Words English took from elsewhere.

The ninth-century Persian mathematician's name, Latinised as "algorismus."

How it travelled Entered Latin via translations of his treatise on arithmetic; the modern sense "step-by-step procedure" is a 20th-century specialisation.

Finely ground powder (originally antimony powder, kohl).

How it travelled Alchemists borrowed the word for refined essences; the fermented-drink sense narrowed in the 18th century.

Originally a term for wine; reapplied to the bean-based drink.

How it travelled Arabic → Ottoman Turkish *kahve* → Italian *caffè* → English. Entered via the 1650s coffeehouse boom in Oxford and London.

Crystalline sweetener, itself borrowed from Sanskrit *śarkarā*.

How it travelled Arabic merchants carried sugar and the word across the Mediterranean; entered English via Old French *sucre*.

Commander of the sea.

How it travelled The Arabic title was truncated — "amīr al-" became "amiral" in French — so English inherited just the honorific and dropped the sea.

A surgical term for resetting a bone; used in al-Khwārizmī's 9th-c. title as a metaphor for rebalancing equations.

How it travelled Arabic → medieval Latin via Toledo translators → English via academic Latin in the 1500s.

The concept of nothingness as a numeral.

How it travelled Arabic → Italian *zefiro* / *zero*. Same root also gave us "cipher." Latin Europe didn't have a zero until the 12th century.

A raised platform for sitting, often carpeted.

How it travelled Arabic → Turkish → French *sofa* → English. The upholstered furniture came later; the word's journey pre-dates the cushions.

Literally "hashish users" — a 12th-century epithet for a Nizari Isma'ili sect in the Levant.

How it travelled Crusader accounts brought the word back; Marco Polo embroidered the hashish legend. The generalised "political killer" sense is English, not Arabic.

A storehouse or depot — where goods are kept.

How it travelled Arabic → Italian *magazzino* → Middle French *magasin* → English. The printed-publication sense (1731) borrowed the metaphor of a storehouse of articles.

A journey or expedition (Arabic), borrowed into Swahili as *safari*.

How it travelled Arabic → Swahili *safari* → English via East African colonial administration and Victorian-era big-game hunting literature.

Empty, nothing — the original word for zero.

How it travelled Arabic → Medieval Latin *cifra* → Old French *cifre* → English. "Cipher" and "zero" are doublets — same Arabic source, different transmission routes.

A company of travellers, usually traders crossing a desert.

How it travelled Persian *kārwān* → Arabic → Medieval Latin *caravana* → Middle French *caravane* → English. The camper-van sense dates only to the 1880s.

A notification — particularly an official list of duties or fees.

How it travelled Arabic → Italian *tariffa* → English via 16th-century Mediterranean customs vocabulary. The word kept its bureaucratic sense across every hop.

House of craft or manufacture — originally a naval dockyard.

How it travelled Arabic → Italian *arsenale* (the Venetian shipyard) → French → English. The Venetian Arsenal could build a galley in a day at its peak; the modern sense of any weapons store comes from that military context.

A calendar of astronomical and seasonal data.

How it travelled Medieval Arabic astronomy tables → Spanish Arabic → Medieval Latin → English. Roger Bacon records it in English in the 1260s, citing it explicitly as an Arabic term.

The art of transmutation — precursor of chemistry.

How it travelled Greek *khēmeia* → Arabic *al-kīmiyāʾ* → Medieval Latin *alchymia* → Old French → English. Arabic scholars preserved and extended Hellenistic chemical knowledge; the word kept its al- prefix when it travelled back west.

The stone fruit *Prunus armeniaca*.

How it travelled Latin *praecox* (early-ripening) → Arabic *al-barqūq* → Spanish *albaricoque* → French *abricot* → English. The word has made a round trip, picking up the Arabic definite article on the way out and losing it on the way back.

The edible thistle *Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus*.

How it travelled Arabic → Spanish Arabic *al-karshūfa* → Old Spanish *alcarchofa* → Italian *articiocco* → English. English folk-etymology twisted the ending to *-choke* around ideas of the heart being "choked" by leaves.

The horizontal angle of a compass bearing.

How it travelled Plural of Arabic *as-samt* (direction) → Medieval Latin *azimut* → Old French → English. A navigational and astronomical term from the same root as *zenith*.

Crystallised sugar.

How it travelled Sanskrit *khaṇḍa* (piece) → Persian *qand* → Arabic *qandī* (sugared) → French *sucre candi* → English. The Arabic route is what English inherits, but the Indian sugarcane trade is the ultimate origin.

The fibre and cloth from the *Gossypium* plant.

How it travelled Arabic → Old French *coton* → Middle English. Arabic traders were the main European source for raw cotton until the early modern period; the Spanish and Italian wool trades adopted the word from them.

A cure-all potion; a philosopher's stone preparation.

How it travelled Greek *xērion* (dry powder) → Arabic *al-iksīr* → Medieval Latin → Old French → English. The alchemical sense is the original one; the marketing sense (magic elixir of youth) is 19th-century advertising.

A light, loosely woven fabric.

How it travelled Uncertain, but likely Arabic *qazz* (raw silk), or from Gaza (the Palestinian city, a historical textile centre) → French *gaze* → English. Either path is Arabic-speaking in origin.

The long-necked African ungulate.

How it travelled Arabic → Italian *giraffa* → French → English. Italian merchants first encountered the animal through the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt; earlier English used the Latin *camelopard*.

A plucked string instrument with a rounded back.

How it travelled Arabic *al-ʿūd* (the wood) → Old Provençal *laüt* → Old French *lut* → English. The instrument itself travelled with the word from Moorish Spain; European lutes are direct descendants of the Arab oud.

A cold sweet drink (or in British English, a fizzy powder).

How it travelled Arabic *sharba* (a drink) → Ottoman Turkish *şerbet* → Italian/French → English. Same root as *syrup* and *sorbet*; the three are cousins via different intermediate languages.

A thick, sweet liquid.

How it travelled Arabic *sharāb* (drink) → Medieval Latin *siropus* → Old French *sirop* → English. Cousin to sherbet and sorbet — all descend from the Arabic root *sh-r-b* (to drink).

A small swift antelope of Africa and Asia.

How it travelled Arabic *ghazāl* → Old French *gazel* → English by the 16th century. The word entered European languages through Spanish and Italian, a souvenir of desert travel writing.

Cosmetic applied to darken eyelashes.

How it travelled Arabic *maskharah* (buffoon, masked character) → Spanish *máscara* (mask) → Italian *maschera* → English via the cosmetics industry. The mask-and-theatre sense came first.

A small frame drum with metal jingles around the rim.

How it travelled Arabic *ṭanbūr* (long-necked lute) → Old French *tambour* (drum) → English diminutive *tambourine*. The instrument changed but the root name for percussion carried across.

An object held to have magical protective powers.

How it travelled Greek *telesma* (consecration rite) → Arabic *ṭilasm* → French *talisman* → English in the 17th century. The Arabic was a technical term for a consecrated charm.

A glossy smooth-woven fabric.

How it travelled Arabic *zaytūnī* (from the port city Zaytun, today Quanzhou in China) → French *satin* → English. The name tracks the medieval silk trade backward to its Chinese origin.

A small shiny disc sewn onto clothing.

How it travelled Arabic *sikka* (a die for striking coins) → Italian *zecchino* (a Venetian gold coin) → French *sequin* → English. Originally a coin, then a coin-shaped ornament.

A golden spice made from crocus stigmas.

How it travelled Arabic *zaʿfarān* → Old French *safran* → English in the 14th century. The Arabic name travelled with the trade; the flower itself was cultivated from Spain to Kashmir.

A risk or danger.

How it travelled Arabic *az-zahr* (the die, in dice) → Old French *hasard* (game of chance) → English; the specific dice sense faded and the general "risk" meaning remained.

The winning move in chess.

How it travelled Persian/Arabic *shāh māt* ("the king is helpless") → Old French *eschec mat* → Middle English. The word "mate" here is not marriage but Arabic *māta* (to die, be helpless).

A Levantine dip of pureed chickpeas, tahini, and lemon.

How it travelled Arabic *ḥummuṣ* (chickpea) → English via mid-20th-century Middle-Eastern restaurants. The English sense is always the dip; in Arabic the word alone means the bean.

A deep-fried ball of ground chickpeas or fava beans.

How it travelled Arabic *falāfil* (plural of *filfil*, pepper) → English via Middle-Eastern cuisine spreading through Europe and North America. Plural origin, now used as singular.

A small recess or nook in a room.

