ITALIAN BORROWINGS IN ENGLISH
CHORNA KRISTINA
BORROWED WORDS IN ENGLISH
The larger part of English vocabulary consists of loan words.
Borrowing is one of the ways of enriching the vocabulary.
Words can be borrowed through all kinds of contacts
between nations: wars, invasions, occupation, cultural and
trade relations between countries. It is natural, therefore, in
discussing the problem of loan words in any language to
give a survey of certain historical facts from the life of the
people speaking that language.
ITALIAN BORROWINGS
Borrowing from Italian started in the 15th-16th centuries. Italy at that time was
a country with high culture which influenced not only England but the whole
of Europe. The vocabularies of many languages reflect this influence because
many words became international, i.e. they are met in most world languages.
All Italian borrowings can be arranged into several semantic groups:
1. terms of house-building and architecture: balcony, fresco, studio,
corridor, cornice, mezzanine, stucco, loggia, colonnade;
2. military terms: colonel, alarm, cartridge, cavalry, infantry, pistol,
squadron;
3. words dealing with finance: bank, bankrupt;
4. names of food: pizza, cappuccino, macaroni, spaghetti;
5. words referring to no particular semantic group: casino, volcano,
lagoon, revolt, risk, monkey, bandit, mafia, mafioso (pl. mafiosi),
umbrella, influenza, incognito, to manage, to isolate.
Especially numerous are Italian borrowings
referring to the sphere of music:
1. names of musical instruments:
(violon)cello, piano, violin;
2. singing voices: bass, baritone, tenor,
contralto, soprano;
3. musical compositions: sonata, opera, aria;
4. other musical terms: solo, duet, concert,
libretto, tempo, bel canto.
In the first half of the 20th century with the emergence in Italy and
Germany of a new form of dictatorship the Italian words fascist and
fascism came to be used in many languages including English.
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