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The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

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Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#141

Post by taejo »

bshimmin wrote: post #96
raquo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, like passport control or customs control (at the airport).

It's a funny one. In English we say "passport control" and "border control", but we would mostly otherwise use the word "check". I've encountered Italian speakers saying "Have they controlled your ticket?" when they mean "checked" (or "inspected"), simply because "controllare" in Italian means "to check", and feels like it ought to make sense in English, but doesn't. On a related note, I have yet to encounter a Frenc…

"Border control" does arguably use the ordinary meaning of control: they control the border by checking passports.

But check also has an interesting etymology. Its many meanings include a type of payment note (aka "cheque"), to obstruct ("check somebody's progress", "body check"), to verify, to inspect; also checker (divide into small squares) and exchequer (the UK treasury)... all come from the Persian word shah, meaning king, through chess-related metaphors. (Also the word chess itself)

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#142

Post by taejo »

GuiA wrote: post #33
vacri wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japanese even has an entire alphabet just for loanwords (katakana)

For non Japanese practicers who are curious: katakana is not used just for loan words. It is also used for some names, onomatopoeias, to make text stand out (the way we might use all caps/italics), some scientific terminology, etc.

English can use italics for pretty much all of those things (foreign words, onomatopoeia, emphasis, scientific names of species...) so it's a pretty close match :)

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#143

Post by fenomas »

eeks wrote: post #133
eeks wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course there are "double entendres" in French. They can take the form of "sous-entendus" where the same sentence can be interpreted differently depending on the level of knowledge of the listeners for a particular context. Play-on-words are also widespread, including the "contrepèterie" art form unique to French. Various form of "argot" (slang) also use identical words bearing different meanings. All of these are…

I went and read that passage again, and I'm sorry but the phrasing is ambiguous. "There is no double entendres in France" literally means that "double entendres" are nowhere to be found in France, which in itself makes no sense. The sentence "there is no double entendres in French" would actually make sense but bears the meaning with which I credited it initially. If the journalist meant "The expression double entend…

Read literally it's ambiguous - it could mean either that the concept doesn't exist or the term doesn't. But considering the article is one big list of borrowed phrases that aren't used in their native land, it's pretty clear what the author meant.

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#144

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

In Spanish we have plenty of these false anglicisms, and we seem to be obsessed with the "-ing" English ending:

un smoking (lately adapted the ortography to "esmoquin") -> a tuxedo

un parking -> a garage, car park

hacer footing -> to do jogging

hacer zapping -> to channel hop (when viewing TV)

tuning -> customizing/accesorizing cars

un lifting -> a facelift

Also some hybrid anglicisms:

hacer puenting -> to bungee jump (from Spanish "puente", bridge)

hacer balconing -> to jump from a balcony, typically to a swimming pool (from Spanish "balcón", balcony).

And of course, some "true" anglicisms like catering, casting, camping, etc.

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#145

Post by taejo »

pluma wrote: post #101
allendoerfer wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you use them to make fun of them or just to make the words sound nice? I think Russian makes heavy use of diminutives, doesn't it? I worked somewhere where two women were called Natalia and Natasha and I am still confused what their actual name were, because Natasha seems to be the diminutive form of Natalia and sometimes Natasha called Natalia "Natasha". I do not think that there are any German names which are th…

I can't think of any German diminutive names but there are cases where the "short form" is distinctly different from the long form as in English "Bob" vs "Robert" or "Dick" vs "Richard". E.g. "Jupp" is short for "Joseph" and "Kalle" is short for "Karl" (or variants like "Karl-Heinz").

The name Gretchen is a fairly ordinary English name, but it looks like it was originally a German diminutive of Greta/Grete? Which are themselves nicknames for Margarete.

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#146

Post by taejo »

toyg wrote: post #41

See also: " al fresco ", which in England means "dining outdoors" and in Italy "being in prison". I wonder if it's because eating English food under the English weather can be considered punishment on the level of incarceration...?

al fresco literally means "in the fresh/cool"; interestingly, English also has "in the cooler" for "in prison"

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#148

Post by allendoerfer »

taejo wrote: post #145
pluma wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't think of any German diminutive names but there are cases where the "short form" is distinctly different from the long form as in English "Bob" vs "Robert" or "Dick" vs "Richard". E.g. "Jupp" is short for "Joseph" and "Kalle" is short for "Karl" (or variants like "Karl-Heinz").

The name Gretchen is a fairly ordinary English name, but it looks like it was originally a German diminutive of Greta/Grete? Which are themselves nicknames for Margarete.

Ha, yes. But I do not know if people were actually named Gretchen in Germany or just Gretas called this way. The name is also not currently given very much (or at all) in Germany, when used there is usually a "Oma"/grandma in front of it.

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#149

Post by dpfu »

Wikipedia has a nice list [0]. In German pseudo-anglicisms are an often used method of word formation, e.g: Beamer (projector), No-Go (faux pas), Handy (mobile phone), Oldtimer (classic car), Streetworker, Barkeeper and (brand new) Shitstorm, etc. There are also pseudo-gallicisms in use (like "Blamage" for disgrace, or "Friseur" for coiffeur). Fun stuff.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-anglicism

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#150

Post by wodenokoto »

xg15 wrote: post #131
fenomas wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that passage came within ten feet of anyone who speaks Japanese. Ao doesn't mean blue-green, it's more of a word that spans both, with set usages for things we'd consider unambiguously one or the other (e.g. a cloudless sky, or the "go" part of a traffic light). In the context of eyes it always means blue though, so the example doesn't make much sense.

Out of couriosity, how do they describe green eyes then? or do they have a separate word that only means green?

Midori is green.
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