noun, plural ferries. 1. a commercial service with terminals and boats for transporting persons, automobiles, etc., across a river or other comparatively small body of water. 2. a ferryboat.
Examples and related terms. A loanword is distinguished from a calque (loan translation), which is a word or phrase whose meaning or idiom is adopted from another language by translation into existing words or word-forming roots of the recipient language.
etymology noun [C or U]. âº the âstudy of the âorigin and âhistory of words, or a âstudy of this âtype ârelating to one âparticular word: At âuniversity she âdeveloped an âinterest in etymology. A âlist of âselected words and âtheir etymologies is âprinted at the back of the âbook. etymological adjective uk /Ëet.Éª.mÉËlÉdÊ.Éª.kÉl/ us /-ËlÉË.dÊÉª-/.