wanderword

English

Etymology

From wander +‎ word, a calque of German Wanderwort.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɒndəˌwɔːd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɑndɚˌwɔɹd/
• Hyphenation: wan‧der‧word

Noun

wanderword (plural wanderwords)

1. (linguistics) Synonym of Wanderwort (“a loanword that has spread to many different languages, often through trade or the adoption of foreign cultural practices”)
   • 1985, A. Richard Diebold, The evolution of Indo-European nomenclature for salmonid fish:

     Considering the mileage it has achieved as a horizon wanderword in divers shapes representable as sV(l)mV(n)-, the Latin salmo (salmonis) cited by Pliny and Ausonius is vexing as regards its etymology, a quality it shares with many other Roman and Greek [...]

   • 1997, James P. Mallory, Douglas Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture:

     It is perhaps, therefore, a late 'wander-word' of the southeast of the IE world, Semitic and Sumerian.

   • 2006, Martin Bernal, Black Athena. Volume III. The Linguistic Evidence, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 605:

     In this general context, Mallory's dismissal (1989, 150) of this “comparison that simply will not go away” as a mere “wander word” clearly illustrates his ideological position.

   • 2009, Jopi Nyman, Post-national enquiries:

     Like the static Bangla she describes in the extract above — and like the traditional mother — Mukherjee's wanderwords usually stay at home, in narrative strands set in India, their local colour harmoniously interwoven with her fiction's literary English.

Alternative forms

• wander word
• wander-word