List of calques

Key takeaways

List of calques belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of calques to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of calques from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word (Latin: "verbum pro verbo") translation. This list contains examples of calques in various languages.

English

From Mandarin Chinese Running dog calques Chinese: 走狗; pinyin: zǒu gǒu. brainwashing calques Chinese: 洗腦; pinyin: xǐ nǎo – usage via U.S. military during Korean War. lose face calques Chinese: 丟臉; pinyin: diū liǎn Paper tiger calques Chinese: 紙老虎; pinyin: zhǐ lǎohǔ Potsticker calques Chinese: 鍋貼; pinyin: guōtiē Long time no see calques Chinese: 好久不見; pinyin: hǎojiǔ bùjiàn.

From French By heart (or off by heart) probably calques Middle French par cœur Free verse calques vers libre Old Guard calques Vieille Garde (the most senior regiments of the Imperial Guard of Napoleon I) Flea market calques marché aux puces Marriage of convenience calques French mariage de convenance New Wave (artistic period) calques Nouvelle Vague rhinestone calques caillou du Rhin "Rhine pebble" that goes without saying calques cela va sans dire Forget-me-not calques Old French ne m'oubliez mye crime of passion from crime passionnel J. R. R. Tolkien used the name "Bag End" as a calque of "cul-de-sac", to poke fun at the British use of French terms.

From German or Dutch Masterpiece: probably translation of Dutch meesterstuk or German Meisterstück: Dutch meester and German Meister, master + Dutch stuk and German Stück, piece of work. (The Dutch translation of masterpiece is meesterwerk, the German translation is Meisterwerk. A Meisterstück is the craftwork that serves as a sort of "thesis" for a master craftsman-to-be.)

From Dutch Iceberg from the Dutch ijsberg Superconductor calques Dutch supergeleider Pineapple calques Dutch pijnappel, which calques French pomme de pin (both meaning 'pinecone') freebooter calques Dutch vrijbuiter

From German Antibody calques Antikörper Assault rifle calques Sturmgewehr Ball lightning calques Kugelblitz Beer garden calques Biergarten Concertmaster and concertmeister calque Konzertmeister Earworm calques Ohrwurm Flamethrower calques Flammenwerfer Foreword perhaps calques Vorwort, which itself calques Latin præfatio (from præ- "before" plus fari "speak") "preface" Heroic tenor calques Heldentenor Intelligence quotient calques Intelligenzquotient Loan translation calques Lehnübersetzung Loanword calques Lehnwort Nostalgia (formed from Greek νόστος "homecoming" plus ἄλγος "pain") calque Heimweh "home sore" Overman and superman (i.e., self-transcending human) calque Übermensch Power politics calques Machtpolitik Rainforest calques Regenwald Standpoint (point of view) calques Standpunkt Superego (formed from Latin super- "over, above" plus ego "I") calques Überich "over-I" Stormtroopers calques Sturmtruppen Subliminal (formed from Latin sub-, "below", plus limen (gen. liminis, "threshold") calques unterschwellig, "beneath the threshold" Thought experiment calques Gedankenexperiment Watershed calques Wasserscheide Worldview calques German Weltanschauung

From Hebrew Scapegoat is a calque of עזאזל (Azazel) as ez ozel (literally, "the goat that departs", hence "[e]scape goat). This neologism is attributed to Tyndale's 1530 Bible translation. Passover calques, somewhat phonologically, פֶּסַח Pesaḥ.

From Latin Commonplace calques locus commūnis (referring to a generally applicable literary passage), which itself is a calque of Greek koinos topos Devil's advocate calques advocātus diabolī, referring to an official appointed to present arguments against a proposed canonization or beatification in the Catholic Church Wisdom tooth calques dēns sapientiae, which in turn calques Arabic aḍrāsu 'lḥikmi, which calques Greek σωΦρονιστῆρες, used by Hippocrates. Milky Way calques via lactea Rest in peace calques requiescat in pace In a nutshell calques in nuce

From Spanish Blue-blood calques sangre azul Fifth column calques quinta columna Killer whale from ballena asesina Moment of truth calques el momento de la verdad, the final sword thrust in a bullfight.

From other languages Deep state calques Turkish derin devlet Gospel calques Greek εὐαγγέλιον (evangelion) 'good news' Hotdish calques Scandinavian varmrett/varmrätt ground nut calques Tamil நிலக்கடலை (nila kadalai) The Littlejohn adaptor calques the Czech name of the inventor František Janeček Many words and phrases calqued by Latin from Greek have been borrowed by English.

Latin

From Greek Latin calques many terms from Greek, many of which have been borrowed by English.

compassion calques συμπάθεια (sympathia) "sympathy" (Latin: "suffering with", Greek: "suffering together") deus ex machina calques ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός (apo mechanēs theos) (Latin: "god out of the machine", Greek: "out of the machine, god") insectus calques ἔντομον (entomon) ("insect", from words meaning "to cut into" in the respective languages) locus communis calques κοινὸς τόπος, and was later calqued in English as commonplace musculus "muscle" (= "common house mouse", literally "little mouse" from mus "mouse") calques μῦς (mys) "muscle" (= "mouse") magnanimus calques μεγαλόψυχος (megalopsychos) ('great-souled') quinta essentia calques πέμπτη οὐσία. quod erat demonstrandum 'which was to be demonstrated' is a calque of ὅπερ ἔδει δεῖξαι (hoper edei deixai) 'what needed to be [shown] has been shown'. similaris 'similar' calques ὁμοιομερής. Many grammatical terms: participium 'participle' from μετοχή, declinationem 'declension' from κλίσις, etc.

Romance languages

Examples of Romance language expressions calqued from foreign languages include:

French lune de miel, Catalan lluna de mel, Spanish luna de miel, Portuguese lua-de-mel, Italian luna di miele and Romanian luna de miere calque English honeymoon French gratte-ciel, Catalan gratacels, Spanish rascacielos, Portuguese arranha-céus, Romanian zgârie-nori and Italian grattacielo calque English skyscraper French sabot de Denver calques English Denver boot French jardin d'enfants, Spanish jardín de infancia and Portuguese Jardim de infância calque German Kindergarten (children's garden) Spanish baloncesto and Italian pallacanestro calque English basketball Spanish balonvolea and Italian pallavolo calque English volleyball

French

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of calques

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of calques claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of calques before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of calques ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of calques

In research: List of calques appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of calques in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of calques is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Calques, Linguistics lists, Lists of English words of foreign origin, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of calques outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study List of calques in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what List of calques means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain List of calques out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is List of calques in simple terms?

A calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word (Latin: "verbum pro verbo") translation. This list contains examples of calques in various languages.

Why does List of calques matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of calques?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of calques.