The article is devoted to the problem of status and structural characteristics of foreign words used in construction discourse in comparative aspect. Data for the present study were taken from lexicographical source represented by such famous French online dictionaries as Le petit Larousse and Le Petit Robert. Besides dictionaries, online versions of specialized periodicals were used (MasterBuilder, Construction Review Online, Chantiers Magazine, Archiliste). Topicality of the research is determined by necessity of precise definition of the notion “borrowing”, and, as consequence, necessity of theoretical understanding of borrowing procedure on the basis of exact criteria picked out for its description.