A loanword is distinguished from a calque (or loan translation), which is a word or phrase whose meaning or idiom is adopted from another language by word-for-word translation into existing words or word-forming roots of the recipient language. Loanwords, in contrast, are not translated.
Examples of loanwords in the English language include café (from French café, which means "coffee"), bazaar (from Persian bāzār, which means "market"), and kindergarten(from German Kin…

Loanwords have entered written and spoken Chinese from many sources, including ancient peoples whose descendants now speak Chinese. In addition to phonetic differences, varieties of Chinese such as Cantonese and Shanghainese often have distinct words and phrases left from their original languages which they continue to use in daily life and sometimes even in Mandarin. As a result of long-term direct relationships with northern peoples, starting from the pre-Christ period, there ar…