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6 German Loanwords used in English ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง and Russian ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ


๐Ÿค” What is a loanword?ย 
A loanword is a term given to a word which is directly borrowed from another language and used in the recipient language without being translated first.ย 
Some loanwords are obvious, whereas others were borrowed so long ago that you might be surprised to discover they are loanwords at all!

โœ… Festย 
In English, โ€˜festโ€™ is usually used as a suffix. It means โ€˜festivalโ€™ in German and has been used in English since 1889.ย 

โœ… Muesliย 
The word โ€˜muesliโ€™ has been used in English since 1926. Itโ€™s a Swiss-German word, from the Old High German โ€˜muosโ€™ meaning โ€˜meal, mush-like foodโ€™.ย 

โœ… Noodleย 
โ€˜Noodleโ€™ comes from the German โ€˜nudelโ€™ and refers to a narrow strip of dried dough. It has been used in English since 1779.

โœ… Poltergeistย 
โ€˜Poltergeistโ€™ has been used in English since 1838. It comes from โ€˜polternโ€™ meaning โ€˜make noiseโ€™ or โ€˜rattleโ€™ and โ€˜geistโ€™ meaning โ€˜ghostโ€™.ย 

โœ… Rucksackย 
Used in English since 1866, the word โ€˜rucksackโ€™ derives from Alpine dialect. โ€˜rรผckโ€™ means โ€˜the backโ€™ and โ€˜sackโ€™ has the same meaning in English (bag).ย 

โœ… Wunderkindย 
This word for a child prodigy literally translates to โ€˜wonder-childโ€™. It has been used in English since 1883.

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