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"False" Anglicisms | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| leesean Pentaglot Newbie United States lshuang.wordpress.co Joined 6738 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 1 of 62 07 July 2006 at 12:22am | IP Logged | ||
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Let's talk about "false" or pseudo-anglicisms: so-called English
loanwords in other languages that don't actually correspond to "real" English. For example: Swedish en pocket = a paperback (book) German Handy = cellphone (US), mobile (UK) French un smoking = tuxedo (US), dinner jacket (UK) station service = gas station, service station (US), petrol station (UK) un parking = parking lot (US), car park (UK) les baskets = tennis shoes, sneakers (US), trainers (UK) Japanese imeeji appu "Image up" imeeji daun "Image down" To gain or lose popularity or popular support. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| RogueRook Diglot Senior Member Germany N/A Joined 6832 days ago 174 posts - 177 votes  6 sounds Speaks: German*, English Studies: Hungarian, Turkish | Message 2 of 62 07 July 2006 at 1:54am | IP Logged | ||
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German has man silly Anglicisms, you already mentioned the most notorious one.
Here are more: German: "Body Bag" - for a bag with one strap, going across the chest with the bag resting on one hip, could be embarassing for German tourists trying to buy this in England or USA "Burner" - a thing that is cool and popular "Healthness" - bogus word, seen in magazines "pants" for male underwear etc. Mostly the meaning of the original words gets twisted. This is actually detrimental to learning english, since you have to unlearn all the false friends. Edited by RogueRook on 07 July 2006 at 1:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7103 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 3 of 62 07 July 2006 at 2:59am | IP Logged | ||
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For some reason "le smoking" always amuses me, I always end up with a vision of the tux smouldering quietly.
Regarding "pants" for male underwear that is, of course, the standard British English term for the same and does not have the meaning of trousers - which, as we all know, is some weird Americanism** (only joking!). Forgetting that may cause some misunderstanding over here in the UK - although it's not quite as bad as not understanding the different meanings of the word "fanny" between the US and the UK. Andy. ** of course, in reality, it's us Brits who have caused the confusion since "pants" is short for "underpants" - i.e. something you wear under trousers. Edited by Andy E on 07 July 2006 at 3:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7015 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 62 07 July 2006 at 4:43am | IP Logged | ||
Having grown accustomed to the UK version, this caught me by surprise when some American students I knew in university used this word quite "normally". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 5 of 62 07 July 2006 at 4:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Japanese has a bunch of other made-up words they think are English (but
aren't). One could make a similar list of false friends. gasorinsutando "gasoline stand" = gas station / petrol station kuriningu "cleaning" = dry cleaners sarariiman "salary man" = salaried white-collar employee masucomi = the news media saabisu "service" = complimentary (e.g. a free drink at a restaurant) maikaa "my car" = anyone's car, including yours jipan = jeans Japanese also has numerous loanwords from German, Dutch, and Portuguese. They sometimes use these with English speakers in Japanese conversation, thinking that a white foreigner is guaranteed to know all such "foreign" words. Edited by Captain Haddock on 07 July 2006 at 5:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Zorndyke Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6958 days ago 374 posts - 382 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Czech | Message 6 of 62 07 July 2006 at 5:55am | IP Logged | ||
Never heard of one of these except for the "Burner", and this one is rarely used (at least where I live). One more example for "wrong" German Anglicisms is: talkmaster = host Edited by Zorndyke on 07 July 2006 at 6:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| KingM Triglot Senior Member michaelwallaceauthor Joined 7191 days ago 275 posts - 300 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 62 07 July 2006 at 6:36am | IP Logged | ||
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It often happens to me that I'll be in a conversation with a Spanish speaker and suddenly cannot get a word out of the conversation. I'll ask for clarification and realize that it is an English loan word or place name. I always have a feeling of amusement but also relief when I realize why I didn't understand.
As an example, the word for oatmeal in Mexico is avena, but I was talking to a friend from Ecuador who kept referring to something that sounded like guaguer which she explained as oatmeal. "Ya sabes, el hombre con el sombrero...es una marca norteamericana..." Suddenly, I realized she was saying Quaker, which is what they call oatmeal in Ecuador. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7015 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 62 07 July 2006 at 7:41am | IP Logged | ||
Interesting that you should mention this because porridge is called "cuecaro" in Gibraltar (from Quaker's Oats). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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