In linguistics, a calque (pronounced [kælk]) or loan translation (itself a calque of German Lehnübersetzung) consists of the borrowing of a phrase from one language into another, in the process of which individual words native to the borrowing language semantically match the individual words in the source language.

The word is also used as a verb: to calque means to loan translate from another language to create a new lexeme in the target language.

English

Calques from French

• English breakfast calques French déjeuner (which now means lunch).
• English forget-me-not calques French ne m'oubliez pas
• English Governor-General calques French gouverneur général
• English free verse calques French vers libre
• English old guard calques French Vieille Garde (the imperial guard of Napoleon I)
• English Adam's apple calques French pomme d'Adam, meaning pomegranate (which in turn was influenced by Arabic rummāna)
• English flea market calques French marché aux puces

Calques from German

• English Superman calques German Übermensch
• English standpoint calques German Standpunkt
• English worldview calques German Weltanschauung
• English empathy calques German Einfühlung
• English antibody calques German Antikörper

Calques from Latin

• English Commonwealth calques Latin res publica (which has also become Republic)
• English commonplace calques Latin locus commūnis (referring to a generally applicable literary passage), which itself is a calque of Greek koinos topos
• English devil's advocate calques Latin advocātus diabolī, referring to an official appointed to present arguments against a proposed canonization or beatification in the Catholic Church
• English dog days calques Latin diēs canīculāris
• English wisdom tooth calques Latin dēns sapientiae
• English vicious circle calques Latin circulus vitiōsus
• English Milky Way calques Latin via lactea

Calques from Spanish

• English blue-blood calques Spanish sangre azul
• English moment of truth calques Spanish el momento de la verdad

French

Examples of French expressions calqued from English include:

• French lune de miel calques English honeymoon
• French gratte-ciel calques English skyscraper
• French sabot de Denver calques English Denver boot
• French jardin d'enfants calques German Kindergarten

German

• German Wolkenkratzer calques English skyscraper (but literally means cloud scraper)
• German Nashorn calques the ultimately Greek rhinoceros
• German Großmutter and Großvater calque French grand-mère and grand-père, respectively
• German Fernsehen calques the English coinage, half-Greek and half-Latin, television.

See also

• Loanword
• Anglicism