I'd like to see some examples of loan words into English, that, while they retain their original spelling, have different meanings in our tongue.
My first example is résumé: in American English (not sure about the rest of the English-speaking world), it means 'curriculum vitae." But in the original French, it means the broader "synopsis."

Anna,
Does British English count as "foreign"?
I saw a piece about Dame Judith Dench. Dame certainly has a different meaning here in the States!

I'd like to see some examples of loan words into English, that, while they retain their original spelling, have different meanings in our tongue.

Does "gateau" fit that description? In English, at least the NZ variety, it refers to fancy cakes, often multi-layered, complex confectioneries. From my hazy recall of high school French, doesn't "gateau" just mean "cake"? I have always thought of it as one of those word pairs that reflect pro-Latin snobbery in English, but that's for another thread.

I do remember a story about a French visitor to England with minimal command of the English language espying some "creations" in a bakery window, and, after rehearsing to herself "Two of those cakes, please" for quite some time, plucking up her courage to go in and order them from the assistant, only to be met with the withering reply, "They're not cakes, they're gateaux."

Bingley

The Indonesian/Malay kecap anglicised to catsup or ketchup actually means soy sauce. Ketchup is called saus tomat or just tomat .

Bingley

>Dame Judith Dench

In both languages the saying "There is nothing like a dame" still applies!

By the way (I nearly wrote BTW but restrained myself) I would consider US English as very definitely foreign, so feel free to consider Br English to be foreign!

In the UK we tend to use CV (curriculum vitae).

When I first heard résumé I assumed that it was one of those plot synopses that you get in opera programmes, broken down act by act, so we must stick more closely to the original French on that one.

>"They're not cakes, they're gateaux."

I think we can blame our German cousins for selling us "Black Forest gateaux" in great abundance in the seventies. Black Forest gateaux is wonderful, in situ, but I doubt that the previously frozen concoction that was made and served up here would stand up to close inspection!

The national dish at the time was said to be:
Prawn Cocktail (we don't use the word shrimp very often), Steak and Chips followed by Black Forest Gateaux.

Nowadays, the national dish is said to be Chicken Tikka Masala (also a faux loan word/dish as there is no such dish in India!)

<They're not cakes, they're gateaux.">.........

... to which the appropriate response must be "What a load of bolleaux" ;0)

<They're not cakes, they're gateaux.">.........

... to which the appropriate response must be "What a load of bolleaux" ;0)

To be washed down with a Bordeaux?