calque

See also: calqué

English

WOTD – 1 August 2007

Etymology

Borrowed from French calque (“calque”, literally “tracing, copy”), from calquer (“to copy, trace”) (whence also calk), itself borrowed from Italian calcare, from Latin calcāre (“I tread”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kælk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ælk
• Homophones: calc, calk

Noun

calque (plural calques)

1. (linguistics, translation studies) A word or phrase in a language formed by word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a word in another language.

   Synonyms: loan translation, calquing

   Hypernym: loan formation

   Coordinate term: partial calque, loanblend (a term that is partially a calque and partially formally contains a foreign element)

   The word “watershed” is a calque of the German “Wasserscheide”.

Translations

word formed by word-for-word translation of a word in another language

• Arabic: تَرْجَمَة اِقْتِرَاضِيَّة‎ f (tarjama iqtirāḍiyya)
• Armenian: բառապատճեն (hy) (baṙapatčen)
• Belarusian: ка́лька f (kálʹka)
• Breton: drevezadenn f
• Bulgarian: ка́лка f (kálka)
• Catalan: calc (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 借譯, 借译 (ze³ jik⁶)

  Mandarin: 借譯, 借译 (jièyì), 仿造詞, 仿造词 (fǎngzàocí)

• Czech: kalk (cs) m
• Danish: oversættelseslån n
• Dutch: leenvertaling (nl) f
• Faroese: umsetingarlán n
• Finnish: käännöslaina (fi)
• French: calque (fr) m
• Georgian: კალკი (ka) (ḳalḳi)
• German: Lehnübersetzung (de) f
• Greek: μεταφραστικό δάνειο (el) n (metafrastikó dáneio), εκτύπωμα (el) n (ektýpoma)
• Hungarian: tükörfordítás (hu), tükörszó (hu), megfelelő (hu)
• Icelandic: tökuþýðing f
• Indonesian: pinjam terjemah
• Irish: lomaistriúchán m

• Italian: calco (it) m
• Japanese: 翻訳借用 (ほんやくしゃくよう, hon'yaku shakuyō)
• Korean: 번역차용 (beonyeokchayong)
• Latvian: kalks m
• Macedonian: калка f (kalka)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: oversettingslån n, oversettelseslån (no) n

  Nynorsk: omsetjingslån n

• Polish: kalka (pl) f
• Portuguese: decalque (pt) (linguístico) m
• Russian: ка́лька (ru) f (kálʹka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ка̏лк m

  Roman: kȁlk (sh) m

• Slovak: kalk m
• Slovene: kalk m
• Spanish: calco (es) m
• Swedish: översättningslån (sv) n
• Thai: คำต่อคำ (kham-tò kham)
• Ukrainian: ка́лька (uk) f (kálʹka)
• Welsh: cyfieithiad benthyg m
• Yiddish: קאַלקע‎ f (kalke)

Derived terms

• partial calque
• semi-calque

 

See also

• Hobson-Jobson
• loanword
• metaphrase

Verb

calque (third-person singular simple present calques, present participle calquing, simple past and past participle calqued)

1. (linguistics, translation studies) To adopt (a word or phrase) from one language to another by semantic translation of its parts.

Translations

adopt a word by translation of its parts

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: բառապատճենել (hy) (baṙapatčenel)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 借譯, 借译 (ze³ jik⁶)

  Mandarin: 借譯, 借译 (jièyì)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: omaksua käännöslaina
• French: calquer (fr)
• German: lehnübersetzen

• Indonesian: meminjam terjemah (id)
• Macedonian: калки́ра (kalkíra)
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: калькировать (ru) (kalʹkirovatʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: калки́рати

  Roman: kalkírati (sh)

• Yiddish: קאַלקירן‎ (kalkirn)

Trivia

While the term calque is a loanword from French, the term loanword is a calque of German.

Anagrams

• claque

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Asturian

Verb

calque

1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of calcar

---

French

Etymology

Deverbal of calquer, borrowed from Italian calcare, from Latin calcāre (“I tread”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kalk/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

calque m (plural calques)

1. tracing (the reproduction of an image made by copying it through translucent paper)
2. (lexicography) calque, loan translation
3. (computer graphics) layer

Descendants

• → Belarusian: ка́лька (kálʹka)
• → Bulgarian: ка́лка (kálka)
• → Catalan: calc (semantic loan)
• → Czech: kalk
• → English: calque
• → Georgian: კალკი (ḳalḳi)
• → Italian: calco (semantic loan)
• → Latvian: kalks
• → Macedonian: калка (kalka)
• → Polish: kalka
• → Russian: ка́лька (kálʹka)
• → Serbo-Croatian: ка̏лк (kȁlk)
• → Slovak: kalk
• → Slovene: kalk
• → Spanish: calco (semantic loan)
• → Ukrainian: ка́лька (kálʹka)
• → Yiddish: קאַלקע‎ (kalke)

Further reading

• “calque” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• claque, claqué

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Portuguese

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -awki

Verb

calque

1. inflection of calcar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

---

Spanish

Verb

calque

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of calcar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of calcar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of calcar.