Etymology

Etymologically the vocabulary of the English language is far from being homogeneous. It consists of two layers - the native stock of words and the borrowed stock of words. Numerically [njuː'merɪklɪ] the borrowed stock of words is considerably larger than the native stock of words. In fact native words comprise only 30 % of the total number of words in the English vocabulary but the native words form the bulk of the most frequent words actually used in speech and writing. Besides the native words have a wider range of lexical and grammatical valency ['veɪlən(t)sɪ] валентность, they are highly polysemantic and productive in forming set expressions.
Borrowed words (or loan words or borrowings) are words taken over from another language and modified according to the patterns of the receiving language.
In many cases a borrowed word especially one borrowed long ago is practically indistinguishable [ˌɪndɪ'stɪŋgwɪʃəbl] from a native word without a thorough etymological analysis (street Old English stræt, of West Germanic origin, from late Latin strāta (via) ‘paved (way)’, school, face Middle English: from Old French, based on Latin facies ‘form, appearance, face’). The number of borrowings in the vocabulary of a language and the role played by them is determined by the historical development of the nation speaking the language.
The most effective way of borrowing is direct borrowing from another language as the result of contacts with the people of another country or with their literature. But a word may also be borrowed indirectly not from the source language but through another language. When analyzing borrowed words one must distinguish between the two terms - "source of borrowing" and "origin of borrowing". The first term is applied to the language from which the word was immediately borrowed, the second - to the language to which the word may be ultimately ['ʌltɪmətlɪ]