Borrowed+Words+in+English

1. Achilles Heel – Greek origin coming from the story of Achilles being brought down by Hector by an arrow. The Achilles heel is thought to be a weak spot that can be found on a person.

2. Berserk – Came into being by Sir Walter Scott. Was used during the Vietnam War to describe someone who fights recklessly. Also used to explain why a person is in an emotional state of mind where he/she cannot control his/herself.

3. Epitaph – Greek origin combining epi- and taphos, meaning at/over tomb. These epitaphs were to honor or remember the person that had passed away.

4. Mosquitoes – Spanish origin using the word mosca, which is the word for fly. Basically mosquito translates to little gnat.

5. Narcolepsy – French origion combining narke and lepsis meaning numbness and seizure. Narcolepsy is a result from genetic abnormalities and is neurological.

6. Obesity – Latin origin obesitas which means fatness and eaten itself fat. The Greeks were the first to recognize obesity as a medical condition and throughout history people have been picked on about this disease.

7. Tomato – Spanish origin tomate.

8. Cacao – Spanish nahuatl cachuatl.

9. Banana – Spanish or Portuguese origin from wolof banana.

10. Pastry – Old French pastaierie.

Planet: From the Greek "Planasthai" for "to wander."

Pay: Pay goes back ultimately to Latin, "pax" peace, by way of, appease, pacify. So "pay" originally meant "pay off," to keep the peace.

Phony: adj. Something that is not real, fake. British thieves and swindlers of old used many secret codewords. One such word was fawney, which referred to a gilt ring. They would sell these, saying that they were made of real gold. But the rings were not genuine gold, and the word phony – fromfawney – came to be used for anything that is fake or not genuine.

n. Any forced stoppage of travel or communication on account of malignant, contagious disease, on land or by sea.

Quarantine: From the French quarante (=forty). Adding the suffix –aine to French numbers gives a degree of roughness to the figure (like –ish in English), so quarantaine means about forty. Originally when a ship arriving in port was suspected of being infected with a malignant, contagious disease, its cargo and crew were obliged to forego all contact with the shore for a period of around forty days. This term came to be known as period of quarantine.

cappuccino 'milky coffee drink, originating in Italy'

Named after the color of the robes of the Capuchin monks, which, like the drink, are light chocolaty brown. The word is from Italian Cappuccino, which is the Italian name for the monks' order. The Capuchins themselves got their name from the hooded robe they wear; cappuccio means 'hood' (a diminutive form of Late Latin cappa 'head covering, cloak')

money n. From Old French monee, literally 'coined', from Latin moneta, from the honorific name of Juno Moneta, 'Juno the Guardian, Juno the Warning Goddess'. From the metonymic association of Juno with her temple, which was the place where money was coined. Similar etymology for mint in the sense of 'place where money is coined'.

bikini: 1945-1950 French Origin. “While the modern bikini was invented by French engineer Louis Réard in 1946. He named it after Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, the site of the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapon tests.” (Wikipedia)

jumbo: 1800–10; origin uncertain; popularized as the name of a large elephant purchased and exhibited by P.T. Barnum in 1882 (dictionary.com)

pointsettia: 1830–40; < Neo-Latin, named after J. R. Poinsett (1799–1851), American minister to Mexico, who discovered the plant there in 1828. (dictionary.com)

saxophone: Comes from Saxhorn which origin is 1835–45; named after A. Sax (1814–94), a Belgian who invented such instruments. (dictionary.com)

silhouette: 1790–1800; < French à la silhouette, after Etienne de Silhouette (1709–67), French finance minister (dictionary.com)

Planet: From the Greek "Planasthai" for "to wander."

Pay: Pay goes back ultimately to Latin, "pax" peace, by way of, appease, pacify. So "pay" originally meant "pay off," to keep the peace.

Phony: adj. Something that is not real, fake. British thieves and swindlers of old used many secret codewords. One such word was fawney, which referred to a gilt ring. They would sell these, saying that they were made of real gold. But the rings were not genuine gold, and the word phony – fromfawney – came to be used for anything that is fake or not genuine.

n. Any forced stoppage of travel or communication on account of malignant, contagious disease, on land or by sea.

Quarantine: From the French quarante (=forty). Adding the suffix –aine to French numbers gives a degree of roughness to the figure (like –ish in English), so quarantaine means about forty. Originally when a ship arriving in port was suspected of being infected with a malignant, contagious disease, its cargo and crew were obliged to forego all contact with the shore for a period of around forty days. This term came to be known as period of quarantine.

cappuccino 'milky coffee drink, originating in Italy'

Named after the color of the robes of the Capuchin monks, which, like the drink, are light chocolaty brown. The word is from Italian Cappuccino, which is the Italian name for the monks' order. The Capuchins themselves got their name from the hooded robe they wear; cappuccio means 'hood' (a diminutive form of Late Latin cappa 'head covering, cloak')

money n. From Old French monee, literally 'coined', from Latin moneta, from the honorific name of Juno Moneta, 'Juno the Guardian, Juno the Warning Goddess'. From the metonymic association of Juno with her temple, which was the place where money was coined. Similar etymology for mint in the sense of 'place where money is coined'.

CantelopeFrom "singing wolf." It seems the melon was first grown in a town in Italy called Cantaluppi. The town was once a summer residence of the popes.

IncentiveFrom the Latin "incanere," meaning, "to sing to." The idea is "If you play the music, someone has to = dance."'

KetchupThe Chinese invented ke-tsiap--a concoction of pickled fish and spices (but no tomatoes)--in the 1690s. By the early 1700s its popularity had spread to Malaysia, where British explorers first encountered it. By 1740 the sauce--renamed ketchup--was an English staple, and it was becoming popular in the American colonies. Tomato ketchup wasn't invented until the 1790s, when New England colonists first mixed tomatoes into the sauce. It took so long to add tomatoes to the sauce because, for most of the 18th. Century, people had assumed that they were poisonous, as the tomato is a close relative of the toxic belladonna and nightshade plants.

Utopia: Greek for "no where."

fjord, slalom- Scandinavian

noodle- German

skipper- Dutch

canyon, vigilante- Spanish

yoga- Sanskrit

shampoo- Hindi

bazaar- Arabic

toboggan- American Indian