|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
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."
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
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!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
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.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
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
Bingley
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
The Indonesian/Malay kecap anglicised to catsup or ketchup actually means soy sauce. Ketchup is called saus tomat or just tomat .
Bingley
Bingley
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>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!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
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.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>"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!)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 167
member
|
member
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 167 |
<They're not cakes, they're gateaux.">.........
... to which the appropriate response must be "What a load of bolleaux" ;0)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
<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?
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,350
Members9,182
|
Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
0 members (),
773
guests, and
1
robot. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|