Dictionary

wanderword en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈwɒndəˌwɔːd/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈwɑndɚˌwɔɹd/ (General-American)

Etymology

From wander + word, a calque of German Wanderwort.

Meanings

1. Synonym of Wanderwort (“a loanword that has spread to many different languages, often through trade or the adoption of foreign cultural practices”).
   • Considering the mileage it has achieved as a horizon wanderword in divers shapes representable as sV(l)mV(n)-, the Latin salmo (salmonis) cited by Pliny and Ausonius is vexing as regards its etymology, a quality it shares with many other Roman and Greek [...] 1985, A. Richard Diebold, The evolution of Indo-European nomenclature for salmonid fish:
   • Like the static Bangla she describes in the extract above — and like the traditional mother — Mukherjee's wanderwords usually stay at home, in narrative strands set in India, their local colour harmoniously interwoven with her fiction's literary English. 2009, Jopi Nyman, Post-national enquiries:
   • In this general context, Mallory's dismissal (1989, 150) of this “comparison that simply will not go away” as a mere “wander word” clearly illustrates his ideological position. 2006, Martin Bernal, Black Athena. Volume III. The Linguistic Evidence, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 605:
   • It is perhaps, therefore, a late 'wander-word' of the southeast of the IE world, Semitic and Sumerian. 1997, James P. Mallory, Douglas Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture:

Forms

Synonyms

Wanderwort