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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread False false friends #133482 09/25/2004 9:20 PM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 A false friend is a word in one language that, while it may be etymologically related to a very similar word in another language, doesn't mean the same thing at all and leads to mistaken translations. An example would be actual in Spanish, which means 'current, present', not the same as actual in English. There is another class of word pairs, words in different languages that look very similar and mean almost the same thing, but are not at all related. Somewhere there is a site that lists many pairs of these words and I have lost track of where it is. Can anyone help me? If it's on Max's site of links I can't find it. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: False false friends #133483 09/25/2004 9:30 PM Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 2,379 New York City inselpeter Pooh-Bah inselpeter Pooh-Bah Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 2,379 New York City googl'ing 'false cognates' yields a lot, including: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/False cognate Don't know if it's what you're after, but... Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: False false friends #133484 09/25/2004 11:46 PM Joined: Jan 2004 Posts: 1,475 California jheem veteran jheem veteran Joined: Jan 2004 Posts: 1,475 California I believe bad in Farsi means 'bad'. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: False false friends #133485 09/26/2004 12:07 AM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Thanks for the term "false cognates", Rock Island. Unfortunately it's too often used when "false friends" is meant that it makes it hard to weed out the false leads. The most productive links are all quoting a Wikipedia article that does mention a couple of interesting examples; the Mbabaram (an Australian Aboriginal language) dog which means dog, for one. There are also mentions of the kinship terms ma, pa, etc, which are hors concours for reasons discussed elsewhere. But we're on the right track. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: False false friends #133486 09/26/2004 7:58 PM Joined: Jul 2003 Posts: 3,230 Te Ika a Maui sjmaxq Carpal Tunnel sjmaxq Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jul 2003 Posts: 3,230 Te Ika a Maui In reply to: I believe bad in Farsi means 'bad' My Oxford Hindi-English dictionary says that "bad" in Hindi means "bad" in English, and lists its etymoolgy as "P.", for Persian, so, unsurprisingly, you are right again, jheem. noho ora mai http://maxqnzs.com/References.html Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: False false friends #133487 09/27/2004 1:02 AM Joined: Jan 2004 Posts: 1,475 California jheem veteran jheem veteran Joined: Jan 2004 Posts: 1,475 California Ta, max. Do all the entries have etymologies? I might look into a copy. Right now I have an ancient edition of Bhargava's E-H-E in 2 vols by Prof. Pathak. It was cheap and the illustrations are cool, but it would be nice to have a more lexicographical dictionary. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: False false friends #133488 09/27/2004 2:12 AM Joined: Jul 2003 Posts: 3,230 Te Ika a Maui sjmaxq Carpal Tunnel sjmaxq Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jul 2003 Posts: 3,230 Te Ika a Maui >Do all the entries have etymologies? My bad(or should that be, meera bad)! "Etymology" is not the right word. Every entry has only an indication of its origin, S[anskrit], A[rabic], P[ersian], Brbh [Brajbhasa], etc. It's not a lexicographical work really. To paraphrase another ancient literary masterpiece, it scored over older, more pedestrian works in two important respects: First, it was much cheaper, and second, it's paperback, so the shipping costs from Amazon.com to Zild were not prohibitive. It's not even E-H-E, just H-E. That at least means a reasonably comprehensive number of entries without an unwieldy size. Checking for the link at Amazon, I see that the price is now $24.50US, down from the $32 I paid. noho ora mai http://maxqnzs.com/References.html Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: False false friends #133489 09/27/2004 1:53 PM Joined: Jan 2004 Posts: 1,475 California jheem veteran jheem veteran Joined: Jan 2004 Posts: 1,475 California meera bad Ah, then I'll stick with Professor Pathak. At $8 per volume and a hearty hardcover to boot, it's sufficient. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. 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