How it travelled Arabic *al-qubbah* (the vault) → Spanish *alcoba* (bedroom) → French *alcôve* → English. The Arabic meant a domed chamber; the English narrowed it to a recess.

A Bengal-style house — single-storey, thatched, veranda on three sides.

How it travelled British East India Company officials adopted the design for upcountry postings; the word travelled back to Britain by the 1870s.

Verb: to press, to knead — as in a scalp massage.

How it travelled Brought to England by Sake Dean Mahomed, who opened "Shampooing Baths" in Brighton in 1814. The hair-wash sense stuck.

Leg-garment — loose trousers tied at the waist.

How it travelled Adopted by British colonials as sleepwear; the word followed the garment home and became standard in Britain by 1880.

Uncultivated ground, wasteland — not specifically forest.

How it travelled British travellers in India misapplied it to dense tropical forest, and that sense became the export version; the original "wasteland" sense is rare in English.

Plunder, booty — both verb and noun.

How it travelled Military slang from the 1780s, used by British soldiers in India. Entered general English with the East India Company's looting economy.

A title of Vishnu, especially at the Jagannath temple in Puri.

How it travelled British reports of the Puri chariot festival — where enormous wooden chariots are pulled by crowds — generated the metaphor "unstoppable force." The religious origin is now obscure.

Fine wool from the Kashmiri shawl trade.

How it travelled British travellers bought shawls in the Punjab markets; the fabric's name replaced the region's English spelling over time.

Member of a ritual Indian strangler cult, as framed by colonial administrators.

How it travelled William Sleeman's 1830s anti-thuggee campaign brought the word home; it generalised to "any violent criminal" in British English by 1870.

An open covered gallery along the side of a house.

How it travelled Portuguese colonial Goa → British Raj domestic architecture → home to Britain with the bungalow. The etymology is contested but the route isn't.

A Brahmin scholar; an authority on scripture.

How it travelled The British Raj used the word for its locally recruited learned advisors; it generalised to "opinionated expert" in 20th-century American English.

A descent — particularly of a deity taking earthly form.

How it travelled Sanskrit → English via 18th-century Orientalist translations of Hindu scripture. The digital-character sense (a video-game body) dates only to 1985.

Action — particularly action that carries moral consequences into future rebirths.

How it travelled Sanskrit → Hindi → English via Theosophist literature of the 1820s–1870s. The casual sense ("bad karma for cutting in line") is a 20th-century flattening.

Literally "heavy, weighty" — a teacher or spiritual authority.

How it travelled Sanskrit → Hindi → English via 17th-century travel writing. The "expert consultant" sense (financial guru, tech guru) emerged in American English in the 1960s.

A tie-dye technique (from Sanskrit *bandhana*, binding) — and the patterned cloth it produced.

How it travelled Hindi → Portuguese trade English → British English. The word followed the textile: Indian tie-dyed cloth exported to Europe and named for the technique.

Happiness, pleasure — hence "pleasant, easy."

How it travelled Hindi/Urdu *khushī* → Anglo-Indian military slang → British English via soldiers returning from WWI India. Often misspelled "kushy" in old regimental diaries.

A rigid bracelet.

How it travelled Hindi *baṅglī* (ornamental bracelet) → Anglo-Indian → English. Borrowed by British residents in the 18th century and never replaced by a native term.

A market or marketplace.

How it travelled Persian *bāzār* → Hindi/Urdu → Anglo-Indian → English. Also came independently from Persian via Ottoman Turkish, which is why both the Middle Eastern and Indian *bazaar* senses coexist.

Tea, especially spiced milk tea.

How it travelled Mandarin *chá* → Hindi *chāy* → English. The word split at the source: northern-route languages got *chai*-family words overland; southern-route (Hokkien *te*) reached Europe by sea as *tea*. Starbucks brought *chai* into global English in the 1990s.

A savoury condiment of fruit, herbs, and spices.

How it travelled Hindi *caṭnī* → Anglo-Indian → English. From *caṭnā* (to lick) — the name captures how the sauce is eaten by the fingerful rather than served in spoons.

A small, portable bed; a baby's crib.

How it travelled Hindi *khaṭ* (bedstead) → Anglo-Indian → English. The word replaced the older English *crib* in British military and colonial use; the camping-cot sense is a direct survival.

A waist sash worn with formal evening dress.

How it travelled Persian *kamar* (waist) + *band* (tie) → Hindi/Urdu → British officer dress in India → English formalwear. Adopted as a cooler alternative to woollen waistcoats, then moved into Western eveningwear.

A small boat, usually tendered to a larger one.

How it travelled Bengali/Hindi *ḍiṅgī* (small boat on the Ganges) → Anglo-Indian → English naval. The *h* was added in English to preserve the hard *g*; originally the word referred to a specific river craft.

Coarse cotton workwear; denim overalls.

How it travelled Hindi *ḍuṅgrī*, a coarse cloth from the Dongri area of Bombay → Anglo-Indian → English. First a fabric name, later a garment name; the American denim association is 20th-century.

A powerful business figure; originally, a Mughal emperor.

How it travelled Persian/Arabic *muġl* (Mongol, cf. Mughal dynasty) → English. The transferred sense ("movie mogul," "media mogul") emerges in early 20th-century American journalism from the imperial association.

Liberation from the cycle of rebirth; a state of bliss.

How it travelled Sanskrit *nirvāṇa* (extinguishing, as of a flame) → English Buddhist/scholarly writing → general vocabulary. The secular sense ("shopping nirvana") is a 20th-century dilution; the original sense is specific to Buddhist soteriology.

Genuine, proper, first-class.

How it travelled Hindi *pakkā* (cooked, ripe, solid) → Anglo-Indian → English, mostly British. *Pakkā* contrasts with *kaccā* (raw, flimsy) — a *pukka sahib* was a proper gentleman, a *pukka house* a solid brick one.

A dusty brownish-yellow colour; cloth of that colour.

How it travelled Persian/Urdu *xākī* (dusty, from *xāk*, dust) → Anglo-Indian military → English. British regiments in India started dyeing white uniforms to blend with dusty terrain in the 1840s; the colour name followed the uniform into every army.

A sacred sound or formula repeated in meditation; figuratively, a guiding slogan.

How it travelled Sanskrit *mantra* (instrument of thought) → Theosophical and yoga writing → English. The figurative sense ("the company mantra is...") is late 20th-century business English, from the repetition aspect.

A social outcast.

How it travelled Tamil *paṟaiyar* — a caste name, originally a drum-playing community → Portuguese → Anglo-Indian → English. The word's modern sense obscures the injustice it describes: a specific group stigmatised by the caste system, generalised by outsiders into a metaphor.

The durable tropical hardwood *Tectona grandis*.

How it travelled Malayalam/Tamil *tēkku* → Portuguese *teca* → English. Portuguese traders in Malabar needed a word for the shipbuilding timber they were buying; the Dravidian name travelled with the cargo.

A Hindu spiritual discipline involving breath, posture, and meditation.

How it travelled Sanskrit *yoga* (yoking, union) → English via colonial-era religious writings. Modern Western usage usually means the physical practice; the Sanskrit term is broader.

Riding trousers, tight below the knee.

How it travelled Named for the city of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, whose horsemen wore the style. Adapted by British officers in the 1890s and popularised at British riding schools.

A person of great wealth or prominence; originally a provincial governor.

How it travelled Urdu *nawāb* (honorific plural of Arabic *nāʾib*, deputy) → English via British East India Company officials who returned wealthy from India. Eventually used sarcastically for any rich man.

A Hindu religious teacher or ascetic.

How it travelled Sanskrit *svāmī* (lord, master) → English through Hindu revivalist teachers speaking in the West, notably Swami Vivekananda at the 1893 Chicago Parliament of Religions.

The currency unit of India, Pakistan, and other South Asian countries.

How it travelled Sanskrit *rūpyakam* (wrought silver) → Hindi/Urdu *rūpayā* → English via the British administration of India, where the word was standardised in the 16th-century currency system of Sher Shah Suri.

A respectful form of address for men, originally used by Indian speakers addressing Europeans.

How it travelled Arabic *ṣāḥib* (companion, friend) → Urdu/Hindi *sāhab* → English via the British Raj as a form of address. "Memsahib" (from "ma'am sahib") is its feminine counterpart.

An Anglo-Indian curry soup.

How it travelled Tamil *miḷaku-taṇṇīr* ("pepper water," a thin spiced broth) → English via British colonial kitchens, where it was thickened and served as a soup course in the Anglicised Victorian style.

