pauamma: Cartooney crab wearing hot pink and acid green facemask holding drink with straw (Default)
Res facta quae tamen fingi potuit ([personal profile] pauamma) wrote in [community profile] linguaphiles2022-08-03 08:46 pm

(no subject)

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?
steorra: Restaurant sign that says Palatal (linguistics)

[personal profile] steorra 2022-08-04 08:01 am (UTC)(link)
I can't think of one, but that doesn't guarantee its nonexistence.