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Added 9 October 2026

calque

/kælk/ noun

Latin root: calcāre Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about calque at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A word or phrase in a language formed by word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a word in another language.

verb

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

Origin

From French calque (“calque”, literally “copy, tracing”), from calquer (“to copy, trace”) (whence also calk), itself borrowed from Italian calcare, from Latin calcāre (“to tread”). Doublet of calcate and calcation.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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