Borrowings from Italian.

In linguistics, borrowing is the process by which a word from one

language is adapted for use in another. The word that is borrowed is
called a borrowing , a borrowed word , or a loanword .
We find large scale borrowings in the English vocabulary from
other Romance languages, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
Now we are going to tell about borrowings in English language
from the Italian language.
Cultural and trade relations between Italy and England brought
many Italian words into English. The earliest Italian borrowing
came into English in the 14-th century, it was the word 'bank'
from the Italian banko – “bench”. Italian money-lenders and
money-changers sat in the streets on benches. When they suffered
losses they turned over their benches, it was called 'banco rotta'
from which the English word bankrupt originated.
Italian was the source of many borrowed words in the English
vocabulary at different periods. During the first two centuries of
the Early Modern linguistic period (1476-1776), the words
borrowed from Italian were distributed evenly between words
having to do with everyday life, military activities, architecture,
and the arts. From that period English has inherited artichoke
(1531), gondola (1549), balcony (1619), opera (1644) and others.
In the 17-th century some geological terms were borrowed from
Italian into English such as volcano, granite, bronze, lava . At the
same time some political terms were borrowed from Italian, too:
manifesto (manifest), bulletin (бюллетень) .
During the 18-th century it became impossible to speak about
western music in English without using an Italian word. Italian
music and especially Italian opera became very fashionable in
England, and with that came a new wave of Italian loanwords.
Many music terms are direct borrowings from Italian, while others
came into English via Italian from other languages. Here is a small
selection of some of these words a capella, aria, bravo, concerto,
libretto, opera, serenata, sonata, piano, orchestra, maestro.
It should be mentioned that half the Italian words in English, even
those of modern times, have come through French. Many other
Italian words introduced through French or adopted to French
forms are: alarm, battalion, bankrupt, bastion, brigade, carat,
campaign, gazette, grotesque, pistol.
To the other arts Italian has contributed words like fresco,
tarantella, galleria.
To cuisine, Italian's prolific contributions are evidenced by these
representative examples: cappuccino, espresso, mozzarella, pasta
and the words for all its shapes and varieties, pizza, and
zucchini . The word tetrazzini , in a famous American dish -
chicken tetrazzini , is based on the surname of the Italian opera
diva Luisa Tetrazzini.
Among the 20-th century Italian borrowings we can
mention: gazette, incognito, autostrada, fiasco, fascist, dilettante,
grotesque, graffiti, latte, Mafioso etc.