True false friends 2

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Linguaphile
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Linguaphile » 2020-02-22, 3:52

(en) veneer thin decorative covering
(et) vineer plywood

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Dormouse559 » 2020-03-02, 17:41

(en) evade/evasion
(fr) s'évader/évasion - escape, break out of

In English, "evade" describes getting away from places or states you aren't in yet, or people who haven't caught you yet. French "s'évader/évasion" is the opposite; it's for getting away from places/states you're already in, or from someone who's caught you.

"Escape" is the closest general translation of "s'évader", but it doesn't specify whether you've been caught; context normally clarifies that.

I noticed the false friendship in this article from Le Figaro.

Le Figaro wrote:Évasion de deux détenus de la prison de Bourges

Two inmates escape Bourges Jail
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Dormouse559 » 2020-03-29, 19:55

(es) suministro nm - provision, supply
(fr) sous-ministre nmf - deputy minister

I mean, they wouldn't normally be confused, but as someone with only a passive knowledge of Spanish, I could only come up with sous-ministre when I tried to figure out what suministro meant.

Univision wrote:Nueva York tiene una semana de suministros, dice el alcalde, Bill de Blasio.

New York has one week of supplies, says the mayor, Bill de Blasio.
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby OldBoring » 2020-03-30, 17:13

What's the difference between vice and deputy in English?

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby linguoboy » 2020-03-30, 18:19

OldBoring wrote:What's the difference between vice and deputy in English?

I was really confused for a moment until I realised you meant "vice" as a prefix. ("Deputy" can be used alone as a title, but not "vice". That's one difference.)

I would say the difference it primarily lexical. That is, some titles take "vice" (e.g. "vice president", "vice principal"), some take "deputy" (e.g. "deputy sheriff"), and some take either (e.g. "vice/deputy director", "vice/deputy prime minister") depending on the institution. Arguably, "deputy" retains more the meaning of the original meaning of "person appointed to act on an officeholder's behalf" whereas "vice" simply denotes a rank below, but in practice I would say the choice is arbitrary and historical. Someone who is appointed to fulfill the duties of a vacant position without a formal job search, election, etc. would most commonly be called "interim".

And if that weren't confusing enough, a third element with much the same meaning is "lieutenant", as in "lieutenant colonel" or "lieutenant governor", which respectively denote an office just below that of "colonel", bzw. "governor". All of these titles originated with the idea of having someone ready to fill in if the person a step above (often the highest officeholder in that particular chain of command) was incapacitated.
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby linguoboy » 2020-03-31, 17:36

(en) clean
(cy) clên

The Welsh is derived from the English but is generally used of people rather than things and with the sense of "decent", "sound" rather than referring to literal cleanliness.
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby linguoboy » 2020-04-13, 17:40

(de) Hirnfurz
(en) brain fart

The literal meaning of both compounds is the same, but they denote different sorts of mental failures. A "Hirnfurz" is just a stupid idea, one that your brain "farted out" without any quality control. But a "brain fart" is a kind of temporary malfunction, like when you call someone by the wrong name or start frantically looking for your keys because you forget they're already in your pocket. Apparently the true German equivalent would be Aussetzer (which can also refer to a engine cutting out or misfiring).
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Car » 2020-04-13, 20:24

linguoboy wrote:(de) Hirnfurz
(en) brain fart

The literal meaning of both compounds is the same, but they denote different sorts of mental failures. A "Hirnfurz" is just a stupid idea, one that your brain "farted out" without any quality control. But a "brain fart" is a kind of temporary malfunction, like when you call someone by the wrong name or start frantically looking for your keys because you forget they're already in your pocket. Apparently the true German equivalent would be Aussetzer (which can also refer to a engine cutting out or misfiring).

I can't say I've ever heard or seen Hirnfurz, but I can confirm Aussetzer.
Please correct my mistakes!

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Dormouse559 » 2020-04-21, 18:57

(es) debilidad f - weakness; soft spot
(fr) débilité f - mental infirmity; stupidity; extreme weakness

The best French translation of debilidad would often be faiblesse.
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Saim » 2020-04-27, 5:35

https://forum.unilang.org/viewtopic.php ... 7#p1144777

(ru) гости́ница (gostínica) - hotel
(sh) гостио́ница/gostiónica - inn

Dormouse559 wrote:(es) debilidad f - weakness; soft spot
(fr) débilité f - mental infirmity; stupidity; extreme weakness

The best French translation of debilidad would often be faiblesse.


