There are many words in English that are borrowed from other languages, but acquire a much more specific meaning along the way.
For example, salsa in Spanish simply means "sauce", and could be equally well applied to Hollandaise sauce or soy sauce. But in (US) English, salsa always refers to a particular style of spicy sauce, usually based on tomatoes, onions and chili peppers, that is common in (pseudo-)Mexican cuisine.
Likewise, raisin is French for "grape", but in English always means a dried grape.
(Actually, most of the examples that come to my mind involve food.)
- Does this phenomenon have a name? Where could I read more about it?
- Are there examples of this happening to English words borrowed by other languages?
Best Answer
This is an example of the general linguistic phenomenon of borrowing with semantic narrowing.
"Semantic narrowing" occurs when a word shifts in meaning to restrict itself to more specific circumstances. So while in Spanish salsa means 'sauce', in English we use the word in a more restricted sense. This restriction is influenced by the sociolinguistic context in which the word is most encountered, which has happened to be Mexican-influenced cuisine in the USA. Similarly for raisin, which was borrowed in a culinary context; culinary terms in English are strongly influenced by French.
But this phenomenon is widespread and not limited to borrowings. Narrowing occurs often even when a word is not borrowed; examples include OE deor 'animal' > ModE deer 'cervid', and Eng corn 'grain' > USA corn 'Zea mays'.
And of course semantic widening also occurs, and for similar reasons. Examples of this are OE docga 'a specific breed of canine' > ModE dog 'any canis familiaris', and Kleenex 'trademarked brand of facial tissue' > kleenex 'any facial tissue'.