calque /KOWLK/ /kælk/. noun. A loan word. A word borrowed from one language into another, often with some modification. From French calque (a copy), from calquer (to trace by rubbing); from Latin calcare (to press down, to stamp, to tread).
“It seems to me that this excess of technicalities and, elsewhere, of calques from slang and American colloquialisms is not always useful, and reveals a certain amount of ingenuous exhibitionism.” (Primo Levi)
“…these glossaries would discontent a serious-minded linguist, mongrel as they are in their origins, and mingling as they do loanwords, nonce words, neologisms and calques.” (Robert Macfarlane)
“…Eventually a being will conceive
(in stalls of staves, in calques of cramp, in knuckleheads and thrall—
god help us all) the stems of words.”
(Heather McHugh)