The present study contributes to recent research into historical Germanisms in various host languages from a lexicological perspective, focusing on the integration of ‚ersatz‘, ‚diktat‘ and ‚kapout‘/‚kaput‘ into French and English. The semantic and contextual variability that these borrowings have been manifesting since their earliest recorded uses in the two host languages are investigated in detail, based on data from dictionaries and balanced corpora of French and English. Special attention will be paid to the question of how far historical developments and events such as the First and Second World Wars influenced the usage and spread of these Germanisms in French and English.

Keywords: lexicology, language contact, online dictionaries and corpora in lexicological research