Wanderword

Alternative forms

• wander-word, wander word

Origin

Calque of German Wanderwort, equivalent to wander + word.

Full definition of wanderword

Noun

1. (linguistics) A loanword which has spread to many different languages.
• 1985, A. Richard Diebold, The evolution of Indo-European nomenclature for salmonid fish: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 ...
• 1987, Martin Bernal, Black Athena: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.
• 1997, James P. Mallory, Douglas Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture:It is perhaps, therefore, a late 'wander-word' of the southeast of the IE world, Semitic and Sumerian.
• 2009, Jopi Nyman, Post-national enquiries: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.