7. International Words
Internetional
words
are words of identical origin that occur in several languages as a
result of simultaneous or successive borrowing from one ultimate
source, e.g., atom,
vitamin,
cybernetics,
algebra,
etc. The sources of international words are very rich.
First of
all, it is Latin and Greek, e.g., school
(Gr-L), phenomenon
(Gr-L), atom
(Gr), student
(L); French, e.g., communique,
fuselage,
police,
detente;
Russian, e.g., Soviet,
bolshevik,
sputnik,
nihilism.
Many international words are of English origin, especially sports
terms (football,
play-off),
terms of clothing (pullover,
jumper),
modem music, dance (twist,
shake,
break,
jazz,
foxtrot,
etc.). But one should remember that classical music terms are
Italian, and classical dance terms are French.
International words are
especially numerous in terminological systems (science, technology,
music, art, sport, navigation, etc.), but there are quite a few of
them in general vocabulary, too. One should always bear in mind,
though, that general words are not, in most cases, quite identical in
meanings in different languages; they mostly coincide in only one or
two meanings.
Compare:
индустрия
– industry,
антенна
– antenna,
генеральный
and general.
There are also cases, when words having very similar forms are quite
different in meanings: cf. актуальный
and actual
(syn. real), фокус
and focus,
интеллигентный
and intelligent.
