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A lexical loan occurs when speakers of one language use words from another language.
These words may be the same or slightly modified, but the meaning is usually the same or very similar. For example: parking (from the English "parking").
Also within the same language there are specialized lexicons, for example within the jargon of certain professions. The words used within a discipline can be popularized and taken in a different sense from the one that gave rise to it.
For example, depression It is a mental illness with very specific characteristics and it is a word originating in the psychiatric field. However, we can say that a party is depressing if music is lacking or that a movie is depressing, without referring to the illness, but to the meaning we give it outside of the psychiatric context. This is also called a lexical loan. However, the term is used mainly for words taken from other languages, that is, foreign words.
Types of lexical loans
The lexical loans can be:
- Unadapted foreigners. The words are taken without any change in the way of writing and with a pronunciation similar to the original (depending on the practice of the speaker). For example: marketing.
- Adapted foreigners. They adapt to the usual way that you have a word in the local language. It mainly occurs in the conjugation of verbs. For example: Park (of "parking")
- Semantic tracings. Expressions from another language are copied and translated literally. For example: iron curtain (translated from "iron courtain")
It can serve you:
- Xenisms
- Localisms (from different countries)
- Lexical Families
Examples of lexical loans
- Park (adapted foreignism). It comes from the English word "park" which, in addition to "park", means to park.
- Chalet (adapted foreignism). From the French “chalet”, it refers to family homes that have an adjacent or surrounding garden, but that do not have an internal patio.
- Eau de parfum (unadapted foreignness). These words are used in French to designate perfumes from any country of origin, in addition to differentiating it from "eau de toilette" which refers to a perfume of less intensity and less permanence on the skin.
- Hardware (unadapted foreignness). They are the physical parts (materials) of a computer or any other computer system.
- Holding company (unadapted foreignness). "Hold" in English means to hold, have or keep. The word holding is used in Spanish (and many other languages) to refer to commercial companies that manage the properties of other companies.
- Happy hour (semantic tracing). Literal translation of "happy hour". It refers to a period of the day when a commercial establishment offers special prices, mainly used for bars that offer significant discounts on their drinks.
- Stalk (adapted foreignism). The English word “stalk” (which means to follow or harass) has been modified to respond to the form of the infinitives in Spanish
- Iron curtain (semantic tracing). It is the translation of "Iron curtain". It refers to a political and ideological barrier. It was an expression that was used during the Cold War, when most of the world was divided between capitalist countries and communist countries.
Follow with:
| Americanisms | Gallicisms | Latinisms |
| Anglicisms | Germanisms | Lusisms |
| Arabisms | Hellenisms | Mexicanisms |
| Archaisms | Indigenisms | Quechuisms |
| Barbarisms | Italianisms | Vasquismos |
