h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What happens is that English simply grabs the word and keeps it. The legal profession is full of examples - Lingua Franca - Suppeanna - Habeous Corpus. Latin phrases we've adopted in to our language. The English Language has always done this Char - Punjabi word for Tea. Cafe - french. There are thousands of examples, schadenfreud is so well known it virtually IS an English word now. (Though I can't spell it.) This works in reverse too, the French have an entire ministry set up to prevent English/American taking over their language. They refer to Le Weekend because there is no french word covering le fin de la semaine, in english we just say "Oh thats a useful word, we'll have it."

Thanks. What I really want are words that are not currently in use, or at least not in wide use in the English language.
But yes I agree, we (English speakers) are very greedy when it comes to verbage (and most other things as well). It's part of our search for an Identity that we feel we lack and other do not. I believe we are so afraid of being inferior that we try to assimilate the rest of the world into our culture. This is why I have very little problem, with closed countries. Take North Korea. Communist yes, poor as dirt yes, but when Kim il Sung held meetings with his South Korean counterpart a couple years ago, he presented traditional Korean formalities and manners. This was a huge source of embarrasment for the south because they had lost some of the culture. Of course the NK culture has changed, but it changed within it own paramiters.
It scares me somethimes to see how Westernized the world has become, sure we have some nifty technologies to share, but the price should not be the prostitution of the culture we are sharing them with.
This is part of the reason I want to make this entry, to have a record of where these things come from, and to remember there are somethings that we are just borrowing, they belong to someone else.
Sorry, didn't mean to rant, I just wanted to thank you for your enty.
So thanks,
E