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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

#171

Post by weinzierl »

pluma wrote: post #168
weinzierl wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Complaining about "Elektronik" not meaning "electronics": moderate actual nazi Fellow German native speaker here: Elektronik means electronics, doesn't it? At least dict.leo.org and the Oxford German Dictionary (which came with my Mac) seem to say it does. Elektronik | elɛkˈtroːnɪk | Fem. Elektronik 1 electronics sing., no art. 2 (Bestandteile) electronic parts pl. electronics pl. Your other examples are spot on, s…

Yeah, Elektronik is a direct loan from English electronics. The language nazis are complaining we already have the word Elektrik for that because in German that apparently includes what is colloquially called Elektronik. It's mostly an argument based on word origins (i.e. they say Elektronik would have to be similar to Mechatronik in that it would specifically refer to electronic motors and such rather than typical c…

I see, that makes sense.

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

#172

Post by johnzim »

brownbat wrote: post #119

These are called wasabi eigo in Japanese, and there are enough to fill a dictionary, they change all the time. My favorite are ones like "left over"... a baseball term for a hit that goes over the left-fielder's head, rather than uneaten food saved for later. English admits a ton of these as well. I'd be horrified if someone recommended a board to keep English pure from foreign influences though. It seems both futile…

It would be impossible - the language already contains huge numbers of loan words.

All our eating meat words are French for instance (Beef, Mutton, Pork) whereas the animal words are "English" (Cow, Sheep, Pig) because the Norman invasion replaced all the old English aristocracy - the commoners raised the animals, the nobles ate them. That was just one conquest and we've had several - the Romans, Celts, Danes etc.

To say nothing of important words taken from German, Italian let alone Latin and Greek.

That's the reason it's such a mare to learn - it's accepted that we have more words than any other language.

There is no such thing as pure English - and a good thing too!

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

#173

Post by LyndsySimon »

marssaxman wrote: post #60
LyndsySimon wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently that's quite regional. I was corrected a few weeks ago because I called a pair of cross-trainers "tennis shoes" - where that person was from "tennis shoes" is much more specific than I understand it.

What region might that person have been from? I grew up calling them all "tennis shoes", though I don't think I ever met anyone who played tennis. "Sneakers" was a secondary term.

I want to say they were from Philadelphia, but I'm not 100% sure.

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

#176

Post by brownbat »

rflrob wrote: post #129
brownbat wrote: post #119

These are called wasabi eigo in Japanese, and there are enough to fill a dictionary, they change all the time. My favorite are ones like "left over"... a baseball term for a hit that goes over the left-fielder's head, rather than uneaten food saved for later. English admits a ton of these as well. I'd be horrified if someone recommended a board to keep English pure from foreign influences though. It seems both futile…

Likely autocorrect "fixed" wasei eigo for you. Wasabi eigo would likely be pretty spicy language... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-eigo

So it did, good catch.

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

#177

Post by robocat »

ekianjo wrote: post #18
raldi wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like "Italian sauce", the (often quite tasty and authentic) tomato-based dressing they put on their spaghetti.

They also have "french dressing" a generic white sauce for salads that we dont even use in France.

Equivalently there is "salsa inglesa" in Spain.

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

#178

Post by robocat »

vidarh wrote: post #122

Norwegian has e.g. "light" instead of "diet" for diet products ("Diet Cokie" is "Coke Light" in Norway). We also have e.g."vorspiel" and "nachspiel" for "pre party" (private party before going out, where you can get drunk cheaply...) and "after party" respectively.

As an English speaker from New Zealand, the American usage of light is confusing to me as well.

Two of my favourite misunderstandings between NZ and US English are the meaning of the words fanny and pissed.

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

#179

Post by Symbiote »

spraak wrote: post #139

Hopefully someone interested will read this comment, since it might be buried at the bottom: there is a fun project called Anglish that works to make the English language free from any non-Germanic loan words, using old(er) English and even made up words inspired by German, Dutch etc when no others exist. It's not, as far as I can see, a militant effort, but more fun and an inspiring linguistic challenge. Check it ou…

Perhaps more interesting for a 5-minute distraction is "Uncleftish Beholding", a description of a well-known scientific theory written with no Romance-language words.

https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=alt.language...

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

#180

Post by robocat »

adamzochowski wrote: post #159
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").

But it isn't "Bob" to "Robert". You skipped middle step, and one final step. First names were shortened. Robert to Rob Richard to Rich William to Will Then the shortened version had first letter replaced to make second diminutive form Rob to Bob Rich to Dick Will to Bill Finally you have third diminutive form, by adding ending Bob to Bobby Dick to Dicky Bill to Billy

Richard to Ric to Dick is mentioned here: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/04/how-dick-cam...

Also says that dick didn't mean cock until a lot later.

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