Thursday, April 10, 2008

Two Turkish words in English!!!

kismet Meaning:: a power that is believed to control what happens in the future : fate Example: When we first met each other, we knew it must have been kismet (that brought us together)

bosh / n [U] especially BrE old-fashioned [Date: 1800-1900; Language: Turkish; Origin: bos 'empty, useless']something that you think is silly, not good, or not true.
Example: He think modern art is bosh.

It is interesting to see other Turkish words in English as "yoghurt", isn't it??? :)

8 comments:

Nese Genc said...

It is really interesting :) I can understand the word "kısmet" in a way but what about bosh:)) I think it is really bosh :)

s.taskent said...

maybe one day turkish will be spoken all over the world: bosh or kismet?

Sibel Korkmazgil said...

Yesim,

Thanks for sharing. I've not come across the word "bosh" before. I's really interesting. I like it.

Burhan Kara said...

Maybe we can find more words. Especially in slavic countries languages, there are lots of Turkish words thanks to Ottoman Empire. And these words are usually food names.
Another example is "Coffee". It comes from the arabic word "Gahva" which means a substance that gives pleasure. Europeans took this word by means of Ottomans.

Yeşim Kabacaoğlu said...

thanks for sharing Burhan. ın fact I thought that "kahve" just comes from "coffee"..

Mary H said...

Hello, I am an English teacher in Japan, although I am originally from the U.S. I enjoyed your post because I didn't know that kismet was a Turkish word!

One interesting vocabulary activity to do with students is to ask them if they know any words in their native language that were borrowed from English -- they might actually know more English words than they think they do! Then, you could ask if they know any English words that were borrowed from their native language.

Congratulations on your blog, and best wishes as you continue reflecting on your teaching!

Keep blogging,
Mary H

Anonymous said...

Cok etkilendim.
Sibel hoca'yi ve tum ogrencilerini kutlarim.
Muthis guzel bir girisim.

JB

Anonymous said...

hi all,

Another mainstream English word of Turkish origin is "Kayak", the Turkish version being "Kayik".

Lets not forget "yoghurt", which comes from the Turkish version, "yogurt".

Regards,
Mustafa Kansiz