A printed, glazed cotton fabric.

How it travelled Hindi *chīṇṭ* (spotted or variegated cotton) → English via 17th-century trade with Bengal and Madras. "Chintzy" (cheap, tacky) is a much later derogatory formation.

A dish of meat or vegetables in a spiced sauce.

How it travelled Tamil *kaṟi* (a sauce or relish eaten with rice) → English via Portuguese traders in the 16th century. The term in South India meant a specific kind of relish; English broadened it into a whole cuisine.

A light midday meal; in India, a lunchbox meal.

How it travelled From British dialect *tiffing* (sipping) → picked up in British India for a light snack or lunch → now especially associated with the stacked metal "tiffin carrier." Reverse-imported from British slang.

A mixed drink typically of fruit juice, spirits, spices, sugar, and water.

How it travelled Hindi/Sanskrit *pañch* (five) → English via sailors of the East India Company in the 1630s, referring to the five original ingredients. The name is not English "punch" as in strike.

A look, a glance (British slang).

How it travelled Hindi *dekho* (look! imperative of *dekhna*) → English as British army slang in the 19th century → civilian British slang for a glance. Virtually unknown in American English.

A fermented fish sauce.

How it travelled British sailors encountered it in the 17th century; English cooks tried to reproduce it with mushrooms, walnuts, and finally tomatoes. Only the tomato version survived.

A severe tropical cyclone.

How it travelled Probably reinforced by Arabic *ṭūfān* and Greek *typhōn* (both meaning whirlwind); the Chinese source dominated once English encountered Pacific storms.

The slogan of the Chinese Industrial Co-operatives, abbreviated in the 1930s.

How it travelled US Marine Raiders in WWII used it as a unit motto; post-war it loosened to mean "enthusiastic, over-eager."

A deep bow touching the forehead to the ground.

How it travelled British diplomatic accounts of the 1793 Macartney mission to Qianlong's court — where the embassy refused the gesture — gave the word its figurative life.

The infusion of Camellia sinensis leaves.

How it travelled Hokkien speakers in Xiamen traded with the Dutch — who carried both the leaf and the pronunciation west. Portuguese traders in Macau instead took the Mandarin *chá*, which is why every language today says either "tea" or "cha" depending on which route reached it.

Chinese Communist term for ideological re-education.

How it travelled A direct calque — Edward Hunter's 1950 *Miami Daily News* article introduced the English compound, reporting on Korean War POW treatment. Not a word, but a loan-translation worth listing.

The fruit of *Litchi chinensis*, a subtropical soapberry.

How it travelled Cantonese 荔枝 *lai chi* → Portuguese trader vocabulary → English. Variant spellings (litchi, lichee) reflect different romanisation traditions.

A rounded cooking pan for stir-frying.

How it travelled Cantonese 鑊 *wohk* → English via mid-20th-century Chinese-American restaurant vocabulary. The word spread faster than the cookware itself to Western kitchens.

Literally "wind-water" — the system of harmonising buildings and objects with their environment.

How it travelled Mandarin 風水 → English via 1970s California interior-design culture. Hong Kong expatriate practitioners carried it globally during the 1980s skyscraper boom.

Chinese martial arts.

How it travelled Mandarin *gōngfu* (skill acquired through effort) → English via Hong Kong cinema in the Bruce Lee era. The Mandarin sense is any skill from long practice, not specifically fighting; the martial-arts sense is an English specialisation.

Small steamed or fried snacks served with tea.

How it travelled Cantonese *dímsām* (to touch the heart) → English via Chinatown restaurants. The practice is from Cantonese teahouses (*yum cha*); English borrowed the snack name, not the tea name.

A four-player tile game.

How it travelled Mandarin *má-jiàng* (sparrow) → American English via a 1920s fad. Joseph Babcock, an American oil-company employee in Shanghai, standardised rules and exported sets to the US; a national craze followed.

The medicinal root *Panax ginseng*.

How it travelled Mandarin *rénshēn* (man-root, from its forked shape) → Hokkien *jîn-sim* → English via trade. The Hokkien pronunciation is what English inherits; the North American species *P. quinquefolius* was named after the Chinese one, not the other way round.

Chinese white cabbage.

How it travelled Cantonese *baahk-choi* (white vegetable) → American English via Cantonese-speaking immigrants to California. British English usually calls the same vegetable *pak choi*, from Mandarin *báicài*.

A filled dumpling served in soup.

How it travelled Cantonese *wàhn-tān* → American English via Chinese restaurants. The Mandarin cognate is *húntun*; the Cantonese pronunciation won because Cantonese emigration to North America predated Mandarin emigration by decades.

A Chinese practice of slow, flowing movements for health and martial art.

How it travelled Mandarin *tàijíquán* (supreme ultimate boxing) → English via 1960s–70s interest in Eastern exercise. The English form is shortened; the philosophical concept of *taiji* is much older than the exercise form.

The complementary pair of dark/light, passive/active principles in Chinese philosophy.

How it travelled Mandarin *yīn* (shaded side of a hill) + *yáng* (sunny side) → English via 19th-century translations of Daoist and Confucian texts → 20th-century pop-philosophy usage.

Food (slang); also a breed of dog.

How it travelled Cantonese *chāau* (to stir-fry), via pidgin English on 19th-century trade ships → American slang. The dog-breed sense ("chow chow") comes from the same pidgin, used of miscellaneous Chinese exports.

Something that looks threatening but has no real power.

How it travelled Mandarin *zhǐ lǎohǔ* → English via Mao Zedong's 1946 speech calling US imperialism a paper tiger. The phrase existed in Chinese long before Mao, but his usage is what brought it to English political discourse.

A grade of black tea made from young leaves and buds.

How it travelled Hokkien *bak-ho* (white down — the fine hair on young tea leaves) → English via the tea trade. The "orange" in *orange pekoe* is from the House of Orange, not the fruit.

To be humiliated; to lose social standing.

How it travelled A calque (word-for-word translation) of Mandarin *diūliǎn* → English via 19th-century China-trade diplomatic correspondence. Not a borrowed word but a borrowed concept — English had no exact equivalent before.

A small citrus fruit; a Chinese bureaucrat or language.

How it travelled Sanskrit *mantri* (counsellor) → Malay *mantri* → Portuguese *mandarim* (used of Ming officials) → English. The fruit is named after the colour of mandarin officials' robes; the language is named after the officials' speech.

A small flat-bottomed boat used in East and Southeast Asia.

How it travelled Cantonese *sāam báan* / Mandarin *sānbǎn* ("three planks") → English via 16th-century Portuguese traders. The name literally describes the minimal construction of the boat.

A fine white clay used in porcelain and paper.

How it travelled From Gaoling ("high ridge"), a hill in Jiangxi Province where the clay was mined → Portuguese and French missionary reports → English via the porcelain trade. An export named after its dig site.

A fine soft fibre produced by the silkworm.

How it travelled Chinese *sī* → Greek *sērikón* (of the Seres, the silk people) → Latin *sericum* → Old English *sioloc* → modern English *silk*. The direct path through Greek preserved an -l- from an earlier Silk Road variant.

A long close-fitting Chinese dress.

How it travelled Cantonese *chèuhng sāam* ("long shirt") → English via Hong Kong and 20th-century fashion journalism. In Mandarin the same garment is called *qípáo*.

A senior foreign businessman in Hong Kong or old Shanghai.

How it travelled Cantonese *daaihbāan* ("big class" or "big boss") → English via colonial-era Hong Kong trading houses. Fictionalised by James Clavell in his 1966 novel of the same name.

A Chinese association or secret society, especially in North American cities.

How it travelled Mandarin *táng* (hall, gathering place) → English via 19th-century San Francisco and New York Chinatown fraternities. The English word picked up a darker "criminal society" connotation by the 1890s.

A thick sweet-savoury sauce used in Chinese cuisine.

How it travelled Cantonese *hoi sin* ("sea taste") → English via Chinese restaurants in the West. Despite the name the sauce contains no seafood — the *sin* (taste, fresh) is the key part.

A partly oxidised Chinese tea.

How it travelled Hokkien/Mandarin *wū lóng* ("dark dragon") → English via 19th-century tea traders in Fujian. The name refers either to the curled dark leaves or to a Ming-era legend about the tea's discovery.

To kidnap or coerce someone into service, especially as a ship's crewman.

How it travelled The port city Shanghai → English verb in 19th-century San Francisco, where sailors were drugged and forced aboard ships bound for long China-trade voyages. The city name became the verb for the practice.

A Chinese-American stir-fry of meat, vegetables, and rice.

