
The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't - danielmorozoff
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20161014-the-foreign-words-that-seem-like-english-but-arent
======
pluma
The article mentions the "Association for the German Language", which seems to
refer to the prescriptivist "Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache".

It's important to understand that few Germans are even aware it exists and its
conservative views are extremely unpopular and non-standard. Even the Council
for German Orthography which regulates German orthography as taught in schools
only has two Association representatives in its total of 18 German council
members.

In practice Germans generally regard the Duden (the equivalent of the Oxford
English Dictionary) as the ultimate authority on German orthography and
vocabulary. And the Duden generally takes a descriptivist approach, adapting
to language change rather than trying to halt it.

Additionally, there seems to be a strong correlation between Germans with
strong opinions about loan words and Germans with strong opinions about
immigrants (or more recently the loss of "occidental identity" via
"Überfremdung").

There are of course people who feel strongly about language who aren't also
nazis in the more literal sense but the kind of complaints people have about
language use often gives you a relatively safe indicator of their political
views:

Complaining about wrong apostrophe use: moderate grammar nazi

Complaining about excessive use of English loan words in office culture: red-
blooded grammar nazi

Complaining about "Elektronik" not meaning "electronics": moderate actual nazi

Complaining about "Handy" or "Portemonnaie": red-blooded actual nazi

~~~
weinzierl
> Complaining about "Elektronik" not meaning "electronics": moderate actual
> nazi

Fellow German native speaker here: Elektronik means electronics, doesn't it?
At least dict.leo.org and the Oxford German Dictionary (which came with my
Mac) seem to say it does.

    
    
        Elektronik | elɛkˈtroːnɪk |
        Fem. Elektronik
        1 electronics sing., no art.
        2 (Bestandteile) electronic parts pl. electronics pl.
    

Your other examples are spot on, so obviously I'm missing something in this
case.

~~~
pluma
Yeah, Elektronik is a direct loan from English electronics.

The language nazis are complaining we already have the word Elektrik for that
because in German that apparently includes what is colloquially called
Elektronik.

It's mostly an argument based on word origins (i.e. they say Elektronik would
have to be similar to Mechatronik in that it would specifically refer to
electronic motors and such rather than typical consumer electronics).

Of course Elektronik does have a distinct meaning separate from Elektrik and
the entire argument is based on a simplistic understanding of how human
language works.

But like many of the more outlandish arguments this boils down to "foreign
words are corrupting our Germanic language and ultimately destroying our
culture" \-- which of course is insane.

The entire "Germanize the German language" idea was pretty popular in the Nazi
era, btw, giving rise to many failed word creations as well as a few that
stuck around (I think "Bürgersteig" successfully replaced the French loan word
"Trottoir").

~~~
weinzierl
I see, that makes sense.

------
spraak
Hopefully someone interested will read this comment, since it might be buried
at the bottom: there is a fun project called Anglish that works to make the
English language free from any non-Germanic loan words, using old(er) English
and even made up words inspired by German, Dutch etc when no others exist.
It's not, as far as I can see, a militant effort, but more fun and an
inspiring linguistic challenge.

Check it out:
[http://anglish.wikia.com/wiki/Main_leaf](http://anglish.wikia.com/wiki/Main_leaf)

~~~
Symbiote
Perhaps more interesting for a 5-minute distraction is "Uncleftish Beholding",
a description of a well-known scientific theory written with no Romance-
language words.

[https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=alt.language...](https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=alt.language.artificial/ZL4e3fD7eW0/_7p8bKwLJWkJ)

~~~
kwhitefoot
Thanks for reminding me of that. I've read it before but I enjoy it anew every
time I see it.

------
skykooler
Reminds me of "handy", the German word for "cell phone". My German friend said
"we just use the English word for that." I have yet to find an English speaker
who calls a mobile phone a "handy".

