Loanwords

I. Germanic period

It can be deduced that these borrowings date from the time before the Angles and Saxons left the continent for England, because of very similar forms found in the other old Germanic languages (Old High German, Old Saxon, etc.). The source words are generally attested in Latin texts, in the large body of Latin writings that were preserved through the ages.

ancor   'anchor'
butere  'butter' (L   < Gr. butyros)
cealc   'chalk'
ceas    'cheese' (caseum)
cetel   'kettle'
cycene  'kitchen'
cirice  'church' (ecclesia < Gr. ecclesia)
disc    'dish'   (discus)
mil     'mile'   (milia [passuum] 'a thousand paces')
piper   'pepper' 
pund    'pound'  (pondo 'a weight')
sacc    'sack'   (saccus)
sicol   'sickle'
straet  'street' ([via] strata 'straight way' or stone-paved road)
weall   'wall'   (vallum)
win     'wine'   (vinum < Gr. oinos)

II. Old English Period (600-1100)

apostol   'apostle'     (apostolus <  Gr. apostolos)
casere    'caesar, emperor'  
ceaster   'city'        (castra 'camp')
cest      'chest'       (cista 'box')
circul    'circle'
cometa    'comet'       (cometa < Greek)
maegester 'master'      (magister)
martir    'martyr' 
paper     'paper'       (papyrus, from Gr.)
tigle     'tile'        (tegula)

Celtic

brocc 'badger'
cumb  'combe, valley'

(few ordinary words, but thousands of place and river names: London, Carlisle,
Devon, Dover, Cornwall, Thames, Avon...)

III. Middle English Period (1100-1500)

anger, blight, by-law, cake, call, clumsy, doze, egg, fellow, gear,
get, give, hale, hit, husband, kick, kill, kilt, kindle, law, low,
lump, rag, raise, root, scathe, scorch, score, scowl, scrape, scrub,
seat, skill, skin, skirt, sky, sly, take, they, them, their, thrall,
thrust, ugly, want, window, wing

Place name suffixes:
-by, -thorpe, -gate

French
Law and government

attorney, bailiff, chancellor, chattel, country, court, crime,
defendent, evidence, government, jail, judge, jury, larceny, noble,
parliament, plaintiff, plea, prison, revenue, state, tax, verdict

Church

abbot, chaplain, chapter, clergy, friar, prayer, preach, priest,
religion, sacrament, saint, sermon

Nobility:

baron, baroness; count, countess; duke, duchess; marquis, marquess;
prince, princess; viscount, viscountess; noble, royal

(contrast native words: king, queen, earl, lord, lady, knight, kingly,
queenly)

Military

army, artillery, battle, captain, company, corporal,
defense,enemy,marine, navy, sergeant, soldier, volunteer

Cooking

beef, boil, broil, butcher, dine, fry, mutton, pork, poultry, roast,
salmon, stew, veal

Culture and luxury goods

art, bracelet, claret, clarinet, dance, diamond, fashion, fur, jewel,
oboe, painting, pendant, satin, ruby, sculpture

Other

adventure, change, charge, chart, courage, devout, dignity, enamor,
feign, fruit, letter, literature, magic, male, female, mirror,
pilgrimage, proud, question, regard, special

Also Middle English French loans: a huge number of words in age, -ance/-ence, -ant/-ent, -ity, -ment, -tion, con-, de-, and pre-.

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether a given word came from French or whether it was taken straight from Latin. Words for which this difficulty occurs are those in which there were no special sound and/or spelling changes of the sort that distinguished French from Latin.

IV. Early Modern English Period (1500-1650)

Latin

agile, abdomen, anatomy, area, capsule, compensate, dexterity,
discus, disc/disk, excavate, expensive, fictitious, gradual, habitual,
insane, janitor, meditate, notorious, orbit, peninsula, physician,
superintendent, ultimate, vindicate

Greek

(many of these via Latin)
anonymous, atmosphere, autograph, catastrophe, climax, comedy, critic,
data, ectasy, history, ostracize, parasite, pneumonia, skeleton,
tonic, tragedy

