Aug. 3rd, 2022

pauamma: Cartooney crab wearing hot pink and acid green facemask holding drink with straw (Default)
[personal profile] pauamma
Is there a name for the process by which a loanword (or calque) sheds some of its source language meanings? Like "atom" not also meaning "individual" in languages that borrowed it from Greek, or "café" in English only meaning the establishment serving food and drinks and not also coffee as it does in French?

Same question for words borrowed with a meaning absent from the source language, like "femme" referring to gender expression in English but gender in French?

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags