Calques -- Loan Translations
Slide 21 of 94
Slide 21

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Calque is a linguistic term, from the French word meaning "to copy". It's a borrowing, a translation of a word with the same meaning into another language. Names themselves cannot be translated, but many of them have underlying meanings, and it is possible to translate the meanings from one language to another.

Some typical Hebrew to Yiddish calques are the following: Aryeh means lion in Hebrew, and Leib means lion in Yiddish; thus Aryeh Leib is a common name pair.   Ze'ev Wulf is another common pair — both mean wolf in Hebrew and Yiddish, respectively;   Dov and Ber mean bear;   Tzvi and Hirsh mean deer or stag;   Tzipporah and Feige mean bird;   Asher and Zelig mean happy or joyful;   Uri and Shraga mean light or candle.