False Friends
German Haut-skin,French haut-high.
German rein-purely,French rein-kidney.
German Land-country (or land),French lande-moor.
German Stadt-city,French stade-stage.
German hart-hard , French hart-binder.
>>German: Geil - cool, great whatever
Dutch: Geil - Horny <<
The meaning of 'geil' in German is not only 'cool', but also 'horny'.
German & English: "also" (words from combination of same words ['all' + 'so'], but different meanings); French & English: "also" & "aussi" (same meaning and similar form, yet totally unrelated [Fr < Lat 'aliud' + 'sic'])
Latin "amare" - to love
French "amarre" - marine rope
Latin "est" - "he/she/it is"
French "est" - East
She was a slut, and she got herself pregnant.
Now she's embarassed (embarasada).
She sould be embarassed. And ashamed. Fuckin slut.
Embarazoso = embarrasing (maybe English embarrased comes from this)
Embarazada = pregnant
English - accurate, adj (correct, precise, true in every detail)
Russian - аккуратный, adj (tidy and carefully arranged, neat; when applied to a person, means that the person likes to keep things tidy)
English 'gain' ==(< OE. 'gain', 'gein', 'gayhen', "gain, advantage", of Scand. origin akin to Icel. gagn; akin to Sw. gagn, Dan. gavn, cf. Goth. gageigan to gain)
and
French 'gain' ==(< MF, contr. of OF gaaing, n. deriv of gaaignier to till, earn, win < Gmc; cf. OHG weidanōn to hunt, forage for food, O.E. wāð pursuit)
For a long time I believed the English word was from the French, but it was clearly already in use in Old English before the Norman Conquest in the sense of "return [on investment]", "increase", "profit" from the same source as '-gain' in "again/against" meaning "back/in return" and has cognates in Scandinavian languages from which its presence in OE is certainly attributed.
Although the French word has the selfsame form and meaning, and undoubtedly increased the strength and frequency of the Old English word, they are not really one and the same.
Finnish, Sweedish:
kurva (curve)
Spanish, Italian:
Curva (curve)
Any Slavic Language, plus several bordering languages (Hungarian, Albanian...):
Kurva (whore)
<< Latin "est" - "he/she/it is"
French "est" - East >>
Except the French word for Latin "est" is... "est". So while it may still technically be a false friend, I don't think it has the potential for confusion that is normally associated with false friends. The only case that would cause problems is a French speaker writing "est" for "east" in Latin, which I don't think is that likely (although not impossible).
Here's a classic:
Spanish: preservativos
Looks like: preservatives
Actually means: condoms ["preservatives" is "conservantes"]
I've also heard of several instances of English speakers trying to translate "cake" as "gato" (because they knew the French word "gateau"). Why on Earth they expect that to work is beyond me.
- Kef
gay - English = happy, cheerful; homosexual
gay - Spanish = homosexual
ie, Spanish only has the raunchy meaning.
No , en español gay en un principio tenía otro significado, principalmente relacionado con el arte provenzal, pero hoy día ha sido totalmente aniquilado y eclipsado por gay = homosexual.
GAY
"Arte de los trovadores en lengua provenzal, practicantes del Gay Saber"(F. Lázaro Carreter)
GAYA CIENCIA
Arte de la poesía, especialmente trovadoresca, de origen provenzal, imitada en España en el S. XV. / Gay Saber. "Modo de cantar a las damas, regulado por las Leys d'amors" (F. Lázaro Carreter)
Es paradójico que gaya ciencia significara el arte de cantar a las damas y actualmente gay signifique el "arte" de hacer el amor con hombres.
ya por aquel entonces solian cantar a las damas pero preferian hacer el amor con hombres :-)