How it travelled Toisanese/Cantonese *zaap seui* ("miscellaneous pieces") → English via 19th-century Chinese-American cooks improvising for Western palates. The dish barely exists in China.

Stir-fried Chinese noodles.

How it travelled Mandarin *chǎo miàn* ("fried noodle") → English via the same Chinese-American restaurant wave as chop suey. Often anglicised with crispy noodles in the US, where it diverged from Cantonese tradition.

Chinese noodles tossed in sauce, served soft.

How it travelled Cantonese *lou mihn* ("tossed noodle") → English via Chinese restaurants in the mid-20th-century US. Distinguished from chow mein by the cooking method, not the noodle type.

A Chinese-American dish of stir-fried pork, vegetables, and egg served in thin pancakes.

How it travelled Mandarin *mù xū* (osmanthus flower, whose yellow cluster the scrambled egg resembles) → English via mid-20th-century US Chinese restaurants, where it became a widely known dish.

Originally a "restorative" — a rich broth sold at public eateries to restore health.

How it travelled The word was a shop sign ("bouillons restaurants") before it named the shop itself; the generalised "eating establishment" sense is post-1765.

A structured dance performance.

How it travelled Developed in 16th-century Italian courts, codified at the court of Louis XIV; the French form is the one that travelled because French dance terminology became the profession's standard.

One who undertakes — literally "between-taker," from *entre* + *prendre*.

How it travelled Jean-Baptiste Say's 1803 economic writing defined the role; the word entered English economics by the 1850s and general usage in the 20th century.

Imperative form of the reflexive verb *se rendre*.

How it travelled Military French: a meeting-point for troops. The romantic sense is an English specialisation that later bled back into French.

A metal printing block that reproduces a fixed phrase or image.

How it travelled Invented in 1800s French print shops; the figurative "overused phrase" sense entered English in the 1890s and displaced the literal one.

From *sabot* (wooden shoe) — popularly explained as "thrown into machinery" but more likely means "working clumsily like a peasant in clogs."

How it travelled French labour-movement vocabulary around 1900; crossed into English during WWI military intelligence reports.

To disguise — originally Parisian slang ("to puff smoke in someone's face").

How it travelled French *camoufler* → English via WWI trench warfare, where French military painters pioneered disruptive-pattern uniforms and vehicle paint schemes.

Kitchen — by extension, a manner or style of cooking.

How it travelled Old French *cuisine* (from Latin *coquina*) → English. Initially meant the room itself, narrowed to "style of cooking" by 1800s restaurant culture.

Head — short for *chef de cuisine*, the head of the kitchen.

How it travelled French *chef* (head) → English. In French, "chef" still means boss of anything; English narrowed to the kitchen. Older English "chief" is the same root, earlier route.

The face of a building — by extension, a deceptive outer appearance.

How it travelled French *façade* (from Italian *facciata*) → English via 17th-century architectural writing. The figurative sense ("putting up a facade") is a 19th-century novelist's device.

One who heats — originally the stoker of a steam engine.

How it travelled French *chauffer* (to heat) → English via early motoring journalism. Early French motorists were called "chauffeurs" because early cars had to be warmed up like steam engines.

A small, stylish shop.

How it travelled Old Provençal *botica* (from Greek *apothēkē*, storehouse) → French → English. The original sense was any small shop; the fashion/luxury connotation is mid-20th-century marketing.

A writing desk; an administrative office.

How it travelled Old French *burel* (coarse woollen cloth, used as a desk cover) → *bureau* (the desk) → (the office on it) → English. The metonymic shift from cloth to desk to office happened within French before English borrowed any of it.

A sudden, decisive stroke; a political overthrow (short for *coup d'état*).

How it travelled French *coup* (blow, from Latin *colpus*) → English in several compounds (*coup de grâce*, *coup d'état*, *coup de théâtre*) → used alone. The bare-noun sense ("it was a coup to get him") is 20th-century.

A crescent-shaped flaky pastry.

How it travelled French *croissant* (crescent) → English via 20th-century bakery culture. The pastry itself is Austrian in origin (a Viennese *kipferl*); it became French when a Viennese baker opened a Paris shop in 1839. English borrowed the French form.

A first public appearance.

How it travelled French *débuter* (to start, literally to make a first move in a game) → noun *début* → English. Originally theatrical; now used for anything from albums to products to careers.

A collection of documents on a person or subject.

How it travelled French *dossier* — a bundle labelled on the back, from *dos* (back) → English. The physical image of a stack with a spine label survives in the meaning even as dossiers have gone digital.

The most select or powerful group.

How it travelled French *élite* (the chosen, past participle of *élire*) → English. The political sense ("the elite") is much older than the marketing sense ("elite membership"); both come from the same word.

A group of performers; a coordinated outfit.

How it travelled French *ensemble* (together) → English in music and fashion contexts. The fashion sense ("a lovely ensemble") is Edwardian department-store language; the musical sense predates it.

A person engaged to be married (masculine/feminine).

How it travelled French past participle of *fiancer* (to betroth) → English. One of few French loans to preserve gender marking (the final *-e* changes by gender) and accent in written English.

A connoisseur of fine food; adjective for high-quality food.

How it travelled Old French *gromet* (a wine merchant's servant who tasted wine) → modern *gourmet* → English. The word used to mean a young servant; it narrowed to a connoisseur in the 19th century.

An afternoon performance of a play, film, or concert.

How it travelled French *matinée* (morning) → English with a semantic shift: in French the word means the whole morning as an event; in English it narrowed to a daytime show, contrasted with an evening one.

A subtle distinction or shade of meaning.

How it travelled French *nuance* (shade of colour, from *nue*, cloud) → English. The colour-shading sense is still preserved in French painting vocabulary; English uses it almost exclusively as an intellectual metaphor.

An outline or solid black shape of a person or object.

How it travelled Named for Étienne de Silhouette, Louis XV's finance minister in 1759, whose austerity measures made his name synonymous with anything cheap and reductive. The portrait style — cheap to make — took his name. English borrowed it early.

A close, sympathetic relationship.

How it travelled French *rapport* (a bringing-back, an account, a relation) → English. The word has multiple senses in French (report, relationship, ratio); English kept only the relationship one.

Experimental or innovative, especially in art.

How it travelled Old French *avant-garde* (military: the foremost part of a moving army) → English, first in the military sense (1400s), then generalised to art and culture in the 20th century.

A soft round flat-crowned cap.

How it travelled French *béret*, from Béarnais dialect, from Late Latin *birrus* (a hooded cloak). The Basque shepherd's hat became military headgear and then a mid-century style staple.

Of the middle class; conventionally respectable, materialistic.

How it travelled Old French *burgeis* (townsman, from *burg*, fortified town) → French *bourgeois* → English. The class meaning was fixed by 19th-century French political writers and spread through Marxist theory.

Elegantly and stylishly fashionable.

How it travelled French *chic* (possibly from German *Schick*, orderliness, or French *chicane*, subtlety) → English via 19th-century fashion writing. The adjective eventually became a noun ("it has a certain chic").

The feeling of having already experienced the present moment.

How it travelled French *déjà vu* ("already seen") → English via the psychologist Émile Boirac in 1876, who coined the technical term in his *L'Avenir des sciences psychiques*. Still kept as a French phrase.

A sturdy twilled cotton fabric, typically blue.

How it travelled French *serge de Nîmes* (serge from the city of Nîmes) → contracted to *denim* in English → then exported back worldwide via American blue jeans. "Jean" similarly comes from "Genoa."

A repeated or additional performance.

How it travelled French adverb *encore* (still, again) → English as an exclamation shouted at theatres in the 1710s, then as a noun for the extra performance it produced. Ironically, French audiences do not shout "encore."

A social blunder.

How it travelled French *faux pas* ("false step") → English via 17th-century courtly etiquette writing. Kept as a two-word French phrase; very rarely naturalised as "fox pass" in speech.

A category of artistic work marked by shared form or content.

How it travelled French *genre* (kind, type, from Latin *genus*) → English in the 18th century in art criticism, used specifically for scenes of everyday life, then broadened in the 20th century to any creative category.

A connection, communication link, or sometimes a romantic affair.

How it travelled French *liaison* (binding, linking, from Latin *ligare*, to bind) → English via 17th-century military vocabulary → broadened to cover diplomacy, romance, and cooking (where it means a sauce-binder).

Showing a lack of experience or wisdom.

How it travelled French *naïve* (natural, unaffected; feminine of *naïf*, from Latin *nativus*) → English via 17th-century borrowing. The diaeresis on the i is sometimes kept in English to prevent a one-syllable reading.

