Anglicated

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Made to conform to the form, style, or pronunciation of English
2. Altered or adapted to fit English linguistic or cultural norms
3. Changed or transformed by adopting English characteristics or expressions

Etymology: Anglicated is the past participle and adjective of "anglicate," a verb meaning to make English in form, pronunciation or character. That verb was formed in English from "Anglic-," the combining form of "Anglicus," the Latin adjective for "English," which itself came from "Angli," the Latin name for the Angles, a Germanic people who settled Britain. Its date is the key to the story: "anglicate" is first recorded in the 1600s, and by the nineteenth century it was common enough in discussions of foreign words, names and manners that writers used it routinely. The "-ate" ending is the same suffix found in verbs like "activate" and "translate," which entered English from Latin verb stems ending in -are. Adding it to a Latin-based adjective produced a verb that sounds learned and formal, which suited the scholarly writing where the word first appeared. "Anglicated" is simply that verb in its past participle form, so it describes something already changed, such as a loanword whose spelling has been adapted to English habits.

Synonyms: anglicized, britishized, englishified, anglified, adapted

Antonyms: foreignized, nonanglicized, unaltered, original, native