Working with words
English is a language that contains words from many other languages. Find out the origins of the following words: tycoon, tulip, logo, bandicoot, barbecue, veranda, robot, zero, ski, trek
tycoon — Japanese (taikun, meaning 'great lord')
tulip — Turkish/Ottoman Turkish (tülbend, via French tulipe), ultimately from Persian for 'turban' (from the flower's shape)
logo — Greek (logos, meaning 'word' or 'reason')
bandicoot — Telugu (pandikokku, meaning 'pig-rat')
barbecue — Arawak/Taino (barbacoa, a wooden frame used for smoking/grilling meat, via Spanish)
veranda — Portuguese or Hindi (varanda); the word entered English from both and its exact origin is debated, though it is widely used in South Asian and Portuguese contexts
robot — Czech (robota, meaning 'forced labour' or 'drudgery'); coined by Karel Čapek in his 1920 play R.U.R.
zero — Arabic (sifr, meaning 'empty'), via Italian zero
ski — Norwegian (ski, meaning 'a stick of wood')
trek — Afrikaans/Dutch (trekken, meaning 'to pull' or 'to travel')
Answer: The words come from Japanese (tycoon), Turkish/Persian (tulip), Greek (logo), Telugu (bandicoot), Arawak/Spanish (barbecue), Portuguese/Hindi (veranda), Czech (robot), Arabic (zero), Norwegian (ski), and Afrikaans/Dutch (trek) — illustrating English's extraordinary borrowing across world languages.