Borrowed words from far away: Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, Ukrainian and more

Tests: 4 of 10 right · Exam: 1 of 4 right · Kind: plain · Understood: 8 of 14 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72

Lesson 24 of the language course of Mova's primary school, as Mova's small model took its tests: it had read this lesson and the ones before it and learned from their exercises. Each test shows the options in the order the student saw them, its choice, the right answer, the score of every option and why it chose. The lesson itself, sentence by sentence with trees and pragmatics: the lesson in the corpora.

Every question of this lesson and each of its options parsed by Mova, with trees and pragmatics: the lesson's questions in the corpora.

Test 1 · wrong ✗

Josh's mate goes "emoji is obviously from emotion lol, no cap." ("No cap" means no lie.) What's true?

1. It's Latin for face — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It's Japanese for picture + character; the link with "emotion" is a coincidence — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. It's from "emu" — no support
4. He's right, it's short for "emotion icon", made up by an American phone company — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 2 · right ✓

Your cousin says "zero was invented in Europe, obvs." What's true?

1. The idea came from India and its name came through Arabic — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. It came from Ukraine in 1900 — no support
3. It came from Japan — no support
4. She's right, it came from Rome, along with the Roman numerals — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 3 · wrong ✗

Adam's gamer bro says "avatar was made up by game programmers, innit." What's fair?

1. He's right, it's from the 1990s — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It's an old Sanskrit word that found a new life in games — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. It's a brand name — no support
4. It's from Arabic "ava" — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 4 · wrong ✗

Your mate says "jungle always meant rainforest, end of." What's true?

1. It meant "tree" in Latin — no support
2. Hindi "jangal" meant wild land, and the meaning changed in English — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. It meant "lion" — no support
4. He's right, it has always meant a hot rainforest full of monkeys and vines — ← Mova's choice · score -1

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score -1, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 22, line 17: «Shakespeare's plays are the earliest written record found so far for some words, like "bedroom" and "eyeball"; many may already have been spoken, so "first rec…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «mean» (+3); the same property (+2). Against it: one says «not», the other does not (counts against) (-6). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 5 · wrong ✗

What would happen if English had never met Arabic?

1. It would have no numbers at all, not even one, two and three — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It would have no food words — no support
3. Nothing would change in English — no support
4. It might lack words like "coffee", "sugar" and "algebra" — ✓ the right answer · no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 6 · right ✓

Mykola's mate says "borscht? that's just a Russian word, mate." What's a fair answer?

1. Borscht is a Ukrainian dish, and its name reached English through Yiddish — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
2. It's a Japanese word — score 4
3. He's right, it's only Russian, and the soup has nothing to do with Ukraine at all — no support
4. It's a French word — score 4

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 5, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 24, line 14: «"Borscht", the beetroot soup closely linked to Ukraine, reached English through Yiddish from the Slavic word "борщ"; in 2022 UNESCO listed Ukrainian borscht co…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same place «yiddish» (+4); the same action «reach» (+3). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 7 · wrong ✗

Your dad says "these word stories are all certain facts." What should you say about ketchup?

1. Nobody has any idea at all — no support
2. It definitely came from Latin — ← Mova's choice · score 6
3. Its Chinese origin is likely, but experts still argue about it — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. Dad's right, it's 100 percent proven by old Chinese recipe books — no support

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 2 with score 6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 24, line 11: «Many experts think "ketchup" comes from Hokkien, a Chinese language, "kê-tsiap", a fish sauce; this is likely but still argued about, and it became a tomato sa…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «come» (+3); the same doer «ketchup» (+3). The right option, 3, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 8 · right ✓

A game shows a pirate in 1600 squirting tomato ketchup. What's off?

1. Ketchup became a tomato sauce in America in the 1800s — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
2. Pirates hated sauce — no support
3. Ketchup was invented in 2000 — no support
4. Nothing, ketchup was always tomato, even in the 1600s — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 24, line 11: «Many experts think "ketchup" comes from Hokkien, a Chinese language, "kê-tsiap", a fish sauce; this is likely but still argued about, and it became a tomato sa…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «become» (+3); the same place «1800s» (+2); the same thing acted on «tomato sauce» (+1). Against it: the same doer «ketchup» (-1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 9 · wrong ✗

Puzzle: one word for the drink sailed to Europe on ships, the other came over land. Which English word came by sea?

1. Chai, from Mandarin "chá" — ← Mova's choice · score 8
2. Sugar, from Arabic "sukkar" — score 8
3. Tea, from Hokkien "te" — ✓ the right answer · score 8
4. Coffee, from Arabic "qahwa" — score 8

Why: It took the question to ask a circumstance (with what, when, how). It chose option 1 with score 8, tied with another option at 8 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 9, line 14: «"Went" was once the past of the old verb "wend", meaning to go; when a verb's forms come from different words, it is called suppletion, and "be" (am, is, was,…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «come» (+4); the same doer «forms» (+4). The right option, 3, scored 8. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 10 · right ✓

Your uncle says "kowtow is about cows bowing". What's true?

1. It comes from Chinese for "knock head", a deep bow — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 13
2. It's from Arabic for "milk" — no support
3. He's right, it's about cows — no support
4. It's a Scottish word for a cowshed on a windy hill farm — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 13, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 24, line 12: «"Kowtow" comes from Chinese for "knock head", a deep bow touching the forehead to the ground; in English it now means being too eager to obey.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same place «chinese» (+4); the same circumstance (+4); the same action «come» (+3); the same doer «kowtow» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗

Identify the origin of the English word "algorithm".

1. The Greek term for a rhythmic sequence of numbers employed in music — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. The Latin term for calculation — no support
3. The name of the ninth-century Baghdad scholar al-Khwarizmi — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. A Japanese word for a method — no support

Why: Nothing it remembers matched the question, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 2 · formal language · wrong ✗

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the words "tea" and "chai"?

1. "Chai" derives from the English "tea" — no support
2. Both derive ultimately from Chinese, by maritime and overland routes respectively — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. They are entirely unrelated in origin, the former being Chinese and the latter of Persian derivation — ← Mova's choice · score 2
4. Both derive from Arabic — no support

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 3 with score 2, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 23, line 16: «English took many food words from French, like menu, restaurant, café, croissant, baguette and chef; "chef" means "chief" or "head" in French.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+2). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 3 · formal language · wrong ✗

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the word "ketchup".

1. It is likely, though disputed, that it derives from a Hokkien term for a fish sauce — ✓ the right answer · no support
2. It was invented in the twentieth century — no support
3. It is proven beyond doubt to be of French origin — no support
4. It has always denoted a tomato sauce — ← Mova's choice · score -1

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score -1, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 2, line 10: «The word "I" always has a capital letter in English.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same property (+1). Against it: the same doer «word» (-1); a different thing acted on (counts against) (-1). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 4 · formal language · right ✓

State the language from which English obtained the words "pyjamas", "shampoo" and "bungalow".

1. Hindi and Urdu — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. Ukrainian — no support
3. Arabic — no support
4. Japanese — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/language/24-borrowed-words-from-far-away/