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USAGE: Borrowing (was: I'm back, sort of)

From:John Cowan <cowan@...>
Date:Friday, September 26, 2003, 10:50
Nik Taylor scripsit:

> No, no, it's not the life -> raifu that surprised me. Raifu is > perfectly normal as an adaptation of "life", but it's the fact that it > was adapted at all that's depressing. :-)
Well, fine. English has a word for "life" too, and yet we found it worthwhile borrowing the phrase "elan vital", even though it's only the "elan" that lacks a clearcut native equivalent. If "campus life" looks like a sufficiently foreign concept, it's not exactly surprising that the expression for it should be borrowed, even if it's a phrase in the language borrowed from. -- "They tried to pierce your heart John Cowan with a Morgul-knife that remains in the http://www.ccil.org/~cowan wound. If they had succeeded, you would http://www.reutershealth.com become a wraith under the domination of the Dark Lord." --Gandalf