Loanwords in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth Century English

Latin

17th century: abduction, abstemious, acclaim, accretion, acquiesce, adept, adventitious, ancillary, apparatus, apposite, armament, atmosphere, atrocious, calculus, capillary, carnivorous, castigate, cathartic, chrysalis, decimal, delinquent, derelict, diploma, discriminate, dogma, elastic, emissary, emollient, farrago, fatuous, fluctuate, formula, fulcrum, garrulous, graphic, hallucination, hesitate, hieratic, innuendo, mereticious, miscellaneous, nascent, noxious, ornithology, parahernalia, phenomenon, philanthropy, primogeniture, recondite, stagnant, tendency, torpor, turgid

18th century: adjuducate, affiliate, amorphous, antiseptic, aroma, habitat, inertia, minutiae, moribund, nucleus, prospectus, ultimatum.

Greek

18th century: aphrodisiac, bathos.

Literary terms adopted from Latin and Greek

alliteration, anaphora, antithesis, apostrophe, hemistich, hendiadys, hexameter, hyperbole, iambus, irony, litotes, metonymy, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, pentameter, periphrasis, trochee, trope, zeugma

New Formations from Latin or Greek elements

17th century: barometer, microphone (‘an instrument by which small sounds can be intensified’)

18th century: heliography (‘description of the sun’)

French

17th century: accolade, adjust, adroit, aggrandise, alert, ammunition, altitude, avenue, balustrade, barricade, bayonet, bizarre, brigade, brilliant, brusque, buccaneer, bulletin, bureau, cajole, campaign, cascade, chandelier, charlatan, dragoon, effete, façade, grimace, marauder, nonchalance, omelette, parade, rapport, tableau

18th century: amateur, assonance, aubergine, avalanche, banal, barque, bassoon, bonhomie, boudoir, brochure, carafe, caramel, carbon, casserole, début, echelon, élite, etiquette, guillotine, malaise, mentor, nuance, ostensible, outré, predilection, ration, recherché, reconnaissance, terrain, mauve, mayonnaise, mirage, monocle, mousse, picaresque, rapprochement, renaissance,

Italian

17th century: balcony, baritone, broccoli, chiaroscuro, gambit, incognito, lagoon, opera, portico, regatta, sonata, virtuoso

18th century: al fresco, aria, arpeggio, ballerina, bravura, cantata, casino, concerto, dilletante, impressario, libretto, obbligato, oratorio, pianoforte, portfolio, soprano, tempo, viola.

Spanish

17th century: alligator, avocado, barbecue, cargo, matador, siesta, vanilla

18th century: bolero, fandango, flotilla, stevedore

Dutch or Low German

17th century: brandy, easel, knapsack, slim, smuggle

18th century: roster

High German

17th century: hamster, plunder, sauerkraut

18th century: cobalt, quartz, waltz

Indian languages

17th century: bungalow, chintz, juggernaut, pundit

18th century: shampoo

Scottish Gaelic

18th century: whisky


Early Dictionaries

Title page of Robert Cawdrey's A Table Alphabeticall (1604)

A Table Alphabeticall, conteyning and teaching the true writing, and vnderstanding of hard vsuall English wordes, borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke, Latine, or French, &c. With the interpretation thereof by plaine English words, gathered for the benefit & helpe of Ladies, Gentlewomen, or any other vnskilfull persons. Whereby they may the more easilie and better vnderstand many hard English wordes, which they shall heare or read in Scriptures, Sermons, or elsewhere, and also be made able to vse the same aptly themselues.

Title page of J.K's. [John Kersey's] A New English Dictionary (1702)

A New English Dictionary: Or, a Compleat Collection of the Most Proper and Significant Words, Commonly used in the Language; With a Short and Clear Exposition of Difficult Words and Terms of Art. The whole digested into Alphabetical Order; and chiefly designed for the benefit of Young Scholars, Tradesmen, Artificers, and the Female Sex, who would learn to spell truely; being so fitted to every Capacity, that it may be a continual help to all that want an Instructer.


Virgil, Georgics, IV.1-9

Of air-born honey, gift of heaven, I now
Take up the tale. Upon this theme no less
Look thou, Maecenas, with indulgent eye.
A marvellous display of puny powers,
High-hearted chiefs, a nation's history,
Its traits, its bent, its battles and its clans,
All, each, shall pass before you, while I sing.
Slight though the poet's theme, not slight the praise,
So frown not heaven, and Phoebus hear his call.