Words with Roots in Lesser-Known Languages

English is rapidly becoming a world language because so many people around the world now speak it. English is a world language in another sense, though, because it has borrowed from sources throughout the world to make up its lexicon. Here are ten relatively common words with historical roots in languages that are less well known for supplying English words than Latin, Greek and the traditional Germanic and Romance languages.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. buccaneer
    someone who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea
    The story begins as pirates from the Walrus invade another ship where a cowardly buccaneer and a cook hide below deck.
    —Seattle Times (Jan 24, 2014)
    Although its direct ancestor is French for "user of a boucan" a type of grill, the grill itself and the word boucan both have their source in the indigenous peoples of Brazil, where the word in Tupi is rendered mukem.
  2. lagniappe
    a small gift given by a merchant to a customer
    “We call that lagniappe,” said his spokesman, Millard Mulé, or “a little extra.”
    —New York Times (Jun 7, 2011)
    From New Orleans Creole, the origins of lagniappe are slightly murky, but one popular theory has it deriving from Spanish la ñapa ( one of the few words in Spanish to begin with ñ) which means "the gift." La ñapa comes from yapa a word from Quechua, a native language family of the Andes mountains.
  3. maven
    one who is very skilled in or knowledgeable about a field
    In the process he ferrets out, among others, a vintage fashion maven, an artist-dentist whose office doubles as a gallery and a natural-foods impresario.
    —New York Times (Apr 17, 2014)
    From Yiddish meyvn which means "one who understands."
  4. bungalow
    a small house with a single story
    The area, where 500 hotels and bungalow colonies once served visitors from New York City, had fallen on hard times after vacation habits changed.
    —New York Times (Feb 25, 2014)
    From Gujarati, spoken in India, bangalo from a Hindi word meaning "Bengalese, in the style of Bengal."
  5. maize
    corn
    Corn Belt accounts for a sizeable portion of the world's maize growth.
    —Science Magazine (May 1, 2014)
    Cuban Spanish maiz, from Arawakan, the language of the indigenous people of the Caribbean, where the form is mahiz.
  6. hubbub
    loud confused noise from many sources
    Reading early news pamphlets, we can often hear the music of the streets, with all their hubbub and exuberant variety.
    —Salon (Mar 29, 2014)
    Originally whobub, either from Gaelic ub! which was an expression of contempt, or an Old Irish battle cry, abu.
  7. slogan
    a favorite saying of a sect or political group
    His speech is a mix of rousing rhetoric and snappy slogans and sends the crowd into raptures.
    —BBC (May 6, 2014)
    Also Gaelic, also related to battle cries, slogan comes from sluagh-ghairm, literally "army-cry."
  8. commandeer
    take arbitrarily or by force
    A small group commandeered a bulldozer and tried to break through police lines.
    —BBC (Dec 1, 2013)
    From the Afrikaans word for "to command", kommandeeren .
  9. trek
    any long and difficult trip
    Before he moved here, Mr. Sherpa led more than 100 treks, including some that lasted three months, where hikers sometimes slept in guesthouses.
    —New York Times (May 1, 2014)
    From trek , Afrikaans for " a stage of a journey by ox cart."
  10. zenith
    the highest point of something
    Next, go outside to an area with a clear view of the horizon and zenith.
    —Scientific American (Aug 22, 2013)
    Originally from Arabic samt ar-ras, which means "the way over the head." The "m" in samt was misread as an "ni" so sanit was borrowed into Latin, eventually resulting in zenith.
  11. shack
    small crude shelter used as a dwelling
    Lebanon has not allowed official refugee camps, so many families live in unfinished buildings and wooden shacks.
    —Reuters (Jun 3, 2014)
    Of disputed origin, a popular theory holds that shack comes ultimately from Nahuatl xacalli "wooden hut." ( in the writing system adopted for Nahuatl, an "x" stands for an "sh" sound.)
  12. nebbish
    (Yiddish) a timid unfortunate simpleton
    He was a quiet man, a bit of a nebbish, and on the brief ride we talked innocuously about school.
    —Slate (Jun 21, 2012)
    From Yiddish, this word traces to Proto-Indo-European roots which mean "without portion". Even etymologically, the nebbish gets no respect.
  13. silo
    a cylindrical tower used for storing grain
    Officials say that when the 60-foot-tall silo collapsed, two employees were discharging corn using an auger in the silo.
    —Seattle Times (Jun 5, 2014)
    From Spanish, most likely ultimately from Basque zilo.
  14. ginger
    plant with thick aromatic rhizomes and leafy reedlike stems
    My sauce maintains some traditional elements, but I like to add grated ginger and a good pinch of cayenne for more dimension and spark.
    —New York Times (May 30, 2014)
    Another controversial etymology, but a theory with some backing contends that this word is from Sanskrit srngaveram from two Sanskrit words meaning " horn body", referring to the root's outward appearance.
  15. schlep
    pull along heavily, like a heavy load against a resistance
    Who wants to carry it up and down in an elevator or schlep around a chain the size of a python?
    —New York Times (May 3, 2014)
    From Yiddish, where it is also the root of a noun schlepper, not just one who schleps but a scrounger, a loser, less worthy of pity than a nebbish because of the sense that the latter has misfortune thrust upon them, whereas the schlepper has a hand in their bad luck. Schlep is first attested in English in James Joyce's Ulysses in 1922.
Created on Tue May 06 21:17:14 EDT 2014 (updated Mon Jun 09 14:16:00 EDT 2014)

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