ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Loanword

Hey kiddo, have you ever heard a word that sounds like it doesn't belong in the language you're speaking? That word might be a loanword!

A loanword is a word that comes from another language and is used in your language. It's like borrowing a toy from a friend to play with it for a while, but instead of a toy, it's a word.

For example, have you ever heard the word "pizza"? It's a loanword from Italian. So when you eat pizza, you're actually using an Italian word!

Loanwords can happen for different reasons. Sometimes, a certain culture or country might have a special thing or idea that other people find interesting. That's when they borrow words from that language, to describe that thing or idea better.

Another reason for loanwords could be that some languages just don't have a word for something, so they borrow it from another language.

Overall, loanwords help us communicate better across different cultures and languages. Pretty cool, huh?