Which are called by basically the same name across the board:faux amisfalsos amigosfalsche Freunde
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 3 March 2013 22:17 (eleven years ago) link
strictly speaking, false friends and false cognates aren't exactly the same... two words that appear to have a shared etymology but do not are false cognates, such as English light and German blitz "lightning" for example. Two words that sound alike but have different meanings are false friends, and they usually are cognates (English molest and Spanish molestar "to bother") but don't have to be (English galena "lead sulfide" and Portuguese galinha "hen").
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 4 March 2013 01:01 (eleven years ago) link
That reminds me of that embarrassing incident with the lead sulfide on my Portuguese holiday...
― A Yawning Chasm (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Monday, 4 March 2013 13:53 (eleven years ago) link
Isn't that the name of a Fairport Convention album?
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 March 2013 14:03 (eleven years ago) link
liege and lief are false cognates
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 4 March 2013 14:14 (eleven years ago) link
I'm glad this thread made me dig out Partridge's Origins. Otherwise, I would have not made a connection (although it's totally obvs now that I think about it) between hymnal and hymen.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8248/8527358827_4213032133_c.jpg
― and that sounds like a gong-concert (La Lechera), Monday, 4 March 2013 14:47 (eleven years ago) link
that's just a random page! there 971 others!
Well, that clears up where the English word "haversack" comes from at least.
I'm pretty sure French got it from English
― Canaille help you (Michael White), Monday, 4 March 2013 14:50 (eleven years ago) link
OED lists both the French havresac and German habersack as sources for the English, so it seems like things are not cut and dried.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 4 March 2013 15:17 (eleven years ago) link
The French seem to think they got it from German. Haber and haver for oats is common to both English and German, apparently.
― Canaille help you (Michael White), Monday, 4 March 2013 16:04 (eleven years ago) link
Man, I wish English had ended up with oatsack as the word for backpack.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 4 March 2013 16:28 (eleven years ago) link
Weird thing across the US is the varying use of the terms "bag" "sack" or "pack." Vestigial trace of the Old Weird America.
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 March 2013 16:58 (eleven years ago) link
http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_109.html
don't forget poke!
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 4 March 2013 17:10 (eleven years ago) link
Ha, thanks.
I do know that the Spanish equivalent of "to buy a pig in a poke," from the opposite point of view, is "dar gato por liebre" - to give a cat for a hare.
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 March 2013 17:24 (eleven years ago) link
this reminds me of that time i resisted buying all of the DARE volumes
― and that sounds like a gong-concert (La Lechera), Monday, 4 March 2013 17:48 (eleven years ago) link
confident use of the past tense there.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 4 March 2013 19:28 (eleven years ago) link
once the sale was over i felt safe from dropping $400+ on recreational dictionaries
― and that sounds like a gong-concert (La Lechera), Monday, 4 March 2013 19:42 (eleven years ago) link
but it's a vacation... in your mind!
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 4 March 2013 21:05 (eleven years ago) link
The only vacation that matters.
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 March 2013 21:23 (eleven years ago) link
en: dogde: hundfr: chienes: perro
I assume Italian "cane" is a cognate with French "chien", and of course other cognates lurk (hund/hound).
― Scoobie Dufay (Paul in Santa Cruz), Monday, 4 March 2013 23:44 (eleven years ago) link
Fine, I can admit that I regret not shelling out for the DARE.
― and that sounds like a gong-concert (La Lechera), Monday, 4 March 2013 23:46 (eleven years ago) link
en: hatcz: kloboukdt: hoedfi: hattufr: chapeaude: Hutgr: καπέλοhi: topiit: capellopl: kapeluszro: pălărieru: shlyapasp: sombrerosw: hatt
― goole, Tuesday, 5 March 2013 02:50 (eleven years ago) link
idk what's up with czech and romanian there but that's a pretty clear romance/germanic split
― goole, Tuesday, 5 March 2013 02:51 (eleven years ago) link
шапка is probably my favourite example of the problems that come with trying to identify Russian words by visual similarity with English letters.
― Des Fusils Pour Banter (ShariVari), Tuesday, 5 March 2013 13:05 (eleven years ago) link
Another page from that book -- its browseability illustrated here with a page featuring the following four words:
advice after affair afternoonorafter afternoon affair adviceand so on
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8516/8597304343_6f184b71c5_b.jpg
― and that sounds like a gong-concert (La Lechera), Thursday, 28 March 2013 17:41 (eleven years ago) link
wow, afternoon looks like a winner!
also, cannot recommend this book enough:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0816652724/
or its cheaper cousin by the same author:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0195387074/
he is fun to read!
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Thursday, 28 March 2013 20:02 (eleven years ago) link
wow, afternoon looks like a winner!Close. But aren't the "mit" in "Mittag" and the "mi" in "midi" related?