An object kept as a reminder of a place or event.

How it travelled French *souvenir* (verb: to remember; noun: memory, from Latin *subvenire*, to come to mind) → English via 18th-century travel writing. The noun sense of "keepsake" is actually an English specialisation.

A small restaurant serving coffee and light meals.

How it travelled French *café* (from Italian *caffè*, ultimately from Arabic *qahwa*) → English in the 19th century as the Continental coffeehouse model spread. Kept the French accent in formal writing; dropped in informal.

Cold blood — composure under pressure.

How it travelled French aristocratic register → English via 18th-c. memoirs and dueling literature.

To the purpose — relevant.

How it travelled French phrase preserved as a single English word from the 17th c.

Head to head — a private one-to-one meeting.

How it travelled French aristocratic register → English in the 17th c.

Coffee-house; coffee-seller's shop.

How it travelled Borrowed into US English around 1890 via Spanish-speaking California; the "self-service dining hall" sense is a 1920s American innovation.

Diminutive of *guerra* (war).

How it travelled Entered English during the Peninsular War (1807–14), when Spanish irregular fighters harassed Napoleon's armies. The meaning transferred from the fighters to the tactic.

Literally "tube" or "pipe" — a deep, narrow gorge shaped like one.

How it travelled Adopted from Mexican Spanish by US settlers in the 1830s as they moved west; the English "ñ"-less spelling is a convenience, not a translation.

Feminine past participle of *armar* (to arm), used as a noun.

How it travelled Naturalised in English after the failed 1588 Spanish invasion attempt — the word that described the enemy stuck.

An amateur enthusiast, especially of bullfighting.

How it travelled Hemingway's *Death in the Afternoon* (1932) naturalised the word in English. The bullfighting context was lost; the "devotee" sense stuck.

An inner courtyard — typically open to the sky.

How it travelled Spanish *patio* (from Old Occitan *patu*, pasture) → English via American Southwest architectural vocabulary. The backyard-concrete sense is a 20th-century US specialisation.

A round-up — gathering cattle in a ring.

How it travelled Spanish *rodeo* (from *rodear*, to surround) → American English via Mexican vaquero culture in Texas, California, and the wider West.

Male — applied to animals before it came to mean a performatively masculine human.

How it travelled Spanish *macho* → English via Mexican-American usage in the 1920s. Became pop-culture currency through 1970s US sitcoms and the Village People's "Macho Man" (1978).

Little fly — diminutive of *mosca* (fly).

How it travelled Spanish *mosquito* → English via early 16th-century New World exploration accounts. Older English used "gnat" before adopting the Spanish word for tropical species.

Little sheath — a diminutive of *vaina* (pod), describing the seed pod shape.

How it travelled Spanish → English via the Mesoamerican spice trade of the 1600s. The "generic / plain" sense is a late-20th-century marketing extension — vanilla ice cream was the default flavour.

Sun-dried mud brick; a building made from it.

How it travelled Arabic *ṭūba* (brick) → Spanish *adobe* → American English via the Southwest after 1848. Arabic word, American Spanish usage, English adoption; the software company took its name from a creek in California named for the mud bricks.

A large aquatic reptile of the *Alligator* genus.

How it travelled Spanish *el lagarto* (the lizard) → English via 16th-century Spanish-language accounts of the American South. English mashed the article and noun into a single word, which is why the *l-* is doubled.

A friend (informal).

How it travelled Spanish *amigo* (friend, from Latin *amicus*) → American English via Southwest contact. Always informal, often jocular; never fully naturalised the way *buddy* is.

A sudden source of wealth; a rich ore deposit.

How it travelled Spanish *bonanza* (fair weather at sea, from Latin *bonus*) → American English via miners in the 1840s California Gold Rush. Miners borrowed the sailor's word for good luck; the TV show borrowed the miners'.

A show of courage, often pretended.

How it travelled Old Spanish *bravada* (a brave deed) → English with the ending reshaped to match Italian-style *-ado* words. The negative connotation — empty bravery — is an English development; the Spanish original is neutral.

Goods carried by a ship, plane, or vehicle.

How it travelled Spanish *cargo* (load, from *cargar*, to load) → English via maritime trade. Cousin of *charge* and *carriage*, all from Latin *carrus* (wagon).

A rolled bundle of dried tobacco leaves for smoking.

How it travelled Mayan *sik'ar* (to smoke) → Spanish *cigarro* → English via Cuban trade. The Mayan root is the ultimate source; Spanish preserved it almost unchanged.

The leaves of the coriander plant, used as a herb.

How it travelled Spanish *cilantro* (from Latin *coriandrum*) → American English via Mexican cuisine. British English uses *coriander* for the herb and seed; American English borrowed the Spanish name for the leaves only, keeping *coriander* for the seed.

A government ban on trade.

How it travelled Spanish *embargo* (impediment, from *embargar*, to impede) → English. Originally a commercial-legal term for a ship held in port; now generalised to any trade restriction.

A festival or celebration.

How it travelled Spanish *fiesta* (feast, from Latin *festa*) → American English as a direct borrowing, usually marking a Hispanic cultural event. Ford used the name for a car in 1976; the cognate *feast* is much older in English.

Enthusiastic enjoyment.

How it travelled Spanish *gusto* (taste) → English via Italian *gusto* (both from Latin *gustus*). The Italian path gave the word a specifically *relish* sense in English; the Spanish word normally means *taste* more broadly.

A public square.

How it travelled Spanish *plaza* (square, from Latin *platea*) → American English via the Southwest. Cousin to English *place* and Italian *piazza*, all from the same Latin word.

A rectangular cloak with a head-hole.

How it travelled Araucanian (Mapuche) *pontho* → Chilean Spanish → English via 19th-century South American contact. Technically an indigenous word, but English inherits it via Spanish, which is where it picked up its modern form.

An afternoon nap.

How it travelled Spanish *siesta* (from Latin *sexta hora*, the sixth hour — noon) → English. The word literally names the time, not the nap; the nap association is cultural. Modern research suggests the afternoon dip is a sensible physiological response to hot climates.

A filled tortilla.

How it travelled Mexican Spanish *taco* (a plug, a wad) → American English via 20th-century Mexican-American restaurants. The earliest recorded English use is 1905; Taco Bell launched in 1962 and globalised the word.

A forage plant and legume, *Medicago sativa*.

How it travelled Arabic *al-fiṣfiṣa* → Spanish *alfalfa* → English via 19th-century American agriculture. California farmers picked up both the crop and the Spanish name from Mexican ranchers.

A small grocery or wine shop, especially in urban Hispanic neighbourhoods.

How it travelled Spanish *bodega* (storeroom, cellar, from Latin *apotheca*, storehouse) → English via Spanish-speaking neighbourhoods in US cities, especially New York in the mid-20th century.

A Mexican dish of filling wrapped in a flour tortilla.

How it travelled Mexican Spanish *burrito* ("little donkey," diminutive of *burro*) → English via 20th-century Tex-Mex and California cuisine. The name's origin is disputed — possibly because the bundled shape resembles a donkey's pack.

A Spanish soldier who conquered parts of the Americas in the 16th century.

How it travelled Spanish *conquistador* (conqueror) → English as the historical term for Cortés, Pizarro, and their contemporaries. English has always used it in this narrowed historical sense.

A Mexican dish of tortillas rolled around a filling and covered in chilli sauce.

How it travelled Mexican Spanish *enchilada* (past participle of *enchilar*, to season with chilli) → English via Tex-Mex in the early 20th century. The idiom "the whole enchilada" dates to 1960s US slang.

A Spanish Romani art form of song, dance, and guitar.

How it travelled Spanish *flamenco* (Flemish, i.e. from Flanders) → named either for gypsy performers' perceived exoticism or for Flemish troops in Andalusia. The etymology remains contested among scholars.

A Mexican dip of mashed avocado, lime, and seasoning.

How it travelled Nahuatl *āhuacamōlli* (avocado sauce) → Mexican Spanish *guacamole* → English via 20th-century Tex-Mex. The *-mōlli* element also gives "mole" (the Mexican sauce).

A medium-hot green chilli pepper.

How it travelled Mexican Spanish *jalapeño* (from Jalapa, now Xalapa, in Veracruz, Mexico) → English with the tilde preserved in careful writing. The pepper is named for its city of origin.

A looped rope used to catch cattle and horses.

How it travelled Spanish *lazo* (snare, from Latin *laqueus*) → American English in the 1820s via Texas and California ranching. The "ss" spelling was added in English to reinforce the second-syllable stress.

