xenism

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word xenism. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word xenism, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say xenism in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word xenism you have here. The definition of the word xenism will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofxenism, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French xénisme, from Ancient Greek ξενισμός (xenismós, strangeness, novelty).

Noun

xenism (plural xenisms) (linguistics)

  1. A word used in utterances of a language but generally marked as foreign.
    Hyponym: exotism
    Coordinate term: borrowing
    • 2013, Mari Jones, Ishtla Singh, Exploring Language Change, Taylor & Francis, published 2005, →ISBN, page 34:
      The first stage is when a word from one language is used in an utterance of another language in order to create a somewhat exotic effect. At this stage, the word is not a borrowing, but rather what they term a xenism. An example of a xenism used in an English sentence would be At the harbour, we went for a sail in a gulet, where gulet is the word for a type of Turkish sail boat, which has no real equivalent in English.
    • 2020 November 30, Sergio Baldi, Dictionary of Arabic Loanwords in the Languages of Central and East Africa (Handbuch der Orientalistik; Erste Abteilung: Der Nahe und der Mittlere Osten; 145), Leiden • Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 5:
      My objective was to collect all loanwords, such that this work is as complete as possible, though some words may not be commonly used by speakers of a given language that seem to be pure Arabic xenisms (see Swahili hamsa ‘five’ < ḫamsa 841).

Anagrams

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French xénisme.

Noun

xenism n (plural xenisme)

  1. xenism, foreignism

Declension