All languages borrow words from other languages. Some languages are more prone to borrowing, while others borrow less, and different domains of the vocabulary are unequally susceptible to borrowing. Languages typically borrow words when a new concept is introduced, but languages may also borrow a new word for an already existing concept. Linguists describe two causalities for borrowing: need, i.e., the internal pressure of borrowing a new term for a concept in the language, and prestige, i.e., the external pressure of borrowing a term from a more prestigious language. We investigate lexical loans in a dataset of 104 concepts in 115 Eurasian languages from 7 families occupying a coherent contact area of the Eurasian landmass, of which Indo-European languages from various periods constitute a majority. We use a cognacy-coded dataset, which identifies loan events including a source and a target language. To avoid loans for newly introduced concepts in languages, we use a list of lexical concepts that have been in use at least since the Chalcolithic (4000-3000 BCE). We observe that the rates of borrowing are highly variable among concepts, lexical domains, languages, language families, and time periods. We compare our results to those of a global sample and observe that our rates are generally lower, but that the rates between the samples are significantly correlated. To test the causality of borrowing, we use two different ranks. Firstly, to test need, we use a cultural ranking of concepts by their mobility (of nature items) or their labour intensity and "distance-from-hearth" (of culture items). Secondly, to test prestige, we use a power ranking of languages by their socio-cultural status. We conclude that the borrowability of concepts increases with increasing mobility (nature), and with increased labour intensity and "distance-from-hearth" (culture). We also conclude that language prestige is not correlated with borrowability in general (all languages borrow, indepe Languages typically borrow words when a new concept is introduced, but languages may also borrow a new word for an already existing concept. Linguists describe two causalities for borrowing: need , i.e., the internal pressure of borrowing a new term for a concept in the language, and prestige , i.e., the external pressure of borrowing a term from a more prestigious language. We investigate lexical loans in a dataset of 104 concepts in 115 Eurasian languages from 7 families occupying a coherent contact area of the Eurasian landmass, of which Indo-European languages from various periods constitute a majority. Words from different semantic domains may differ in their borrowability: lexical items pertaining to the modern world, religion, clothing and grooming, the house, law, social and political relations, agriculture and vegetation, food and drink, and warfare and hunting, are more frequently borrowed than words from the domains of sense perception, spatial relations, body terms, kinship, motion words, the physical world, emotions, and space and time. Within these domains, just as between languages, the overall variation is extensive. Basic vocabulary lists, such as Swadesh or Leipzig-Jakarta lists, consist of concepts from the lower range of the borrowability spectrum. These lists, which are particularly popular in historical, evolutionary and cognitive linguistic studies [ 9 – 11 ], aim to define a cross-linguistically common vocabulary, which has a high degree of stability and robustness [ 12 ]. However, the extensive “cultural” part of the lexicon (as opposed to the “basic” lexicon) [ 4 ], i.e., the part of the vocabulary which is adapted to the culture and environment, is more complex to investigate, due to the highly varying environments of languages. The lexemes for ‘cow’ or ‘wolf’ are likely to be native to Eurasia or Africa, whereas ‘potato’, ‘maize’ or ‘armadillo’ are likely to be loanwords. In this section of vocabulary, most borrowings would be ‟core borrowings” (a loan replaces a lexeme designating a concept previously existing in the language) rather than ‟cultural borrowings” (a loan expands the vocabulary by a new lexeme designating a new concept) [ 4 , 15 ]. This represents a situation where native lexemes are replaced by loans, which can be due to internal factors, such as cultural salience and functionality, or external factors, such as contact and prestige. To investigate this, we look at semantic domains of concepts of assumed high age and stability, which we organize by an independent cultural ranking defining variation in need . The Loanword Typology Project [ 4 ] uses a method with an incorporated scale of five degrees of reliability (0 –No evidence for borrowing, 1 –Very little evidence for borrowing, 2 –Perhaps borrowed, 3 –Probably borrowed, 4 –Certainly borrowed), which serves to assign a borrowability value to each word, by which the results are weighted. We measure borrowability as the rate of borrowed lexemes (see “Coding models”) in relation to the total number of lexemes per lexical concept (or per language), which have kept the core meaning, also including lexemes of extended meaning and secondary usage (“Coding models”). This model serves as the basis for measuring borrowability in our study. Our model aims to capture core borrowings, i.e., loans that replace a lexeme designating a concept previously existing in the language, and the results are therefore not indicative of expansion of the vocabulary by cultural borrowings [ 15 ], which is another important purpose of lexical borrowing. At some point in history, parts of our targeted vocabulary must have entered the lexicon by cultural borrowing, when new words entered the languages together with new, recently invented concepts. The source languages of these loan events are mostly unknown to us. Furthermore, our targeted concept list mainly encompasses the areas of subsistence, technology, hunting and war ( Table 1 ).