anglicisms

Anglicisms are words, phrases, or syntactic structures borrowed from English and incorporated into another language. They can enter directly as loanwords, be translated as calques, or be extended through semantic influence where English concepts shape meaning without new vocabulary. Some terms become fully naturalized within the recipient language, while others remain marked as foreign.

Types of anglicisms include direct loanwords (for example, weekend, software, or marketing in many languages), calques that translate components of an English term (such as German Wolkenkratzer and French gratte-ciel for “skyscraper”), and semantic loans where English usage shifts the sense of existing words. Pseudo-anglicisms are expressions that resemble English but may not be used idiomatically by native speakers. In addition, verbs borrowed from English may be adapted as new lexical items, such as to google or to download in various languages.

Anglicisms are especially prevalent in technology, business, media, sports, and youth language, but they appear across many registers. They vary by country and language policy; some languages actively cultivate native equivalents (neologisms or revived terms), while others favor English terms for global standards. Notable examples include electronic mail becoming email or courriel, the English “handy” entering German slang for mobile phones, and “download” used widely in many languages.

Attitudes toward anglicisms range from celebration of global connectivity to concern about linguistic purity or cultural influence. Language communities often balance openness to global vocabulary with efforts to preserve native terminology, through education, style guides, and terminology databases.