Hi peeps, Ruan over here.  

I’m really glad to be here once again updating our 283rd post at VPFI!

BORROWED WORDS

Do you often use shampoo or put ketchup on your food? Have you ever visited a sauna? If you think these words are originally English, you’d better think again. In fact, each of these words come from a different language! Shampoo, for exemple, is actually a word from the Hindi language in India. this word originally meant “massage”. In hair shops in India, barbers massage yout head while washing your hair. Over time, British people in India used this word to mean a liquid that cleans hair.

Almost everyone knows what ketchup is. People all over the world like to pour this tomato sauce on French fries or sandwiches. This word is originally Chinese (from ketsiap, a fish sauce). In the 1600s, British ans Dutch sailors brought this fish sauce to Europe. Over time, people changed the sauce by adding tomato flavor to it, but the name basically stayed the same.

Sauna, a popular type of public steam room ans shower facility, comes from the Finnish language. During one of the European Olympics, athletes from Britain and Germany saw Finnish athletes use saunas after training. Later, the general public all over Europe started using this style of bathing, too. now, we still use this word to describe all kinds of steam rooms.

English is full of many wonderful borrowed words from many languages. Perhaps English should change its name to Eng-hin-chi-fin-fre-ger-ital-span-ish!