![Linguistic borrowings in English [C2] — VocaVerb](https://vocaverb.com/wp-content/uploads/vv-cat-images/vv-cat-13912-en.png)
English has never hesitated to raid other languages for words, absorbing vocabulary from Latin, French, Arabic, Japanese, and dozens more over centuries of conquest, trade, and cultural exchange. This crossword challenges your knowledge of borrowed terms that have become thoroughly embedded in everyday English — can you trace their origins and reclaim them?
Grid
Fill in the grid: pick a square, read the clue and type your answer.
Clues
Across
- 1. Relating to the study of language
- 5. Language source of algebra and cotton
- 7. word meaning nevertheless
- 8. Past form of will used in reporting
- 10. Modifying a word to fit new language rules
- 12. Mixing languages to form a new one
- 14. Used to add surprise emphasis
- 15. For this reason, therefore
- 16. A simplified mixed contact language
- 17. in whatever way, but, nevertheless
Down
- 1. A word borrowed from another language
- 2. Full absorption of a word into a language
- 3. The vocabulary of a language or subject
- 4. Adapting a foreign word to native norms
- 6. Study of the structure of words
- 9. The native language of a region
- 11. Not clean, opposite of pure
- 13. A word combining two language elements
Answers
Show the answers
Across
- 1. Relating to the study of language → linguistic
- 5. Language source of algebra and cotton → arabic
- 7. word meaning nevertheless → still
- 8. Past form of will used in reporting → would
- 10. Modifying a word to fit new language rules → adaptation
- 12. Mixing languages to form a new one → creolization
- 14. Used to add surprise emphasis → already
- 15. For this reason, therefore → hence
- 16. A simplified mixed contact language → pidgin
- 17. in whatever way, but, nevertheless → however
Down
- 1. A word borrowed from another language → loanword
- 2. Full absorption of a word into a language → integration
- 3. The vocabulary of a language or subject → lexicon
- 4. Adapting a foreign word to native norms → assimilation
- 6. Study of the structure of words → morphology
- 9. The native language of a region → vernacular
- 11. Not clean, opposite of pure → dirty
- 13. A word combining two language elements → hybrid
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