A flat-topped hill with steep sides, common in the American Southwest.

How it travelled Spanish *mesa* (table, from Latin *mensa*) → American English via Spanish explorers and Mexican rancheros in the Southwest. The "table" metaphor was applied to the landform in Spain long before.

A feral horse of the American West, descended from Spanish imports.

How it travelled Mexican Spanish *mestengo/mesteño* (stray, unclaimed animal, from *mesta*, a livestock association) → English in the 1800s as American settlers encountered the wild horse herds.

A broad-brimmed Mexican hat.

How it travelled Spanish *sombrero* (from *sombra*, shade) → English in the 18th century. Literally "shade-maker," a sensible description of its function in the Mexican sun.

A thin flatbread made from corn or wheat flour, central to Mexican cuisine.

How it travelled Spanish *tortilla* ("little cake," diminutive of *torta*) → English via Mexican cooking in the Southwest. The Mexican corn tortilla and the Spanish egg tortilla are unrelated dishes sharing a name.

Do you know? — pidgin Spanish "savvy" meaning practical knowledge.

How it travelled West Indian and pidgin shipboard slang; settled in American English by 1800.

Testicles — colloquially courage, audacity.

How it travelled Spanish vulgarity → Hemingway's 1932 "Death in the Afternoon" → general English.

A title used for the shōgun in diplomatic correspondence with foreigners.

How it travelled Commodore Perry's 1853 mission brought the word home to the US, where it became newsroom slang for a business magnate by the 1920s.

Small-unit military leader.

How it travelled American GIs in occupied Japan (1945–52) adopted the word; it reached general US slang by the 1950s as "the person in charge."

The destructive wave that reaches coastal harbours after a seismic event.

How it travelled Entered scientific English after the 1896 Meiji Sanriku tsunami; general usage followed the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which displaced the older "tidal wave."

A pictographic symbol used in digital text.

How it travelled NTT DoCoMo's Shigetaka Kurita designed the first set in 1999; Apple's 2011 iOS integration turned emoji into a global English noun. Coincidentally resembles "emotion"+"icon," which is not the etymology.

Recorded instrumental tracks for amateur singing.

How it travelled Invented by musician Daisuke Inoue in Kobe in 1971; the machine and the word travelled together across the Pacific in the 1980s.

Literally "folded paper" — the art of paper folding.

How it travelled Japanese 折り紙 → English via 1950s craft publishing. The art is much older than the word; "origami" became the canonical English name after WWII occupation-era cultural exchange.

Literally "thing to wear" (着物) — the traditional Japanese robe.

How it travelled Japanese → English via Meiji-era (1860s–1890s) trade and diplomacy. Used briefly for any Asian-style robe in Western fashion before narrowing back to the Japanese garment.

Literally "empty hand" (空手) — martial art practiced without weapons.

How it travelled Okinawan → Japanese → English via US servicemen stationed in Okinawa after 1945. Hollywood (*The Karate Kid*, 1984) entrenched the word in English beyond dojo culture.

Literally "whimsical pictures" (漫画) — Japanese comic books.

How it travelled Japanese → English via 1980s–90s anime/manga import scenes (Viz Media, Tokyopop). Earlier uses in academic writing on Hokusai's *Hokusai Manga* sketchbooks (1814).

Meditation — the Japanese pronunciation of Chinese *chán*, itself from Sanskrit *dhyāna*.

How it travelled Sanskrit → Chinese → Japanese → English via D.T. Suzuki's mid-20th-century popularisations. The casual "zen mode" sense is a 1990s tech-industry extension.

The art of cultivating miniature trees in trays.

How it travelled Japanese *bonsai* (tray-planting, borrowed from Chinese *penzai*) → English via mid-20th-century interest in Japanese arts. The art is originally Chinese (*penjing*); the Japanese refinement is what English knows.

A training hall for martial arts.

How it travelled Japanese *dōjō* (place of the way, from Sanskrit *bodhimaṇḍa* via Buddhism) → English via post-war martial-arts spread. Originally a meditation hall in Japanese Buddhism; the martial-arts sense is secondary in Japanese too.

A quilted mattress; in Western use, a foldable couch-bed.

How it travelled Japanese *futon* → American English via 1970s alternative-living culture. The Japanese original is a thin quilted pad rolled up by day; the Western "futon" is a different object with the same name.

A professional Japanese female entertainer.

How it travelled Japanese *geisha* (art-person) → English via late-19th-century Japonisme. Often misunderstood in the West as a sex worker; the Japanese original refers to a trained performer of dance, music, and conversation.

A 17-syllable Japanese poem in three lines.

How it travelled Japanese *haiku* (shortened from *haikai no ku*) → English via 20th-century poetry (Ezra Pound, the Imagists). English haiku count syllables; Japanese haiku count *on*, a different unit — the forms are only approximate cousins.

A small charcoal grill.

How it travelled Japanese *hibachi* (fire bowl) → American English. The Japanese original is a heating brazier, not a cooking grill; the American "hibachi" is a mistranslation that stuck.

A Japanese martial art emphasising throws and grappling.

How it travelled Japanese *jūdō* (gentle way) → English via founder Jigoro Kano's 1880s codification → 20th-century Olympic adoption. Derived from the older *jūjutsu*; Kano stripped out the dangerous techniques to make a teachable sport.

A covert agent of feudal Japan; figuratively, an expert.

How it travelled Japanese *ninja* (person of stealth) → English via 1960s James Bond-era fascination and 1980s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Historical ninja were espionage specialists, not the black-clad assassins of pop culture.

A two-wheeled passenger cart pulled by a person.

How it travelled Japanese *jinrikisha* (human-power-vehicle) → English as a clipped form. Invented in Japan around 1869 and exported throughout Asia; the cycle-rickshaw is a later South Asian development.

Japanese rice wine.

How it travelled Japanese *sake* → English via trade. A homograph with English *sake* (for the sake of) but unrelated; pronounced differently (sah-kay vs sayk).

A member of the Japanese warrior caste of the feudal era.

How it travelled Japanese *samurai* (one who serves) → English via 19th-century scholarship. The class was abolished in the 1870s Meiji reforms; the word lived on.

A teacher or master, especially in martial arts.

How it travelled Japanese *sensei* (born before, i.e. elder) → English via martial-arts schools. In Japan the title is used for any respected professional — including doctors and lawyers; in English it is almost exclusively martial-arts.

Vinegared rice with toppings, often fish.

How it travelled Japanese *sushi* → English via post-war restaurant culture. Originally a preservation method (*narezushi*, fermented fish); modern nigiri-zushi is a 19th-century Tokyo fast food.

Battered and deep-fried seafood or vegetables.

How it travelled Portuguese *têmporas* (Ember Days, Catholic fasting days with no-meat fish fry-ups) → Japanese *tempura* → English. A borrowing in reverse: the Japanese borrowed the Portuguese practice from 16th-century missionaries, then English borrowed it back centuries later.

A soft cheese-like food made from soybean curd.

How it travelled Mandarin *dòufu* → Japanese *tōfu* → English. English inherited the Japanese form despite the food being Chinese in origin; the Japanese contact was more direct during the 20th-century health-food wave.

Japanese-style animated film or television.

How it travelled Japanese *anime* (itself a shortening of English "animation") → re-borrowed into English as a specific style, starting in the 1980s → universal by the 2000s. A round-trip loanword.

A Japanese single-portion boxed meal.

How it travelled Japanese *bentō* (convenience, portioned meal, possibly from the Chinese *biàndāng*) → English via Japanese restaurants and convenience-store culture in the late 20th century.

Young green soybeans served in their pods.

How it travelled Japanese *edamame* ("stem beans," picked still on the branch) → English via late-20th-century Japanese restaurants, particularly popular as an appetiser.

A curved single-edged sword traditionally used by the samurai.

How it travelled Japanese *katana* (one-edged blade) → English via 19th-century trade and later via martial-arts films. A very specific technical word; English does not use it for European sword types.

A fermented soybean paste used in Japanese cooking.

How it travelled Japanese *miso* (from an older *mi-su*, itself possibly from Korean). → English in the 19th century through diplomatic and trade contact; now mainstream in Western supermarkets.

A Japanese soup of wheat noodles in broth.

How it travelled Japanese *rāmen* (from Chinese *lāmiàn*, "pulled noodles") → English via post-WWII Japan → global familiarity through instant ramen and 2000s ramen shops.

A masterless samurai; informally, a drifter.

