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Not to be confused with Literal translation. ‹See Tfd›

In linguistics, a calque (/ˈkælk/) or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word (Latin: verbum pro verbo) or root-for-root translation.


Calque is a loanword from a French noun, and derives from the verb calquer (to trace, to copy).[1] "Loanword" is a calque of the German Lehnwort, just as "loan translation" is of Lehnübersetzung.[2]




Main article: List of calques

Flea market[edit]

The common English phrase flea market is a phrase calque that literally translates the French marché aux puces ("market with fleas").[4] The German word Flohmarkt, the Dutch word vlooienmarkt and the Finnish word kirpputori also correspond.


An example in the opposite direction, from English to French, shows how a compound word may be calqued by first breaking it down into its component roots. The French gratte-ciel is a word-coinage inspired by the English "skyscraper" — gratter means "to scrape", and ciel means "sky". Many languages have constructed their own calques:


The word translation, etymologically, means a "carrying across" or "bringing across": the Latin translatio derives from transferre (trans, "across" + ferre, "to bear").[5]

Some European languages have calqued their words for the concept of "translation" on the kindred Latin traducere ("to lead across" or "to bring across", from trans, "across" + ducere, "to lead" or "to bring").[5]

European languages of the Romance, Germanic and Slavic branches have calqued their terms for the concept of translation on these Latin models.[5]

See also[edit]



External links[edit]