Reborrowing is the process where a word travels from one language to another and then back to the originating language in a different form or with a different meaning.

This is indicated by A→B→A, where A is the originating language.

In some cases the borrowing process can be more complicated and the words might move through different languages before coming back to the originating language.

The single move from one language to the other is called "loan" (see loanword

Loanword

A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...

). Reborrowing is the result of more than one loan, when the final recipient language is the same as the originating one.

Examples

Old Norse:	klubba	→	English:	club Club A club is an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal. A service club, for example, exists for voluntary or charitable activities; there are clubs devoted to hobbies and sports, social activities clubs, political and religious clubs, and so forth.- History...	→	Swedish Swedish language Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish... :	klubb
French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... :	tenez	→	English:	tennis Tennis Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...	→	French:	tennis
French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... :	cotte Cotte The Cotte was a medieval outer garment, a long sleeved shift, or tunic, usually girded, and worn by men and women. In medieval texts, it was used to translate tunica or chiton. Synonyms would include tunic or gown. It was worn over a shirt , and a sleeveless surcote could be worn over it...	→	English:	riding coat	→	French:	redingote	→	English:	redingote Redingote The redingote is a type of coat that has had several forms over time. The name is derived from a French alteration of the English "riding coat", an example of reborrowing.-Women's redingote:...
Greek Greek language Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;... :	κίνημα	→	French:	cinéma	→	Greek:	σινεμά
Dutch Dutch language Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second... :	bolwerk (bulwark, bastion)	→	French:	boulevard	→	Dutch:	boulevard
Dutch Dutch language Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...  :	manneken	→	French:	mannequin	→	Dutch:	mannequin
Middle Dutch Middle Dutch Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects which were spoken and written between 1150 and 1500...  :	snacken	→	English:	to snack	→	Dutch:	snacken
English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... :	crack	→	Irish Irish language Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of... :	craic	→	English:	craic
English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... :	animation Animation Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...	→	Japanese Japanese language is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an... :	アニメ	→	English:	anime Anime is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
Hebrew Hebrew language Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such... :	תַּכְלִית /taχˈlit/ (purpose)	→	Yiddish Yiddish language Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages... :	תכלית /ˈtaχləs/ (result; purpose; serious business)	→	Hebrew:	תַּכְלֶס /ˈtaχles/ (directly, matter-of-factly, cutting the crap)
Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the... :	tronada (thunderstorm)	→	English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... :	tornado Tornado A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...	→	Spanish:	tornado

See also

• Doublet (linguistics)
  Doublet (linguistics)
  In etymology, two or more words in the same language are called doublets or etymological twins when they have different phonological forms but the same etymological root. Often, but not always, the variants have entered the language through different routes...
  
  
• Gairaigo
  Gairaigo
  Gairaigo is Japanese for "loan word" or "borrowed word", and indicates a transliteration into Japanese. In particular, the word usually refers to a Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed from Chinese, primarily from English. Japanese also has a large number of loan words from...
  
  
• Inkhorn term
  Inkhorn term
  An inkhorn term is any foreign borrowing into English deemed to be unnecessary or overly pretentious.- Etymology :...
  
  
• Language contact
  Language contact
  Language contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics.Multilingualism has likely been common throughout much of human history, and today most people in the world are multilingual...
  
  
• Loanword
  Loanword
  A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
  
  
• Wanderwort
  Wanderwort
  A Wanderwort is a word that was spread among numerous languages and cultures, usually in connection with trade, so that it has become very difficult to establish its original etymology, or even its original language...
  
  
• Word coinage