Greek bound morphemes: -ism, -ize

Arabic via Spanish

alcove, algebra, zenith, algorithm, almanac, azimuth, alchemy, admiral

Arabic via other Romance languages:

amber, cipher, orange, saffron, sugar, zero

V. Modern English (1650-present)

Words from European languages
French
French continues to be the largest single source of new words outside of very specialized vocabulary domains (scientific/technical vocabulary, still dominated by classical borrowings).
High culture

ballet, bouillabaise, cabernet, cachet, chaise longue, champagne,
chic, cognac, corsage, faux pas, nom de plume, quiche, rouge, roulet,
sachet, salon, saloon, sang froid, savoir faire

bastion, brigade, battalion, cavalry, grenade, infantry, pallisade, rebuff

bigot, chassis, clique, denim, garage,  grotesque, jean(s), niche, shock

Louisiana French (Cajun)
jambalaya

Spanish

armada, adobe, alligator, alpaca, armadillo, barricade, bravado,
cannibal, canyon, coyote, desperado, embargo, enchilada, guitar,
marijuana, mesa, mosquito, mustang, ranch, taco, tornado, tortilla,
vigilante

Italian

alto, arsenal, balcony, broccoli, cameo, casino, cupola, duo, fresco,
fugue, gazette (via French), ghetto, gondola, grotto, macaroni,
madrigal, motto, piano, opera, pantaloons, prima donna, regatta,
sequin, soprano, opera, stanza, stucco, studio, tempo, torso,
umbrella, viola, violin,


Words from Italian American immigrants: 
cappuccino, espresso, linguini, mafioso, pasta,
pizza, ravioli, spaghetti, spumante, zabaglione, zucchini

Dutch, Flemish
Shipping, naval terms

avast, boom, bow, bowsprit, buoy, commodore, cruise, dock, freight,
keel, keelhaul, leak, pump, reef, scoop, scour, skipper, sloop,
smuggle, splice, tackle, yawl, yacht

bale, cambric, duck (fabric), fuller's earth, mart, nap (of cloth),
selvage, spool, stripe

easel, etching, landscape, sketch

beleaguer, holster, freebooter, furlough, onslaught

booze, brandy(wine), coleslaw, cookie, cranberry, crullers, gin, hops,
stockfish, waffle

bugger (orig. French), crap, curl, dollar, scum, split (orig. nautical
term), uproar

German

bum, delicatessen, dunk, feldspar, hex, knackwurst,lager, liverwurst,
loafer, noodle, poodle, pretzel, pinochle, pretzel, pumpernickel,
quartz, sauerkraut, schnitzel, (beer)stein, zwieback

20th century German loanwords:

blitzkrieg, delicatessen, hamburger, frankfurter, hausfrau,
kindergarten, Oktoberfest, schuss, wiener, wunderkind

bagel, Chanukkah (Hanukkah), chutzpah, dreidel, kibbitzer, kosher, lox,
pastrami (orig. from Romanian), schlep, spiel, schlepp, schlemiel,
schlimazel, gefilte fish, goy, klutz, knish, matzoh, oy vey, schmuck,
schnook,

Scandinavian

fjord, maelstrom, ombudsman, ski, slalom, smorgasbord

Russian

apparatchik, borscht, czar/tsar, glasnost, icon, perestroika, vodka

Words from other parts of the world
Sanskrit

avatar, karma, mahatma, swastika, yoga

Hindi

bandanna, bangle, bungalow, chintz, cot, cummerbund, dungaree,
juggernaut, jungle, loot, maharaja, nabob, pajamas, punch (the drink),
shampoo, thug, kedgeree, jamboree

Dravidian

curry, mango, teak, pariah

Persian (Farsi)

check, checkmate, chess

Arabic

bedouin, emir, jakir, gazelle, giraffe, harem, hashish, lute, minaret,
mosque, myrrh, salaam, sirocco, sultan, vizier, bazaar, caravan

African languages

banana (via Portuguese), banjo, boogie-woogie, chigger, goober,
gorilla, gumbo, jazz, jitterbug, jitters, juke(box), voodoo, yam,
zebra, zombie

American Indian languages

avocado, cacao, cannibal, canoe, chipmunk, chocolate, chili, hammock,
hominy, hurricane, maize, moccasin, moose, papoose, pecan, possum,
potato, skunk, squaw, succotash, squash, tamale (via Spanish), teepee,
terrapin, tobacco, toboggan, tomahawk, tomato, wigwam, woodchuck

(plus thousands of place names, including
Ottawa, Toronto, Saskatchewan and the names of more than half the
states of the U.S., including Michigan, Texas, Nebraska, Illinois)

Chinese

chop suey, chow mein, dim sum, ketchup, tea, ginseng, kowtow, litchee

Japanese

geisha, hara kiri, judo, jujitsu, kamikaze, karaoke, kimono, samurai,
soy, sumo, sushi, tsunami

Pacific Islands

bamboo, gingham, rattan, taboo, tattoo, ukulele, boondocks

Australia

boomerang, budgerigar, didgeridoo, kangaroo (and many more in
Australian English)

© 1997 Suzanne Kemmer