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 28 March 2013 21:23 (eleven years ago) link
Will be checking out Word Origins, thanks.
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 28 March 2013 21:26 (eleven years ago) link
is mittag used differently from midday?
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 28 March 2013 21:29 (eleven years ago) link
Don't think so.
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 28 March 2013 21:30 (eleven years ago) link
Hm. Brief search indicates the French is coming from Latin and the German and English more from something Germanic.
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 28 March 2013 21:35 (eleven years ago) link
yeah, they all seem to lead back to the same Proto-Indo-European root (*medhyo meaning "middle")... including the Italian, which got by me initially, it's basically "post-meridian."
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Thursday, 28 March 2013 21:48 (eleven years ago) link
Plant known in English as monkshood or wolfsbane has all sorts of great names in various languages including
D: Eisenhut , "iron hat"P: carro-de-venus "carriage of Venus"
Full list here:http://irapl.altervista.org/botany/main.php?taxon=Aconitum+napellus
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 31 March 2013 12:44 (eleven years ago) link
Wikipedia has some good names too:
Aconitum (pron.: /ˌækəˈnaɪtəm/ A-co-ní-tum),[1] also known as "the queen of poisons", aconite, monkshood, wolf's bane, leopard's bane, women's bane, devil's helmet or blue rocket
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aconitum
One old reference has in it a listing for a Danish term, Blauemunke- "Blue Monk." Who knew?
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 31 March 2013 14:07 (eleven years ago) link
Wikipedia table of chess piece names:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_piece#Piece_names
― What About The Half That's Never Been POLLed (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 15:17 (eleven years ago) link
Wikipedia links to this interesting article, originally written in Finnish: http://www.shakki.net/kerhot/KemTS/nap-pieces.htm
― What About The Half That's Never Been POLLed (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 16:00 (eleven years ago) link
hmm interesting common groupings for "bishop"
― goole, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 16:43 (eleven years ago) link
And thank you for this:
Behind, enHinter, deDetrás, esDerrière, frBag, daAchter, nl
― Liz Phair Dinkum (Leee), Monday, 25 February 2013 05:29 (1 month ago) Permalink
hinter has a common root with hind.
I was wondering about Poulenc/Pollo -- seems likely but the spelling and pronunciation have kind of obscured it. German "huhn" (presumably the origin of "hen") is nothing like the english "chicken."
― huun huurt 2 (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 16:58 (eleven years ago) link
German has "Küken" for chick (in the general bird sense) - I would have guessed that's cognate but not sure.
― supermassive pot hole (seandalai), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 17:17 (eleven years ago) link
what about pencil?pencil, encrayon, frlapiz, esmatita, itbleistift, de
― Jibe, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 18:53 (eleven years ago) link
hey, that's a really good one!
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 19:05 (eleven years ago) link
Chicken is a relatively recent term, though, isn't it? Weren't they once primarily called 'fowl'?
― He has a lot of baggage (handlers' perks) (Michael White), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 19:08 (eleven years ago) link
Pencil is awesome. Note that the a word spelled exactly the same as, but presumably unrelated to, the Italian word for 'pencil', 'matita', appears in Tom Jobim's "The Waters of March" in the context of the "Matita Pereira," which is some kind of mischief-making magical bird (don't know if it has to do with pear trees either). Ctr-F through this Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saci_(Brazilian_folklore)
― What About The Half That's Never Been POLLed (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 19:43 (eleven years ago) link
Click through doesn't quite work due to interpretation of closing paren, but just click through again after "Did you mean:"
― What About The Half That's Never Been POLLed (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 19:45 (eleven years ago) link
More pencils:
Karandash - RussianOłówek - PolishTuzka - Czech
― хуто-хуторянка (ShariVari), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 19:52 (eleven years ago) link
In Swedish it's "penna", which must be a gognate of "pencil".
― Tuomas, Thursday, 25 April 2013 06:47 (eleven years ago) link
btw anyone have awebsite where i can look up the translation of a word in multiple languages at one time. rather than having to google translate one language at a time. looking for something kind of like that awesome multiple language dictionary shown upthread.
― Jibe, Thursday, 25 April 2013 07:26 (eleven years ago) link
I'll be happy to take requests in a week or two when my books are all unpacked. That's all I've got!
― and that sounds like a gong-concert (La Lechera), Thursday, 25 April 2013 12:45 (eleven years ago) link
have read something about "turkey" that is relevant to thread, people everywhere always assume this bird comes from some other land and name it accordingly, therefore turkeys are from space.
― Sébastien, Thursday, 25 April 2013 14:57 (eleven years ago) link
Yes, have read exactly that thing about the turkey and wondered if and when we should discuss on this thread.. We think it is from Turkey but in France- and it Turkey!- they think it is from India.
― What About The Half That's Never Been POLLed (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:06 (eleven years ago) link