The document discusses borrowing in the English language from other languages. Words may be adopted from one language into another through a process called borrowing. There are several reasons for borrowing words, including the need for a term to describe something unfamiliar, prestige, and the introduction of new concepts without a word for them in the native language. Direct borrowing involves adopting a word unchanged, while indirect borrowing involves passing a word through multiple languages with changes along the way. Loanwords are words imported from another language, which may undergo phonological or orthographical changes, while loanshifts involve translating the meaning of a word rather than adopting the word itself.