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Words that mean something else in another language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Hashimi Senior Member Oman Joined 6047 days ago 362 posts - 529 votes  Speaks: Arabic (Written)* Studies: English, Japanese | Message 17 of 32 03 June 2009 at 9:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey guys, what does molest mean in English now? I thought it means annoy or bother, and my dictionary confirmed this. I think it also means to harass, to tease sexually. Are there other meanings? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 6803 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 18 of 32 03 June 2009 at 11:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's usually taken to mean some form of sexual harassment. No other meaning as far as I know.
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| reasonableman Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5443 days ago 33 posts - 35 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish | Message 19 of 32 03 June 2009 at 11:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Following a recent query on buffer consonants in Turkish (They don't like two vowels
together so they but a 'buffer consonant' between them) I found that buffer means tampon in Turkish! Although if anyone knows the correct grammatical term I'd be glad to hear it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cranberry Newbie United States Joined 5439 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 20 of 32 05 June 2009 at 1:20am | IP Logged | ||
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"After" is "anus" in German.
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| Halie Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5898 days ago 80 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 21 of 32 05 June 2009 at 3:41am | IP Logged | ||
You may want to clarify. It's generally associated with sexually harassing/touching children. It's not a boss hitting on his subordinate (which is still bad), it's much more serious. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6944 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 22 of 32 05 June 2009 at 4:52am | IP Logged | ||
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In modern usage, "molest" can mean "to annoy or disturb in a hostile way", but in an indirect sense when it is used in something like the following.
"Because the building was empty, the thieves could do their work unmolested." For whatever reason, the meaning of "molest" to refer to sexual harassment (usually on children by adults) has become the more frequent sense in modern English. It may be that lawyers or police officers dealing with cases involving sexual assault on children referred to such acts in court as "molestation" (which in a general sense is true) rather than plainer but more graphic descriptions of sexual assault on children. Over time this "stretching" of the word's original meaning began to catch on to the point where the new meaning becomes the primary meaning in the minds of most contemporary English-speakers. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5465 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 23 of 32 05 June 2009 at 4:58am | IP Logged | ||
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As I reason, molestation carries the image of sexually abused children because the abuse is thought to molest their development.
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| Halie Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5898 days ago 80 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 24 of 32 05 June 2009 at 8:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Slang means hose in Swedish (you may want to correct me on this, Swedes...)
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