借鉴

Etymology & Components

The Chinese word "借鉴" (jièjiàn) is composed of two characters: "借" (jiè) and "鉴" (jiàn). The character "借" originally meant "to borrow" or "to lend", and it is often used in the context of borrowing money or objects. The character "鉴" originally meant "to look at" or "to observe", and it is often used in the context of looking at something in order to learn from it. When these two characters are combined, the word "借鉴" takes on the meaning of "to borrow from" or "to learn from". In the context of language learning, "借鉴" can be used to refer to the process of borrowing words or phrases from another language or culture. For example, the Chinese word "咖啡" (kāfēi) is a loanword from the English word "coffee".