Quote:
Originally Posted by Noego  I think you've nailed it with autological. I think that's the word we were all looking for.  |
Thanks Casi. My favourite autological word is the Spanish
esdrújula, which means a proparoxytone [word stressed on the third-from-last syllable].
Re borrowed words that mimic the translation of a two(or more)-part analogue in the 'donor'-language; in my previous post I mentioned 'almighty'. The word is "calque", often replaced by the more informative 'loan translation':
loan translation: Definition and Much More from Answers.com. The example given in Mugglestone [ed.]
The Oxford History of the English Language is the Old English
wellwillende ['well-wishing'], formed on the analogy of
benevolens [Latin - 'benevolent'].
Another, going back one step in the story is the Vulgar Latin companione(m) (conventionally, Vulgar Latin words are cited in what classicists would call 'the accusative case', with the final
m of the singular in parentheses - as it was nearly always [?
always] dropped). This was coined on the analogy of the Celtic
ga-hlaiba [meaning "with-bread"]
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