The word journey

Ever had that “I’ve been here before” feeling? Déjà vu

Just like a bride is traditionally given something "borrowed" on her wedding day, our everyday speech is full of words borrowed from other languages. We use them to describe everything from that café you love to the strange feeling that you’ve experienced something before, and even those irritating mosquitoes. Get ready for some big surprises as we uncover 10 words that have slipped into our vocabulary from other languages.

Here is a word that describes something we all use very often (or at least we hope so): "shampoo," which comes from the Hindi word chāmpo, which means "press" or "massage."

Originally, in 18th-century India, chāmpo referred to the practice of massaging the head and body, often with oils. British travelers encountered the practice in India and brought the word back to Britain in the 18th century. In English, its meaning gradually shifted from massage to the washing of the hair. Talk about a transformation.

"Zzzzzzzzzzzz"- the sound that can turn a peaceful night into an exercise in frustration. The term to describe this annoying fellow, mosquito, entered the English language from Spanish in the 16th century, meaning "little fly."It comes from Spanish mosca, meaning "fly," with the diminutive ending -ito, meaning "little."

Put them together, and you get a surprisingly cute name for one of nature’s most irritating creatures, making it a very tiny word for such a big annoyance.

Take another sip of your coffee before continuing your reading. The word café may look unmistakably French, but its linguistic journey is much longer. The French borrowed café to mean both coffee and the place where it is served. They got it from the Italian caffè, which was borrowed from Ottoman Turkish kahve. That word ultimately traces back to Arabic qahwa, a word associated with coffee and possibly with an older term for wine or another stimulating drink.

Eventually, café came to refer not only to the drink but also to the places where people gathered to enjoy it. Today, it can mean a coffee shop, a small restaurant, or simply a place to sit, sip, and watch the world go by. Without a doubt, this seems to be a very sexy word everyone wants to say, no matter the location or the moment in time.

Do you like where you live? How would you describe it? If your idea of the perfect home includes one story, plenty of fresh air, and perhaps a welcoming porch, you already know the word: bungalow. The word comes from Hindi bangla, meaning "Bengalese," referring to a house built in the style of Bengal.

The term was used in Anglo-Indian English by the late 17th century to describe low, often thatched one-story houses with verandas. Eventually, both the word and the architectural style traveled far beyond India. All the way from Bengal straight to your backyard.

It’s a bizarre feeling; there’s no doubt about that, but chances are you’ve experienced it: that uncanny sensation that what is happening right now has somehow happened before. Déjà vu is a French loanword that literally translates to "already seen." It describes the feeling that a present situation is strangely familiar, even though you know you haven’t experienced it before.

The expression entered English around 1903, after becoming established in French discussions of the strange sensation. Today, it remains one of those wonderfully useful expressions for a feeling that is difficult to explain in just a few English words. Have you ever had that feeling at all?

If you like surprises, you’re in for a good one. This word has opposing meanings intertwined in its origin. The word piano comes from the Italian word pianoforte, which roughly means "soft-loud": piano means soft, while forte means loud.

The instrument was originally named gravicembalo col piano e forte by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who developed the instrument around 1700. Unlike earlier keyboard instruments, it allowed players to control the volume by varying how hard they struck the keys. The name eventually became simply piano. A name born from two opposing sounds: soft and loud.

Swahili might sound like a very distant language, but you definitely know the Lion King song "Hakuna Matata," and yes, you guessed it, it comes from Swahili (and it means "no worries"). The word "safari" also comes from Swahili, and it means "journey" or "trip." It ultimately comes from the Arabic safar, meaning "journey" or "travel."

English eventually adopted safari as a word for an expedition, especially one involving travel through Africa, and today, we most often associate it with wildlife viewing. Not every safari involves a lion (unless you want it to).

We all know Italians are famous for bringing a certain flair to food, music, art, and life. And one Italian word captures that spirit beautifully: gusto. Gusto is borrowed from Italian gusto, meaning "taste," and English uses it to describe enthusiastic enjoyment, energy, or relish. An example of how to use it could be: "She sang the song with great gusto."

The Italian word ultimately comes from Latin gustus, meaning "a tasting," making it a little word with a lot of enthusiasm.

Karaoke nights definitely aren’t for the faint-hearted, but for those of you brave enough to sing your heart out in front of friends and strangers, let's look at how we came to say it. The word karaoke literally translates from Japanese as "empty orchestra."

Here is the surprising part: the Japanese word itself contains a shortened form of the English word "orchestra." Kara means "empty," while oke comes from ōkesutora, the Japanese adaptation of "orchestra." This makes karaoke a fascinating example of wasei-eigo, which are Japanese words or expressions created using English elements. English later borrowed the finished word right back. It seems like English went to Japan and came back again singing.

