Global Descriptors

When languages borrow from each other, by a large margin the largest group to be borrowed are nouns. In fact, almost every word mentioned here is a noun. For a whole host of reasons, verbs and adjectives are borrowed less often and function words like conjunctions, articles, and pronouns are borrowed least of all.

Global Cognate Adjectives

With all this in mind, it’s not surprising that the number of globally borrowed adjectives is relatively small. Among these, the word sexy stands out the most for being one of the only adjectives that’s been so widely taken as a loanword. Very often the word is borrowed wholesale.

English      sexy

Hebrew      seksi

Serbian      seksi

Thai           sék-sîi

In some languages, sexy is adapted by adding on native morphemes.

Finnish    seksikäs        seksi + käs

Swedish   sexig            sexy + ig

Borrowed Adjectives and Grammar

Like nouns, when an adjective is borrowed into a language, it often has to change to fit in with the grammar of the borrowing language. In a lot of Indo-European languages, like Russian, Italian, Hindi, and German, adjectives can change their endings to agree with the noun they describe. However, the word sexy tends to be adapted wholesale as an invariable adjective.

Russian Мой секси босс (moj seksi boss) ‘my sexy boss’ (book title)

Italian un atteggiamento sexy ‘a sexy pose’

German ein sexy Kleid          ‘a sexy piece of clothing’

Adjective meets Prefix

Some other adjectives that are easy to recognize across languages are the terms halal, haram, and kosher.

This logo has essentially become a translingual symbol in its own right

In many languages, these have been borrowed as adjectives that follow the same principles as other native descriptors.

In other languages, the adjectives halal, haram, kosher don’t have normalized inflection like native or nativized adjectives. They are simply invariable and don't change to agree with the noun that's described. These include languages like Spanish, Portuguese and Swahili.

Spanish carne halal ‘halal meat’          (feminine, singular)

                 productos halal ‘halal products’    (masculine, plural)

However, for many languages, these words aren't adopted as adjectives at all. In languages like Japanese and Korean, halal and haram are treated like nouns.

Japanese     English translation Gloss

halāru no niku     ‘halal meat’ ‘meat of halal’ ‘halal’s meat’

haramu no shokuji       ‘haram meal’ ‘meal of haram’ ‘haram’s meat’

The word kosher is sometimes treated as a noun and sometimes as a prefix.

kōsha shokuhin ‘kosher foodstuff’ (kosher as prefix to shokuhin)

kōsha no nintei ‘kosher certification’ (kosher as a noun)

This borrowing as prefix and/or adjective is more common than might be expected.

In Finnish, for example, the adjective halal exists but much more often halal comes as a prefix. As in halal-liha ‘halal meat.’ The same goes for Dutch and Swedish.

Swedish

kosherslakt Kosher butchering (of meat)

halalslakt Halal butchering (of meat)

Other global prefixes/adjectives

Other words that are borrowed frequently as an adjective and/or a prefix in multiple languages are those related to chemicals and materials.

That being said, comparing noun phrases with these to words like kosher, halal, and haram can provide some insight as to how future global cognates will appear in a language. 

Cognate as Invariable Post-Position Adjective and/or Noun

While the word gamma is not part of (most people's) everyday vocabulary, it is included here to show that in some languages (like Spanish, French, and Italian) these cognate words are sometimes nouns with prepositions (as in luz de neon and pared de cemento) and sometimes without them (is in rayo gamma). 

Cognate as prefix, pre-position adjective, and pre-position noun
*does not contain cognate word