loanshift meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

loanshift

noun

Etymology From loan + shift.

The situation in which a word changes or extends its meaning under the influence of another language.

As linguists, anthropologists, and others involved in translation realize, the boundaries of exchange between languages are not impermeable to loanshift of meanings (Lehiste 1988:20).1998, Jeffrey Anderson, “Ethnolinguistic Dimensions of Northern Arapaho Language Shift”, in Anthropological Linguistics, volume 40, Bloomington, Ind.: Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 75:
The writer found 40 data that were categorized as Indonesian borrowing words of loanword type. However, the writer did not find any data which belong to loanshift.2017, Siti Khotijatur Rahm, An Analysis of Indonesian Borrowing Words in The Jakarta Post Newspaper, Bangkalan: Trunojoyo University:

1 more example

Loan translation is the only borrowing process for loanshift.2021, Nurul Chojimah, Estu Widodo, “The Borrowing Process of English Covid-19-Related Words into Indonesian”, in Humanus, volume 20, number 2, Padang: State University of Padang, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 183:

A word whose meaning has changed in this way.

verb

Etymology From loan + shift.

To change a word in this way.

In the contest between a Spanish word and an English word for its place in the new lexical gap (the right end of a broken line), in loan homonymy an English word wins (chanza₂) and in loanshifting a Spanish word wins (apertura, extended).1972, Anthony F. Beltramo, Lexical and Morphological Aspects of Linguistic Acculturation by Mexican Americans in San José, California, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University, →OCLC, page 125:
Early French and English explorers and settlers had never seen a bison before, and thus lacked a proper term for it. So they borrowed—or loanshifted—the name of an animal already familiar to them: buffalo.2017 August, Neal Rappleye, ““Put Away Childish Things”: Learning to Read the Book of Mormon Using Mature Historical Thought”, in FAIR, Redding, Calif., archived from the original on 28 Apr 2021:

1 more example

The loanshifted category appears first as an innovation, becomes entrenched and may be conventionalized with meaning(s) specific to recipient culture.2020, Jadwiga Linde-Usiekniewicz, “Conceptual blends in Polish anti-refugee rhetoric”, in Cognitive Linguistics, volume 31, number 4, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC: