Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Indigenous languages ·1850s
Igloo
from iglu
- Meaning
- A dome-shaped snow shelter.
- Source word
- iglu
- Route into English
- Inuktitut *iglu* (house, of any kind) → English with a narrowed sense. In Inuktitut the word refers to any dwelling; English restricted it to the specific snow-block construction, which is only one traditional type.
- Arrived
- 1850s
From Indigenous languages
A loose group: Nahuatl, Taino, Algonquian, Guugu Yimithirr, and others. Colonial contact produced many loans; the speakers were often systematically dispossessed of the land the loanwords described.
English borrows.
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