The word tsunami comes from the Japanese words tsu (meaning harbor) and nami (meaning wave). In other words (since we are talking about words), it literally means "harbor wave." It reflects how these waves can have devastating effects when they reach coastal areas and harbors.

The term first appeared in English texts around September 1896 in National Geographic Magazine to describe a devastating wave striking Japan. Curiously, English speakers usually drop the initial "t" sound, pronouncing it sunami instead of the strict Japanese tsunami, because English does not naturally start words with a "ts" sound.

FROM BABY BOOMERS TO GEN-Z

10 Slang Words Old And New

Image: Johnny Cohen

When a person born in the 1960s talks to someone born after the millennium, two distinct linguistic universes collide. That doesn’t mean they can’t understand each other, though–and despite (sometimes) vastly different perceptions about the world, both may have more in common than they happen to realize.

Slang are words or expressions used informally by people of a certain group that tend to be associated with a particular identity or experiences, and that often reinforce cultural ties within a generation or identity group. For anyone out of the loop, most slang is indecipherable, as all parents of teenagers or foreign English learners soon discover.

But many slang words and expressions go back to the same ideas, fulfilling the necessity to show approval or dislike of certain things that make up the life experiences of their users. Language is amazingly flexible, but how we talk—and what we talk about—always comes down to our main experiences and things that we can relate to on an everyday basis.

If you don’t believe us, join us to learn the meanings behind the sometimes cryptic language of Gen-Z and the equally baffling expressions from the Baby Boomer generation.

Image: Skye Studios

Something that is very good, exciting, or enjoyable. Do you like what you see? Just say ‘Lit’. If you haven’t heard this expression, you must have been living under a rock. ‘Lit’ is used everywhere, even by savvy millennials who don’t want to be left out yet.

Image: Emmy Smith

Someone is salty when they are angry or upset about something minor. A favorite of gamer teenagers. When you lose a game, you are probably gonna be salty about it. For older folks, think ‘ticked off’.

Image: Tandem X Visuals

‘Ghosting’ is the practice of cutting communication, usually over social media, with someone you are no longer interested in. While the act of vanishing is as old as the hills, the act of ghosting has an implicit connotation of happening through social media chats. Gen-Z is—for some reason—terrified of using phones as… well, phones, and would never directly call each other.

Image: Nijwam Swargiary

Something extremely cool. So, when a Gen-Z says, ‘Her fit at the party was fire’, you can translate it as ‘Her threads at the party were groovy’. Get it now?

Disclaimer: Intermediate generations between Baby Boomers and Gen-Z might be a bit confused now.

Image: Ben White

To ‘flex’ is just another way of saying that someone is showing off. Ok, this one probably resonates more with younger Millennials, but has its place in the Gen-Z vocabulary. The word originated with the slang phrase ‘weird flex but OK’, meant as a mocking answer to someone bragging about something unusual or questionable.

Image: Nick Karvounis

Cool. Come on, anyone who has ever seen Austin Powers or any movie about the sixties and seventies knows this one. You can still say ‘groovy, baby!’ and everyone will get it, but people may laugh. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Image: Brian Lundquist

Having fun, or in reference to something that it’s fun or good. Nothing to do with gasoline, but some people speculate there might be some relation to the effects of nitrous oxide intoxication - also known as laughing gas.

In any case, the first record of usage of the word ‘gas’ with a similar meaning is in 1839 under the pen of Charles Dickens. He wrote ‘Everything is gas and goiters’.

Image: Hardini Lestari

Someone uncool or unfashionable. As is often the case with a lot of slang words used by the Baby Boomer generation, the word ‘square’ originated in the American jazz scene of the 1940s, meaning musically outdated people.

Image: Sepp Rutz

Boring. When something or someone is a drag, they are boring. Not to be confused with the Drag culture, where performers—typically men—dress as women in an exaggerated style.

Image: Simon

Making a phone call. Although it has various interpretations that vary with context, ‘to drop a dime’ usually means simply to call someone on the phone. The phrase comes from the time when the cost of using a pay phone was 10 cents or a dime. You drop a dime and make a phone call, just so the other person doesn’t think you are ‘ghosting’ them!

It can also mean to inform on or betray someone, usually by telling a person in authority about their wrongdoings or unlawful activities.

Image: Glenn Carstens-Peters

We hope by now you are way more fluent in the slang used by young people both today and yesterday. The fun thing about language is that—more often than not—words that appear as slang end up becoming part of ‘normal’ speech or even formal communication. So nothing is really forgotten, and we think that’s groovy.

If you enjoyed our little list and want to keep learning about weird words, the origin of popular sayings, or just about anything relating to language, don’t miss out on our other articles! We’ll keep uploading and exploring interesting topics just for you.