), the Russian word "небоскрёб" and to a certain extent the German word "Wolkenkratzer", the Dutch "Wolkenkrabber", the Slovak word "mrakodrap" (cloud scratcher), the Norwegian word "skyskraper" and the Danish word "skyskraber" (both literally, "cloud-scraper") and the Chinese word "摩天大楼" (mótiān dàlóu, literally "sky-scraping big building") or the Greek word "ουρανοξύστης" —"ξύστης" literally translates as "scraper", and "ουρανός" translates as "sky". A further example is "bienvenue" (literally meaning "welcome"), sometimes used for "you're welcome" in response to "thank you" in French Canada instead of using the standard French "de rien" (it was nothing) or "avec plaisir" (with pleasure). Yet again, each of these phrases can be found as calques in English, as "It was my pleasure," "The pleasure was/is mine," or in the Southern drawl, "'T'warn't nuthin'." 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 from the verb "calquer" (to trace, to copy),2 while loanword is a calque of the German "Lehnwort", and loan translation a loan translation of "Lehnübersetzung".3 Proving a word is a calque sometimes requires more documentation than 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. See also Anglicism Cognate Gallicism Germanism Loanword Metatypy Semantic loan Chinese-Ordered English Chinese Pidgin English Wasei-eigo Notes ^ flea market. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000 ^ calque. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000 ^ Robb: German English Words germanenglishwords.com External links EtymOnline Merriam Webster Online