Words that just won't stick

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Rí.na.dTeangacha
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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Rí.na.dTeangacha » 2021-01-04, 14:07

OldBoring wrote:What's even more confusing is that roxo does not mean red, but purple!


Yes, that is also confusing. The Portuguese sure screwed up their colours!

OldBoring wrote:It's easy to me to associate vermelho with red, because as a kid we used coloured pencils, and one of the colours was rosso vermiglio, in English vermilion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermilion


I remember vermillion (mainly because it's the keyword associate with this kanji:朱 in RTK), yet it still messes me up on a regular basis anyway.

dEhiN wrote:Actually, funnily enough, I remember thinking of Vermilion City as representing the colour green! So strange!


I never thought of it as a colour at all when I was a kid playing them, I just accepted that that was the name of the city! :P
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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby dEhiN » 2021-01-04, 14:35

Rí.na.dTeangacha wrote:I never thought of it as a colour at all when I was a kid playing them, I just accepted that that was the name of the city! :P

I figured out quickly when playing it the first time through that some of the town/city names were based on a colour. That's also why in the orig GB versions, the (8-bit) colours changed when you entered certain towns. Of course there's only so much 8 bits will get you.
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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Osias » 2021-01-04, 15:03

2017 est l'année du (fr) et de l'(de) pour moi. Parle avec moi en eux, s'il te plait.

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby linguoboy » 2021-01-04, 20:20

Update: I'm reading Welsh prose again and I'm still having trouble with most of the words I listed the last time. In particular, I find myself continually stumbling over:
linguoboy wrote:syllu gaze, stare
sylwi notice, note, observe
sylweddoli realise
especially the first two.

And now you can add to the list:
gweddu suit, fit, submit
gweddïo pray
gweddillo remain; leave behind
gwennill win

I seem to have finally figured out agor "open" vs aros "stay", so that's a plus.
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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Car » 2021-01-05, 10:00

Rí.na.dTeangacha wrote:
dEhiN wrote:I initially think vermelho means green even though whenever I see verde, I also think green.


This happens to me too :)

To me, too.
Please correct my mistakes!

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby dEhiN » 2021-01-05, 14:05

Car wrote:
Rí.na.dTeangacha wrote:
dEhiN wrote:I initially think vermelho means green even though whenever I see verde, I also think green.


This happens to me too :)

To me, too.

I wonder what it is then about that word if 3 different people are having the same issue?
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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Rí.na.dTeangacha » 2021-01-05, 14:48

dEhiN wrote:
Car wrote:
Rí.na.dTeangacha wrote:
dEhiN wrote:I initially think vermelho means green even though whenever I see verde, I also think green.


This happens to me too :)

To me, too.

I wonder what it is then about that word if 3 different people are having the same issue?


I think it's as simple as vermelho - verde.
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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby dEhiN » 2021-01-05, 16:18

Makes sense.

Speaking of words that won't stick, currently Swedish clothing terms are giving me trouble. I recently did the Duolingo skill Clothing on the Swedish tree and brought it to Level 1. I'm now in the process of bringing it to Level 3. But I'm finding myself still looking up each term. Though I guess a few words are starting to stick: byxorna, kläder, skor, strumpor. Now I just need to learn the declension for each of those words!
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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby OldBoring » 2021-01-07, 14:00

Rí.na.dTeangacha wrote:I remember vermillion (mainly because it's the keyword associate with this kanji:朱 in RTK), yet it still messes me up on a regular basis anyway.

My surname! I'm Mr Vermillion.

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby linguoboy » 2021-02-06, 10:50

Meibomian gland

For some reason, I keep wanting to say “Meibonian”. Then I remember there’s supposed to be an m in there and correct myself to “Meiboniam”. Fortunately, I may finally have gotten over this by realising that they’re named for an eponymous Dr Meibom (that is, Maibaum). I still have to remember that every time and correct myself though.
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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby vijayjohn » 2021-03-15, 4:56

largehead hairtail and possibly ivy gourd (plus probably any other name for that other than "tindora." At least "tindora" is short enough for me to actually remember it)

What unwieldy names! വാള [ˈʋaːɭa] and കോവയ്ക്ക [ˈkoːʋɛkʲa] respectively are just so much easier for me to remember!

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Linguaphile » 2022-01-21, 16:47

dEhiN wrote:
Car wrote:
Rí.na.dTeangacha wrote:
dEhiN wrote:I initially think vermelho means green even though whenever I see verde, I also think green.


This happens to me too :)

To me, too.

I wonder what it is then about that word if 3 different people are having the same issue?

It's a common problem for many people with the words vermilion and chartreuse in English, too. (With vermilion many people tend to think it is green, and with chartreuse, to think it is red.)

Actually I came here to post these, but then got distracted by the color words above!
I've frequently forgotten which word is which from this set:

(es) aguinaldo Christmas bonus, gift, Christmas carol
(es) guirnalda garland, chaplet made of flowers or other plants
What I just learned is that both of these words have undergone metathesis. Aguinaldo was originally aguilando, and guirnalda was originally guirlanda. I think those would have been easier for me to keep straight :mrgreen: so maybe knowing that will help.

Another pair I sometimes have issues with: periodically I mix up ajast aega and read it as meaning "from time to time":
(et) ajast aega through the ages, for centuries, time after time (but as a literal translation it can be read as "from-time to-time", hence the issue I have)
(et) aeg ajalt sporadically, from time to time

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Naava » 2022-01-21, 19:49

Linguaphile wrote:What I just learned is that both of these words have undergone metathesis. Aguinaldo was originally aguilando, and guirnalda was originally guirlanda.

