Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Q&A about words Words that describe or categorize words
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Originally Posted By: BaselAnnieIs there a word for a word that has the same spelling and the same (or almost the same) meaning in two different languages? ("So" exists in both German and English, with the same or a similar meaning.)
These may of may not be cognates. In the case of closely related languages such as English and German the likelihood of their being cognates is relatively high. In the case of languages not that closely related, or with no known relations they are either loan words or pure coincidences. Of the former an example might be the English skosh from the Japanese sukoshi. I used to have a bookmark for a list of words that just happened to look and sound the same with the same or opposite meanings but it seems to have expired.Originally Posted By: BaselAnnieIs there a word for a word that has the same spelling in two different languages, but different meanings? ("Do" in Portuguese means "of the.")
This category is the one that I would call 'false friends'. I would guess the term is more likely to be used for languages that do have some vocabulary in common than it is for totally coincidental examples as the ones I alluded to above.Originally Posted By: BaselAnnieIs there a word for a word that looks and/or sounds like the same word, or perhaps almost the same word, in two languages, but in fact has different meanings depending on the language? ("embarazada" in Spanish doesn't mean "embarrassed"; "Taille" in German means "waist"; "gato" in Spanish or Portuguese means "cat," not "gate.")
These would also be 'false friends'.
Edit: I did discover this list of some coincidences. Not the entire list from my expired bookmark but enough to make the point.
Last edited by Faldage; 09/03/08 11:13 AM. Reason: Addendum
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted ![]()
Words that describe or categorize words
BaselAnnie 09/03/08 03:46 AM ![]()
Re: Words that describe or categorize words
The Pook 09/03/08 05:21 AM ![]()
Re: Words that describe or categorize words
Zed 09/03/08 07:33 AM ![]()
Re: Words that describe or categorize words
Faldage 09/03/08 11:02 AM ![]()
Re: Words that describe or categorize words
The Pook 09/04/08 01:40 AM ![]()
Re: Words that describe or categorize words
Faldage 09/04/08 01:53 AM ![]()
Re: Words that describe or categorize words
twosleepy 09/04/08 11:13 PM ![]()
Re: Words that describe or categorize words
tsuwm 09/04/08 11:33 PM ![]()
Re: Words that describe or categorize words
Faldage 09/05/08 01:24 AM ![]()
Re: Words that describe or categorize words
BranShea 09/05/08 01:17 PM
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,915Posts229,928Members9,198 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members testawad, Bill_L, achz, MAGNVSTALSMA, Burlyfish
9,198 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 2 members (wofahulicodoc, A C Bowden), 670 guests, and 3 robots. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 19
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 10,917tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,949Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org