How it travelled Japanese *rōnin* ("wave man" or wanderer) → English via samurai literature and film → informal modern use for college applicants who spend a year studying after failing entrance exams.

Thinly sliced raw fish served without rice.

How it travelled Japanese *sashimi* ("pierced body," referring to the decorative cut, or to an old practice of marking the fish species on the plate) → English via Japanese restaurants in the mid-20th century.

The hereditary military governor of Japan (1185–1868).

How it travelled Japanese *shōgun* ("general," from Chinese *jiāngjūn*) → English via 17th-century reports by European traders → popularised in the West by James Clavell's 1975 novel and its televised adaptation.

A small amount; a little.

How it travelled Japanese *sukoshi* (a little) → English via US servicemen stationed in Japan after 1945. Casual register only; nearly always in the phrase "a skosh more."

A Japanese cooking method in which meat or fish is grilled with a sweet soy glaze.

How it travelled Japanese *teri* (shine) + *yaki* (grilled) → English via Japanese-American restaurants mid-20th century, now ubiquitous in Western supermarket sauces.

A pungent Japanese horseradish-like condiment, usually green.

How it travelled Japanese *wasabi* (native to Japan) → English via sushi culture in the 1980s. Most wasabi outside Japan is horseradish dyed green; real wasabi is rare and expensive.

The savoury fifth taste, alongside sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.

How it travelled Japanese *umami* ("good taste") → coined as a scientific term by chemist Kikunae Ikeda in 1908 after he isolated glutamate → adopted in English after glutamate research was globalised in the 1980s.

Divine wind — the 1281 typhoon that wrecked Mongol invasion fleets.

How it travelled Revived for the WWII suicide pilots; figurative ("kamikaze pricing") since 1980s.

To drag, haul, trudge.

How it travelled Yiddish → American-Jewish English in New York in the early 20th century → general US usage by the 1960s. A set of roughly two dozen Yiddish verbs made the same trip.

A slip; a minor slip or slide.

How it travelled Yiddish → American English → NASA engineering slang in the early 1960s → general tech vocabulary. The technical specialisation happened fast.

Audacity, nerve — originally with a clearly negative edge.

How it travelled Yiddish → New York English → broader US English by 1970. The "admirable boldness" sense is an American ameliorative drift away from the Yiddish original.

A boiled-then-baked ring of bread, from Ashkenazi Polish Jewish tradition.

How it travelled Polish-Jewish immigration to New York (1880–1920); the word stayed regional until the 1960s when industrial bakeries made the bagel a national food.

A block of wood — hence a clumsy, oafish person.

How it travelled Yiddish (from Middle High German *kloz*) → American English via 20th-century New York comedy writing. Milton Berle and the Catskills circuit popularised it beyond Jewish communities.

Literally "to squeeze" or "press" — hence, to complain persistently.

How it travelled Yiddish → American English via 1960s comedy. Leo Rosten's *The Joys of Yiddish* (1968) standardised the spelling and carried it into mainstream usage.

Informal talk — Yiddish for "chat, conversation."

How it travelled Yiddish (from Hebrew *shemu'ot*, "things heard") → American English. Acquired its networking-at-a-cocktail-party connotation in 1980s business journalism.

An expert, one who understands — from Hebrew *mebin*, "one who understands."

How it travelled Yiddish → American English. Popularised by a 1964 Vita Herring advertising campaign starring "The Beloved Herring Maven" before spreading to wider expert usage.

Nothing; zero; something of no value.

How it travelled Yiddish *bobkes* (beans, goat droppings) → American English slang. The "nothing" sense is a slang leap from "something as trivial as beans."

Rubbish; worthless material.

How it travelled Yiddish *drek* (excrement, from Middle High German *drec*) → American English slang. Softened in English to "junk," but in Yiddish the word keeps its full vulgar force.

To watch a game and comment on it, especially chess or cards; more generally, to chat.

How it travelled Yiddish *kibitsn* (from German *Kiebitz*, a lapwing — the bird that watches nests) → American English. The card-game sense is the original; the conversational sense is a 20th-century extension.

Conforming to Jewish dietary law; figuratively, legitimate.

How it travelled Hebrew *kāshēr* (fit, proper) → Yiddish *kosher* → American English. The figurative sense ("it's not kosher") is an American development from the 1920s.

A decent, honourable person.

How it travelled Yiddish *mentsh* (from German *Mensch*, person) → American English. In German *Mensch* just means *human*; Yiddish adds a strong moral sense, and it is this sense that English borrowed.

Crazy, mad.

How it travelled Hebrew *meshuggaʿ* (insane) → Yiddish → American English slang. Often spelled *meshugga* or *meshugge*; English has not settled on one form.

To snack; a small informal meal.

How it travelled Yiddish *nashn* (to nibble, from Middle High German) → American English slang → British English via 20th-century London Jewish culture.

An exclamation of dismay or exasperation.

How it travelled Yiddish *oy* (oh) + *vey* (woe, from German *Weh*) → American English. A complete phrase borrowed as a unit, which is rare; most loans are single words.

Shoddy or cheap merchandise; trashy cultural product.

How it travelled Yiddish *shlak* (a stroke, something damaged, from German *Schlag*) → American English garment-trade slang. Originally meant damaged goods sold at discount; generalised to anything cheap and trashy.

A signature comic bit or personal gimmick.

How it travelled Yiddish *shtik* (piece, from German *Stück*) → American English via vaudeville and Catskills comedy. A comedian's shtick is literally their *piece* — the part of the act that is theirs.

A long or elaborate speech, especially a sales pitch.

How it travelled Yiddish *shpil* / German *Spiel* (play, game) → American English via 19th-century carnival barker slang. The carnival connection is why the word often carries a whiff of manipulation.

A small decorative trinket; knick-knack.

How it travelled Yiddish *tshatshke* (probably from a Slavic source) → American English. Notorious for its spelling — the *tch-* at the start is an attempt to render the Yiddish affricate, and speakers disagree on standard spellings.

A congratulatory exclamation.

How it travelled Yiddish *mazl tov* (from Hebrew *mazzāl ṭôb*, "good constellation" — i.e. good fortune) → English via American Jewish life, and now used widely as a generic congratulation at weddings and milestones.

A long, involved story or rigmarole.

How it travelled Yiddish *megile* (from Hebrew *məgillâ*, scroll — specifically the Book of Esther read at Purim) → English as slang for any long-winded explanation, often in "the whole megillah."

Brined, seasoned, smoked beef brisket.

How it travelled Yiddish *pastrame* (from Romanian *pastramă*, from Turkish *basdırma*, "pressed meat") → English via Jewish immigrants' delicatessens in late 19th-century New York. A multi-borrowing.

To collapse from strong emotion (laughter, exhaustion, exasperation).

How it travelled Yiddish *platsn* (to burst, crack, from Middle High German *platzen*) → English via American Jewish speech in the 1940s, often hyperbolic: "I nearly plotzed."

A foolish or contemptible person; (vulgar) a penis.

How it travelled Yiddish *pots* (penis) → English as a mild insult, especially in American Jewish speech → the verb "putz around" (waste time) is a related euphemism.

Excessive sentimentality, especially in music or film.

How it travelled Yiddish *shmalts* (rendered chicken fat, from Middle High German *smalz*, fat) → English literally in kosher cooking, metaphorically for syrupy sentimentality (something that "pours thick").

A smear (especially of cream cheese on a bagel); a whole package or set.

How it travelled Yiddish *shmir* (a smear, from German *Schmiere*, grease) → English via American delis → "the whole schmear" meaning a comprehensive package mirrors "the whole megillah."

A foolish or contemptible person.

How it travelled Yiddish *shmok* (penis, originally), meaning shifted to "fool" in American English → by the 1960s the sexual sense had faded in English and it was used casually, though it retains vulgarity in Yiddish.

A non-Jewish girl or woman (sometimes derogatory).

How it travelled Yiddish *shikse* (from Hebrew *šeqeṣ*, a detested thing, with a feminine ending) → English via American Jewish speech → sometimes considered pejorative due to its harsh Hebrew root.

Buttocks, rear end.

How it travelled Yiddish *tukhes* (from Hebrew *taḥat*, under, beneath) → English in American Jewish speech by the 1910s. Usually a softer euphemism than English equivalents.

Overcome with emotion; choked up.

How it travelled Yiddish *farklemt* (from German *verklemmt*, stuck, squeezed) → English via Mike Myers's "Coffee Talk" sketch on SNL (1991), which turned it into a mainstream Yiddishism.

A gossipy, busybody woman.