Finnish has girlandi (without the metathesis), which also happens to be a word I always forgot. I mix that with garland and kirlanteri (from a popular Christmas calendar TV show*) and end up with something like garlanteri...

*I don't know if this is a legit word or something they made up for fun. I've never heard anyone speak of kirlanteri or girlandi but at least the latter can be found in Wiktionary. :)

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby vijayjohn » 2022-01-24, 22:47

So what does kirlanteri mean? Same as girlandi?

പാളയം [ˈpaːɭejəm]- village surrounded by hills
അപകടം [əˈbəgəɖəm] - fault, mischief (because it can also mean 'danger', 'accident', 'risk', 'difficulty', or 'evil'! I definitely remember 'danger' and 'accident' but can't necessarily remember the others off the top of my head :P).
മീൻ [mi:n] - lightning (can also mean 'star' and most commonly means 'fish')
ഈയൽ [ˈjiːjəl] - winged termite (a.k.a. ഈയാംപാറ്റ [jiːˈjaːmbaːtta]), short-lived creature
ധിക്കാരം [d̪ʱɪkˈkaːɾəm] - impudence, insolence, defiance, haughtiness, disrespect
ധൂർത്ത [ˈd̪ʱuːrt̪a] - extravagant, wanton, prodigal, libertine, profligate
ഭള്ള് [bʱəɭˈɭɯ] - pride, vanity, vaingloriousness, arrogance, boasting
അഗാഠ്യമായ [əˈgaːɖʱjəmaːja] - profound

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Naava » 2022-01-25, 15:33

vijayjohn wrote:So what does kirlanteri mean? Same as girlandi?

Yes, although I'm still not sure if it's a real word or something made up for the show. :) Here's a photo from that show. You can see the decorations they called kirlanteri on the walls.
Image

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby vijayjohn » 2022-01-25, 20:21

അധികപ്പറ്റ് [əˈd̪ʱigəpəttɯ] - person who is an unwanted burden
ഇടറുക [jiˈɖərʊga] - to slip, stumble, err
ഉദ്ധരിക്കുക [ud̪ˈd̪ʱəɾikʲʊga] - to quote
ഉദ്ധരണി [ud̪ˈd̪ʱəɾəɳi] - (a/the) quote
പിരിയുക [piˈɾijʊga] - to twist
പിരി [piˈɾi] - according to my dad, people at the boarding school my mom went to used this to refer to "when two women were in love"
പ്രതിഫലനം [prəˈd̪ipʰələnəm] - reflection
ഉരിയ [uˈɾija] - handful (I'm always tempted to misremember this as just *ഉരി [uˈɾi])

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby nijk » 2022-02-03, 12:03

sweep, swipe, wipe, weep

Well, now thanks to hook-up apps I kind of remember "swipe", and thanks to "wipe out" (which for some reason has actually stuck in my mind) I'm sort of able to infer the meaning of "wipe". But it's definitely not something automatic and I can easily mix all of them up.

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby dEhiN » 2022-02-05, 4:14

nijk wrote:sweep, swipe, wipe, weep

Huh, I never thought about how similar sounding they all are and I can totally see why you'd mix them up. If anything, I think swipe and wipe could be thought of as having similar meanings at least in terms of the physical action one might take to do both verbs. (Yes hook-up apps have used swipe in a different sense, but prior to that, the most common sense was probably the stealing one).

If it helps, when I think of sweep, I picture a broom, and when I think of weep, I picture tears or someone crying. So, I suppose we could say:

sweep = broom
weep = crying
swipe = steal or dating app method (to choose someone)
wipe = clean

Maybe that will help?
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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby nijk » 2022-02-05, 9:09

dEhiN wrote:Maybe that will help?


Probably not, but thank you for the effort. :lol:

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby vijayjohn » 2022-02-08, 18:13

ലേശുക [ˈleːɕʊga] - to affect
വർക്കത്തുകെട്ട [ʋərˈkət̪ɯgɛʈa] - awkward, graceless, unfortunate, unclean, ugly
നിസർഗ്ഗം [n̪ɪˈsərgəm] - character, nature, gift, defecation
ചൂളം [ˈt͡ʃuːɭəm] - whistle (I recognize this word but almost never have a context to use it)
ശൂളം [ˈɕuːɭəm] - same as above, but the variant of this term that my parents use
ഭോഷൻ [ˈbʱoːʃɛn ~ˈpʰoːʃɛn] - (according to my dictionary) stupid fellow, fool, blockhead, dunce; (according to my dad) willfully stupid man
ഭോഷത്തം [ˈbʱoːʃət̪əm]/ഭോഷത്തരം [ˈbʱoːʃət̪əɾəm]/ഭോഷത്തനം [ˈbʱoːʃət̪ɛnəm] - foolishness, stupidity, folly, idiocy (or I guess willful idiocy, according to my dad)
വിരഹം [ʋiˈɾəhəm] - separation (I keep thinking this has something to do with 'waiting' because I associate it with a song about a woman who misses her lover)
dEhiN wrote:
nijk wrote:sweep, swipe, wipe, weep

Huh, I never thought about how similar sounding they all are and I can totally see why you'd mix them up. If anything, I think swipe and wipe could be thought of as having similar meanings at least in terms of the physical action one might take to do both verbs. (Yes hook-up apps have used swipe in a different sense, but prior to that, the most common sense was probably the stealing one).

Yeah, I think of all of these except weep to be similar in meaning, and sweep and swipe are even etymologically related (not cognates strictly speaking since the Proto-Germanic ancestor of sweep is morphologically more complex than that of swipe though they both involve the same root)! I myself wouldn't know any of these if not for the fact that I use wipe often enough in everyday situations, have seen especially sweep and weep in literature a lot, and specifically associate swipe with this :P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IvG9_V4Pcg


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