This week's word is a bit of a no-brainer, as are many culinary terms that have traveled with the food in question. But I wanted to end this year's blogging on a Christmasy note. 

Very often, foreign food simply keeps its name. To me, this is something different than other processes of word adoption. This is because people eating "exotic" food tend to be aware that they're eating something non-local. When they use a foreign non-food term, however, this is often not the case. 

In English (and probably lots of other languages), the sweet fruit cake known in German as Stollen and mostly eaten around Christmas time has thus simply kept its name.

Word of the Week will be back in January. Have a relaxed holiday!

The image is from whatscookingamerica.net.

This week's term is one of those cases where the adopted word is used much more widely in the "new" language than in the original one. In German, Marschrute is a military term for (an army's) route and is not very common, although it can also be used to mean "approach, strategy". In Russian, however, a маршрут (pronounced "marshroute") is simply a route, as is demonstrated by the image above, which shows the route the 2014 Olympic flag took through Russia. 

If you've ever been to Russia you've probably had to spend some time in a crowded маршрутка ("marshroutka") at some point. These minibuses can be flagged down anywhere along their fixed route (which is of course where the name comes from) and are a mainstay of public transportation in Russia. 

The image is from www.myshared.ru.

If I tell you that this week's choice is a rarity you will probably disagree, saying that you use this word all the time. But that's precisely what makes it a rarity - it's an English word of German origin used for an everyday item and probably known to every average English speaker. Usually, these German words tend to be technical terms from the realms of philosophy, psychology, art and music. 

In German, a rucksack is, well, a Rucksack. The Russians also took a liking to this word, they have adopted it in the form of рюкзак ("rjukzak"). This makes me think that it was probably a German speaker who invented the first backpack.

The image is from www.simplyhike.co.uk.