English Words Borrowed From Other Languages (You Use Dozens Every Day)
Share
There's no such thing as "pure" English.
Around 80% of English vocabulary has roots in other languages — borrowed, absorbed, and reshaped over 1,000+ years of contact with the rest of the world. You're using loanwords constantly, and most of the time, you have no idea.
Here's where some of the most common ones actually came from.
From Spanish: Siesta, Tornado, Cigar
Siesta — a short afternoon nap — came straight from Spanish, meaning the exact same thing. Tornado traces back to the Spanish verb tornar, meaning "to turn or twist." Cigar is Spanish in origin too.
None of these needed translating. English just took the word wholesale, because there wasn't a tidier way to say it.
From German: Kindergarten, Angst, Schadenfreude
German has handed English an unusually large batch of everyday words: kindergarten, angst, zeitgeist, kitsch, doppelganger, wanderlust — and schadenfreude, the word for secret joy at someone else's misfortune we covered in an earlier post.
Even hamburger traces back to Hamburg, Germany. Linguists actually have a name for this pattern of German words spreading into other languages: Germanism.
From Arabic: Zero, Algebra, Coffee, Safari
This one runs deeper than most people realize. Zero comes from Arabic — along with much of the vocabulary behind mathematics and trade. Algebra traces back through Arabic scholarship. Coffee, cotton, lemon, syrup, mattress, giraffe — all Arabic in origin. Safari comes from Arabic too, by way of Swahili.
Next time you order a coffee, you're technically speaking a little Arabic.
From French: Beef, Mutton, Ballet, Boutique
French gave English so much vocabulary that roughly 30% of English words trace back to French or Latin combined. A huge chunk of that dates to 1066, when Norman French became the language of the ruling class in England.
That's actually why English has two words for the same animal: the live animal kept its Old English name (cow, pig), while the meat on the plate took the French one (beef, pork). Nobles ate boeuf. Farmers raised cows. Both words survived, permanently baked into modern English.
From Japanese: Emoji, Kamikaze, Tycoon
Emoji is a fully Japanese word, adopted wholesale as texting culture exploded. Kamikaze entered English from World War II and later shifted into general slang for reckless behavior. Even tycoon — meaning a powerful business figure — traces back to Japanese.
From Portuguese: Cashew, Marmalade, Cobra
Cashew comes from Portuguese cajú, which itself came from the Tupi language in Brazil. Marmalade traces to Portuguese marmelada. Cobra is Portuguese too, originally shorthand for "cobra de capelo" — hooded snake.
Why This Actually Matters for Learners
Here's the practical payoff: if you're learning Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, or German, you already know more vocabulary than you think.
Words like importante (Spanish/Italian), animal (French), or nervös (German) aren't unfamiliar — they're cousins of words you use every single day, connected through centuries of borrowing in both directions. Recognizing that connection turns intimidating vocabulary into pattern recognition.
It also explains why certain languages feel more approachable than others. Spanish and French share enormous vocabulary overlap with English precisely because of this centuries-long borrowing relationship. Japanese, Arabic, and Mandarin share far less — which is part of why they take longer to learn, beyond just the alphabet or writing system.
The Shift: Learning Vocabulary That Actually Connects
This is exactly why vocabulary learned inside real context — sentences, not isolated lists — sticks better. A word like genre or cologne means more once you know where it came from and how it's actually used, not just as an entry to memorize.
A structured A1-to-C2 path builds vocabulary this way from day one — connected to real sentences, not floating in isolation — with visual pronunciation on every word, so even borrowed words that look familiar get pronounced correctly in their original language, not the English version you already know.
Twenty minutes a day, and those quiet connections between languages start working in your favor instead of going unnoticed.
Ready to Recognize the Connections?
Every language you learn is already a little familiar — English borrowed from almost all of them. A structured A1-to-C2 path with visual pronunciation on every word helps you build on that head start, instead of starting from zero.