reborrowing

noun — 2 senses

reborrowing

noun
1

Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A word that passed from language A into language B and thence back into language A. Such words may have changed in meaning and/or form.

  • The word flan itself is a relatively recent addition to English, adopted on our behalf from French by the chef Alexis Soyer (a Frenchman working in England), but in that form it is in fact simply a reborrowing of a word which originally crossed the Channel in the 13th century as flawn, denoting some sort of custard tart or cheesecake.1990, John Ayto, “flan”, in Dictionary of Word Origins, New York: Arcade, →ISBN, page 230:
2

Something reborrowed.

  • The borrower will usually argue that the accordion should be considered as a reborrowing of debt already repaid, and therefore should be a redraw of tranche A first.2020, John Gilligan, Mike Wright, Private Equity Demystified, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 214:
Related terms
borrowing, twice-borrowed

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.