This is quite a big one since the French term has been borrowed into a lot of other European languages (sr. dèbil, pl. debil, de. debil, ru. деби́л [debíl], hu. debil, ro. debíl), whereas most other Romance languages are like Spanish here (ca. dèbil, pt. débil, it. debole).

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Dormouse559 » 2020-04-27, 6:03

Saim wrote:This is quite a big one since the French term has been borrowed into a lot of other European languages (sr. dèbil, pl. debil, de. debil, ru. деби́л [debíl], hu. debil, ro. debíl), whereas most other Romance languages are like Spanish here (ca. dèbil, pt. débil, it. debole).

Oh, I didn't know that. Thanks!

One of my Spanish-speaking Facebook friends posted a picture of her morning coffee and captioned it "Mi debilidad", which set off all kinds of Francophone alarms in my head :P
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Vlürch » 2020-05-01, 16:16

Turkish (tr) harp - war
Turkmen (tk) harp - letter (of an alphabet)
Interestingly both are loanwords from Arabic, and Turkish has harf as a cognate to the Turkmen term.

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Brzeczyszczykiewicz » 2020-05-01, 17:22

or / or - 'gold'
אור (pronounced "or") 'light'

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Brzeczyszczykiewicz » 2020-05-01, 19:44

Always liked (loved??) this one:

to love
lover - "(Nautical term) To gather in a circle (a cable, a rope)." / se lover - "To curl up".

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Gormur » 2020-05-21, 19:03

(no) healing medical healing; typically in natural medicine
(en) healing to heal, restore to health

The confusing part is there's no corresponding verb to heal in Norwegian so when you see healing you have to know the context :)
Eigi gegnir þat at segja at bók nøkkur er hreinferðug eðr ønnur spelluð því at vandliga ok dáliga eru bœkr ritnar ok annat kunnum vér eigi um þœr at dœma

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby OldBoring » 2020-05-23, 6:49

There is right now in Italy a confusion between the official and the common meaning of the word quarantena.
Officially, it means the obligation to stay at home or in a dedicated structure for people who are already sick/positive.
But in colloquial language, people are using quarantena to mean "lockdown", so including healthy people who stay at home to avoid contagion.

(en) quarantine
(it) quarantena - lockdown

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby linguoboy » 2020-05-23, 14:30

OldBoring wrote:There is right now in Italy a confusion between the official and the common meaning of the word quarantena.
Officially, it means the obligation to stay at home or in a dedicated structure for people who are already sick/positive.
But in colloquial language, people are using quarantena to mean "lockdown", so including healthy people who stay at home to avoid contagion.

The exact same confusion is currently happening in US English. (I think they may be doing a better job of maintaining the distinction in Ireland and the UK.)
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Linguaphile » 2020-05-23, 14:32

OldBoring wrote:There is right now in Italy a confusion between the official and the common meaning of the word quarantena.
Officially, it means the obligation to stay at home or in a dedicated structure for people who are already sick/positive.
But in colloquial language, people are using quarantena to mean "lockdown", so including healthy people who stay at home to avoid contagion.

(en) quarantine
(it) quarantena - lockdown

We have those same two uses of the word quarantine in English here too.

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Dormouse559 » 2020-05-26, 20:44

(en) abbot n - head of an abbey
(fr) abbé nm - head of an abbey; (dated) honorific for priests

The second meaning of the French has been tripping me up for a while without me realizing it. I'm studying the history of a particular part of the Alps. Quite a few figures are called abbé, but there aren't all that many abbeys in the area, so I couldn't understand what their deal was. Finally thought to look up the term on Wiktionary; turns out it's roughly equivalent to "Father", which does make sense etymologically.
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby vijayjohn » 2020-06-06, 4:28

Gujarati (gu) ભૂલી પડી [ˈbʱuli pəˈɖi] - got lost (by semantic extension also 'fell in love' and 'haven't seen in a long time')
Urdu (ur) بھول ہی پڑی / Hindi (hi) भूल ही पड़ी [bʱul hi pəˈɽi] - just had to forget


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