Potfolio LInguistic Linguistic Port | Page 23

Borrowing one of the most common sources of new words in English is the process simply labeled borrowing, that is, the taking over of words from other languages. A special type of borrowing is described as loan-translation or calque (/kælk/). In this process, there is a direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language. Interesting examples are the French term gratte-ciel, which literally translates as “scrape-sky,” the Dutch wolkenkrabber (“cloud scratcher”) or the German Wolkenkratzer (“cloud scraper”), all of which were calques for the English skyscraper