How it travelled Yiddish *yente* (originally a Yiddish given name, Yente/Yentl, from Italian *gentile*) → English as a common noun for any chatty matchmaker, cemented by the character in *Fiddler on the Roof* (1964).

A single-hulled boat of the Caribbean Taino people.

How it travelled Columbus's crew recorded the word in 1492 — one of the first Caribbean loanwords to enter European languages. English picked it up from Spanish by the 1550s.

A bitter cacao-and-chili drink of the Aztec court.

How it travelled Nahuatl → Spanish → French → English. The drink was a ritual beverage; English adopted both the word and the practice of sweetening it.

One specific species of grey kangaroo.

How it travelled Recorded by Joseph Banks in 1770 on Cook's first voyage, from speakers near the Endeavour River in Queensland. The word generalised in English to the whole macropod family.

A soft leather shoe.

How it travelled Recorded by English colonists in the Jamestown settlement. One of the earliest Algonquian loanwords in English, alongside *raccoon*, *squash*, and *terrapin*.

The fruit of Solanum lycopersicum.

How it travelled Nahuatl → Spanish *tomate* → Italian *pomodoro* (briefly) → English via *tomate*, with the final -o added by analogy with *potato*.

A throwing-stick of the Sydney basin Aboriginal peoples.

How it travelled Recorded by First Fleet colonists around Port Jackson in the 1820s. Returning-boomerang is the English stereotype; most traditional boomerangs are straight hunting sticks that don't return.

The Taino name for a violent tropical storm — possibly also a deity.

How it travelled Taino → Spanish *huracán* → English via 16th-century Caribbean colonial reports. One of the first Amerindian words to enter standard English.

A wooden frame on posts — used for smoking, drying, or roasting meat.

How it travelled Taino → Spanish → English via 17th-century Caribbean colonial writing. The modern US backyard sense (grill + social event) evolved through 19th-century Southern political rallies.

The Taino name for a hanging bed, woven from tree-bark fibres.

How it travelled Taino → Spanish *hamaca* → English via Columbus-era travel accounts. Adopted as standard naval shipboard furniture by the Royal Navy around 1600.

The Nahuatl word for the fruit; it also meant "testicle," a visual joke.

How it travelled Nahuatl → Spanish *aguacate* → English via the Spanish West Indian trade. "Alligator pear" was a 19th-century folk-etymological mishearing still heard in the American South.

A small, covered boat used by Arctic peoples for hunting.

How it travelled Inuktitut → Danish (via Greenland contact) → English. The recreational sporting sense is a 20th-century European development; the original design is thousands of years old.

A hooded waterproof jacket.

How it travelled Kalaallisut (Greenlandic Inuit) *annoraaq* → Danish → English. Adopted by Arctic explorers in the late 19th century; British slang later extended the word to mean an obsessive hobbyist, from the stereotype of bird-watchers in heavy coats.

A slow-moving, marshy waterway.

How it travelled Choctaw *bayuk* (creek) → Louisiana French *bayou* → American English. The word is specifically Gulf Coast geography; using it elsewhere is always a Gulf Coast reference.

The North American reindeer.

How it travelled Mi'kmaq *qalipu* (snow-shoveller — they dig for lichen under snow) → Canadian French *caribou* → English. A fine example of a practical-observational animal name that travelled intact.

A small striped ground squirrel of North America.

How it travelled Ojibwe *ajidamoo* (head-first, for its descent down trees) → English via French traders. The English spelling is a folk-etymology reshaping with *chip* and *munk* to suggest sound and size.

The North American wild canid *Canis latrans*.

How it travelled Nahuatl *coyotl* → Mexican Spanish *coyote* → American English via the Southwest. Shares its origin route with *tomato*, *chocolate*, and *avocado* — Nahuatl via Spanish.

A North American tree of the walnut family, and its wood.

How it travelled Powhatan (Algonquian) *pocohiquara* (a milky drink made from the nut) → English via Virginia colonists. English kept the *-iquara* ending and dropped the front; the same tree was formerly called "pohickory."

A breed of Arctic sled dog.

How it travelled A clipped form of *Huskemaw*, an older English term for the Inuit, itself a mangling of the people's own word. The dog is named for its original owners; the word *Eskimo* itself is now considered derogatory in Canada, but *husky* lives on as a dog-breed label.

A dome-shaped snow shelter.

How it travelled Inuktitut *iglu* (house, of any kind) → English with a narrowed sense. In Inuktitut the word refers to any dwelling; English restricted it to the specific snow-block construction, which is only one traditional type.

The large spotted cat *Panthera onca* of the Americas.

How it travelled Tupi-Guarani *jaguara* → Portuguese → English. The car brand took the name in 1935, deliberately choosing a predator image to replace the earlier "Swallow Sidecar Company" (abandoned after WWII for obvious reasons).

A North American nut tree and its edible nut.

How it travelled Algonquian *pakani* (a hard nut needing a stone to crack) → American English. The pronunciation (pee-can vs puh-kahn) is one of American English's longest-running regional disputes.

A masked North American mammal of the genus *Procyon*.

How it travelled Powhatan (Algonquian) *arahkun* (he scratches with his hands) → English via John Smith's 1608 Virginia account. The original name refers to the animal's dexterous forepaws, which it uses to wash food.

A small striped mammal famous for its chemical defence.

How it travelled Abenaki *seganku* → English via 17th-century New England. The slang sense ("to skunk someone" in a game) comes from the card game of the same name and is an American development.

A gourd-family vegetable of the genus *Cucurbita*.

How it travelled Narragansett *askutasquash* (eaten raw) → English via 1640s Massachusetts. Not related to the verb *squash* (crush), which is from Old French; the two homographs are coincidental.

A domed hut used by some Algonquian peoples.

How it travelled Eastern Abenaki *wikewam* (their house) → English via 17th-century New England. Sometimes confused with *tepee* (from Lakota *thípi*, a conical tent of different peoples); the two refer to different dwelling types.

A closed meeting of members of a political party.

How it travelled Possibly from Algonquian *caucauasu* (counsellor, adviser) → Boston English by the 1760s, used of political clubs → standardised US political term. Some etymologists dispute the Algonquian origin.

A large tropical American lizard.

How it travelled Taíno *iwana* → Spanish *iguana* → English via 16th-century Spanish explorers in the Caribbean. One of the first Caribbean animal names to reach Europe.

A large deer, *Alces alces*, of northern forests.

How it travelled Eastern Abenaki *moos* (he who strips off bark) → English in early New England → the Eurasian subspecies is known in Britain as "elk," making "moose" an exclusively North American English word.

A large semi-aquatic rodent of North America.

How it travelled Algonquian *musquash* (probably Abenaki *mòskwas*) → re-analysed by English speakers as "musk-rat" based on the animal's scent glands → pseudo-etymological folk-etymology.

A marsupial of the Americas.

How it travelled Powhatan *apasum* ("white animal," from its pale fur) → English in early Virginia. John Smith recorded the word in 1608. The informal short form "possum" is a later American innovation.

A Native American baby; the carrier used to hold one.

How it travelled Narragansett *papoos* (child) → English in 17th-century New England. Now sometimes considered outdated or culturally insensitive when used outside Indigenous speakers.

A Native American social gathering; informally, any meeting.

How it travelled Narragansett *powwaw* (a shaman or medicine man) → English specialised to the communal ceremony such a figure led → broadened informally to "any meeting," a colloquial use some Indigenous communities consider disrespectful.

A high-protein seed crop of the Andes.

How it travelled Quechua *kinwa* → Spanish *quinua/quinoa* → English via 19th-century botanical literature → explosion in global usage in the 2000s as a "superfood." Pronounced several ways in English.

A dish of stewed corn and lima beans.

How it travelled Narragansett *msíckquatash* (boiled corn kernels) → English via 17th-century New England. The beans were added later; the original was just cooked maize.

A conical Plains-Indian dwelling.

How it travelled Lakota/Dakota *thípi* ("dwelling," from *thí*, to dwell) → English via 19th-century accounts of the Great Plains. Often confused with the domed Eastern wigwam, a different structure.

A flat-bottomed sled.

How it travelled Micmac *topaǧan* (drag made of skin) → Canadian French *tabagane* → English in the 19th century via Canadian winter sports. Now also a word for a stocking cap, especially in the US South.

Small beads made from clamshells, used by Eastern Woodland peoples as currency and in record-keeping.

How it travelled Narragansett/Massachusett *wampumpeag* ("white beads-strung") → shortened in English in the 17th century → figuratively "money" in informal 19th-century US slang ("big wampum").