The late 15th to 17th centuries – the English Renaissance – saw more and more borrowings. The introduction of printing by William Caxton in 1476 helped to spread new words. The voyages of exploration and the widening of European trade brought new products to England, each of which needed a name. So did the technical and scientific discoveries of the age. Above all, the spirit of enquiry and the spread of writing and reading for education and pleasure encouraged the adoption of large numbers of new words.
Just about any Latin verb could be turned into an English abstract noun by substituting -ion for the -um ending of the past participle. So tractum (from the verb trahere, to drag) gives traction; monstratum (from monstrare, to show) gives demonstration; probatum (from probare, to make or find good) gives probation, and so on. The present participles of Latin verbs provided the basis for English adjectives ending in -ent or -ant, such as permanent (from manens, present participle of manere, to remain), tolerant, and constant.
Other languages too were beginning to leave their mark on English. Greek had been studied up to a point in the medieval universities, but new access to the philosophical and scientific works of ancient Greece opened the path to a new technical stratum of English vocabulary.
Words such as anachronism, atmosphere, antithesis, chaos, climax, crisis, emphasis, enthusiasm, parasite, parenthesis, pneumonia, scheme, system, and tactics came into English from Greek by way of Latin. Direct borrowings include anonymous, catastrophe, criterion, idiosyncrasy, lexicon, misanthrope, orthodox, thermometer, and tonic.
There were loans from Arabic too. During the Middle Ages the Arabs were in the forefront of scientific and medical research. English gained terms like alcohol, algebra, algorithm (recently repopularised by computer programmers), arsenal, and syrup. Some words for Arabic luxuries and customs that had been brought back to Europe by the Crusaders also made their way into English: artichoke, carafe, jar, cotton, and sofa.
Another language whose influence became ever more important as trade increased was Dutch (or Flemish). Not surprisingly, the area of shipping owes much of its vocabulary to Dutch – deck, dock, skipper, boom, and yacht, for example. The skill of Dutch artists is reflected in loans such as easel, landscape, sketch, and etch.
For much of the Renaissance, Europe looked to Italy for inspiration. The obvious culinary terms (spaghetti, espresso, and so on) and musical terms (allegro, cello, sonata) are mostly later borrowings. But the Italian culture of the Renaissance and since has also given arcade, balcony, brigand, bronze, caress, colonel, dilettante, fiasco, graffiti, influenza, replica, scenario, sonnet, studio, and umbrella.
The great early colonial powers, Spain and Portugal, provided, English with further new words. Spanish loans into English, from then and later, include anchovy, armada, bonanza, bravado, cafeteria, cask, cigar, guerrilla, lasso, patio, ranch, siesta, stampede, and tornado. Portuguese has given English albatross, albino, brocade, cobra, creole, palaver, rusk, and the wine port.
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