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Favorite word from another language? | ||
Tags: False friends | Loanwords | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4101 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 17 of 33 11 April 2014 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Not a particular favourite, but kalabalik is an interesting one in Swedish. It comes from the Turkish word kalabalık. In Turkish, as I understand it, it simply means crowd, but in Swedish it means tumult, chaos or riot.
The word entered the Swedish vocabulary after the skirmish in Bender in the early 18th century. The Swedish king (Charles XII) spent a number of years in the Ottoman Empire after the massive failure that was the battle of Poltava. The Ottomans eventually decided to get rid of the Swedish king and attacked his camp in Bender. The event is known in Swedish as kalabaliken i Bender. Kalabalik in modern Swedish, though, is just as likely to refer to a room full of toddlers as a war situation. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nicozerpa Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 4328 days ago 182 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Portuguese, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 18 of 33 11 April 2014 at 8:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I like English loanwords in Spanish that aren't actually used in English. For example, in
Spanish we use the term "Smoking" (sometimes spelled "esmóquin") to refer to a tuxedo/dinner jacket. Another one that we use in my country is "Touch and go" (one-night stand), which is a literal translation of "toco y me voy". Another English "false loanword" that fascinates me is used in Japanese: in that language, a white-collar worker is a "Salary man"! Edited by nicozerpa on 11 April 2014 at 8:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5336 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 19 of 33 11 April 2014 at 8:18pm | IP Logged | ||
We use 'smoking' too, but also the more conventional 'one-night-stand'. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5926 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 20 of 33 11 April 2014 at 8:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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My favorite loan words into English are "kindergarten" and the unfortunately little-used "wunderkind", which both come from German.
I also really like the word "baie" which is a Malay loanword used in Afrikaans. Edited by mick33 on 11 April 2014 at 8:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4670 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 21 of 33 12 April 2014 at 4:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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smoking is used in Croatian too (instead of tuxedo)
happy end (as a noun) is used instead of happy ending :( my favorite ''respelling'' is intervju, used in Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian AND in Swedish "_'' Edited by Medulin on 12 April 2014 at 4:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6599 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 22 of 33 12 April 2014 at 4:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Russian has smoking, happy end and intervju too :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4667 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 23 of 33 12 April 2014 at 5:15pm | IP Logged | ||
That's a good one. Interestingly English also borrowed another word, "berserk" (from Old Norse), with a rather similar meaning... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| amyhere Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 4212 days ago 10 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Finnish | Message 24 of 33 21 April 2014 at 11:24am | IP Logged | ||
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This reminds me of 'crawl' in French. The first time I heard it, the friend I was
talking to kept insisting that it was an English word, so it must be the same word in English. It turns out that crawl in French is freestyle in English. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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