Reborrowing facts for kids

Reborrowing is a cool language trick! It happens when a word from one language travels to another. Then, the second language might change the word or use parts of it to make a brand new word. Finally, this new word (or even the original one) travels back to the first language it came from. It's like a word boomerang!

You can find examples of reborrowing in many languages around the world.

How Words Travel: Reborrowing Explained

Think of words as travelers. Sometimes, a word from one country (language) visits another. The new country might like the word so much that they use it. They might even change it a little or use its parts to create a new word.

Then, the really interesting part happens! This new word, or even the original one, travels back to the first country. It's like the word went on a round trip! This journey is what we call reborrowing.

A Greek Word's Journey: Telegram

The English language has borrowed many words. Lots of them come from French, Latin, and Greek. This is why many scientific words use parts of words from these old languages.

Let's look at the word "telegram".

• It comes from two Greek word parts.
• "Tele-" means "distant" or "far away".
• "-gram" or "-graph" means "writing".
• So, a telegram was a message written and sent from far away.

This word, "telegram," was created in English using Greek parts. But then, it traveled back to Greece! In modern Greek, the word for telegram is τηλεγράφημα (telegráfima). This is a perfect example of reborrowing. The Greek parts came to English, formed a new word, and then that word went back to Greek.