[jangliss]

A Dutch friend once said that the one word from his language that has had universal reach was "apartheid"... I'm sure that if there are any truly global words they are probably ones like that (initially) attached to a specific geographical context.

[Tijdreiziger]

There is another Dutch word that must be pretty widespread in STEM circles: ‘eigenvector’.

[eru]

I always thought Eigenvektor was borrowed from German, not Dutch?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalues_and_eigenvectors#H... seems to confirm the German origins, citing David Hilbert and Hermann von Helmholtz as originators of the word.

[planede]

You mean "sajátvektor"? (Hungarian)

https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saj%C3%A1tvektor_%C3%A9s_saj%C...

[Ekaros]

Now consider the SI units. Could those be some of the most common words between all languages?

[ernesth]

In french, it is "vecteur propre" (which has the same meaning).

[vidarh]

Apartheid translates to entirely different words in a number of languages it seems.