word
German
Kindergarten
lit. “children's garden”
School for very young children — and a near-invisible German loanword in English.
Origin
Coined in 1840 by Friedrich Fröbel, who founded the first such school in Bad Blankenburg, Germany. He chose 'garden' deliberately: children should grow under careful tending rather than rote instruction. The idea — and the word — spread to the English-speaking world by the late 19th century.
Modern usage
So thoroughly absorbed that almost no English speaker registers it as German. Mostly listed here as a reminder of how invisible loanwords become.
Tags
education
loanword