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Words of Nahuatl origin have entered many European languages. Mainly they have done so via Spanish. Most words of Nahuatl origin end in a form of the Nahuatl "absolutive suffix" (-tl, -tli, or -li, or the Spanish adaptation -te), which marked unpossessed nouns. Achiote (definition) from āchiotl [aːˈt͡ʃiot͡ɬ] Atlatl (definition)
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
English words of French origin, such as art, competition, force, machine, and table are pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French, and are commonly used by English speakers without any consciousness of their French origin. This article covers French words and phrases that have entered the English lexicon without ...
A great number of words of French origin have entered the English language, to the extent that many Latin words have come to the English language. Up to 45% of all English words have a French origin. [1] [verification needed] [better source needed] This suggests that 80,000 words should appear in this list.
Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, [1] analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation [2] – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one through popular usage.
This is a list of English words inherited and derived directly from the Old English stage of the language. This list also includes neologisms formed from Old English roots and/or particles in later forms of English, and words borrowed into other languages (e.g. French, Anglo-French, etc.) then borrowed back into English (e.g. bateau, chiffon, gourmet, nordic, etc.).
zebra – of unknown origin, recorded since c. 1600, from Portuguese ‘ezebro’, used of an Iberian animal, in turn possibly ultimately from Latin ‘equiferus’, but a Congolese language, or alternatively Amharic have been put forward as possible origins [16] zimbabwe – from Shona, "house of stones" or "venerated houses"
The word is used in compounds such as lych-gate, [1] lych-owl (so called because its screeching was thought to forebode death) and lyke-wake (the watch kept over a dead body at night). The word is etymologically akin to like, so its original meaning is thought to be 'form', 'shape'. [1] (See also: feorhbold, feorhhold, feorhhus, līcfæt ...