A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept whereby it's the meaning or idiom that's borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort or the Dutch leenwoord. Loanwords can also be called "borrowings". Classes of borrowed words Certain classes of words are more commonly borrowed than others, usually words for… (More on Loanword)