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Foreign words used in strange ways | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5751 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 25 of 32 09 July 2013 at 4:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
Klapprechner geht ja mal gar nicht ... that term makes me think of avuncular friend-of- the-family type guys who feel compelled to prove to everyone how tech-savvy they are. Or my mum. She also says Schlepptop. As far as I know, laptop computer is the general term for mobile PCs, and notebook computer used to be a comparably small laptop computer which didn't have the same array of possible uses as a bigger one. But then notebooks became more powerful and the terms mostly merged, with netbook arising as the new word for a very small, not so powerful laptop computer. Marketing, I guess. Edited by Bao on 09 July 2013 at 4:45pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Γρηγόρη Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 4440 days ago 55 posts - 154 votes Speaks: English*, Greek, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: German, French, Russian | Message 26 of 32 10 July 2013 at 4:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It usually tickles the funnybone of most Anglophones to learn that nearly all the languages of Europe refer to a
tuxedo as some version of "smoking," presumably meaning a "smoking jacket." French "le smoking" Spanish "el esmoquin" Italian "lo smoking" Greek "το σμόκιν" Russian "смокинг" German "der Smoking" Finnish "smokki" The list could go on and on … 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6894 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 27 of 32 10 July 2013 at 5:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Did anybody mention "Handy" yet? (It's the word for mobile phone/cell phone in Germany)
(Yes, I have seen this explanation, but the word still surprised me the first time I was in Germany) Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 10 July 2013 at 5:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4343 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 28 of 32 10 July 2013 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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handy...
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| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5751 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 29 of 32 11 July 2013 at 12:05am | IP Logged | |||||
The best experience I had yet concerning that word was when a Swede used it in a conversation in English. I think he must've been talking to too many Germans :) Also, for more digression: There's a joke people make in the local dialect, which goes roughly: "Warum heisst das Handy Handy?" "Weil de Liit es anluege unn soge: 'Henn di koi Kobel?'" (Why is the mobile phone called Handy? - because people look at it and say 'Don't they have a chord?') 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5817 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 30 of 32 11 July 2013 at 12:41am | IP Logged | |||||
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Le talkie-walkie is the one I like best. I would love to know how that came about.
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6688 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 31 of 32 12 July 2013 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Maybe from going backwards - I only know the word as "walkie-talkie", and it conjures up images from a distant past of grown-up men in old army uniforms standing in some random mudhole communicating with other morons who have been sitting for five days in a pile of muck somewhere waiting for something to appear which they can shoot down and eat. Nowadays they probably carry 'handies' which are easier to hide while they are playing tough guys from the wildernesss on the Discovery Channel. Edited by Iversen on 12 July 2013 at 12:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| MarlonX19 Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 4150 days ago 40 posts - 51 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: French | Message 32 of 32 13 July 2013 at 7:17am | IP Logged | |||||
Ok, you're right, I shouldn't have said ''99% of Portuguese speakers'' I should have said ''brazilians''. Anyway, we don't use the word ''portátil'' for notebook or laptop at least I have never heard this before. I dont know much about Portugal anyway :D 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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