~~~
bryanlarsen
Japan had several cell phone networks using an alternative to GSM called the
Personal Handy-phone System. This was an urban only network with extremely
small cells that let them make ridiculously small and inexpensive phones.

~~~
kalleboo
One of the PHS networks is even still running! You can still get a PHS phone
from Y!Mobile (yes, a Yahoo! brand) [https://online-
store.ymobile.jp/regi/?oid=WX01SH&plan=000K13](https://online-
store.ymobile.jp/regi/?oid=WX01SH&plan=000K13)

What's interesting is that in Europe, DECT was designed to work the same way,
but it never caught on as anything aside from a home cordless phone standard.
Wikipedia says there was even a public DECT network in Italy until 2001.

~~~
achamayou
There was one in France in 91-97 ([https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-
Bop](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-Bop)), Apple even made a compatible
PowerBook 180 with a special antenna
([https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powerbop](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powerbop)).

------
radarsat1
Oh I _love_ these. My favourite french one is "footing." No, "je vais faire du
footing" doesn't mean, "I'm footing the bill," it means, "I'm going for a
jog."

There's a ton of examples in France for some reason. Brushing as in the
article, but also "pressing" for the dry cleaner.

In Chile they say all the time, "catchai'?", meaning "did you catch what I
said?" Equivalent of "y'know?" It took me a while to realize that they
conjugate it too.. To say, "I didn't understand," they'll say, "No catcho."
Beautiful ;)

------
brownbat
These are called wasabi eigo in Japanese, and there are enough to fill a
dictionary, they change all the time.

My favorite are ones like "left over"... a baseball term for a hit that goes
over the left-fielder's head, rather than uneaten food saved for later.

English admits a ton of these as well. I'd be horrified if someone recommended
a board to keep English pure from foreign influences though. It seems both
futile and xenophobic.

Languages are like old shoes. They are going to get beat up with use, but are
wasted if you just lock them away to prevent it. And maybe as you wear them
around, they'll get more character and more comfortable.

~~~
rflrob
Likely autocorrect "fixed" wasei eigo for you. Wasabi eigo would likely be
pretty spicy language...

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-
eigo](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-eigo)

~~~
brownbat
So it did, good catch.

------
toyg
See also: " _al fresco_ ", which in England means "dining outdoors" and in
Italy "being in prison". I wonder if it's because eating English food under
the English weather can be considered punishment on the level of
incarceration...?

~~~
taejo
_al fresco_ literally means "in the fresh/cool"; interestingly, English also
has "in the cooler" for "in prison"

------
alricb
> risqué meaning ‘risked’ (a verb, not an adjective)

No. "risqué" is also an adjective denoting that something involves risks (like
"risky" in English) or that a statement is licentious, shocking (like "risqué"
in English).

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
It's a past participle anyhow, stating it is “a verb, not an adjective” is
strange given these are often both.

~~~
Myrmornis
It's the BBC website, so expect it to be embarrassingly dumb(ed down).

------
pandaman
I don't think Russian "face control" is borrowed from English entirely.
"Control" (контроль) is a proper Russian word, borrowed from French/German and
in this context means "checking","verification".

~~~
raquo
Yep, like passport control or customs control (at the airport).

~~~
bshimmin
It's a funny one. In English we say "passport control" and "border control",
but we would mostly otherwise use the word "check". I've encountered Italian
speakers saying "Have they controlled your ticket?" when they mean "checked"
(or "inspected"), simply because "controllare" in Italian means "to check",
and feels like it ought to make sense in English, but doesn't.

On a related note, I have yet to encounter a French speaker saying in English
"Sorry to derange you", but I am hopeful it will one day happen.

~~~
taejo
"Border control" does arguably use the ordinary meaning of control: they
control the border by checking passports.

But _check_ also has an interesting etymology. Its many meanings include a
type of payment note (aka "cheque"), to obstruct ("check somebody's progress",
"body check"), to verify, to inspect; also checker (divide into small squares)
and exchequer (the UK treasury)... all come from the Persian word _shah_ ,
meaning king, through chess-related metaphors. (Also the word _chess_ itself)

~~~
bshimmin
Thanks for posting this - I love a bit of etymology on a Sunday afternoon!

If "border control" means literally controlling the border, does that make
"passport control" some sort of obtuse synecdoche, where they _check_ the
passport in order to _control_ the border?

------
thisonetime
Russians like taking plurals of English words, add a Russian ending that
denotes plural and attach a specific meaning to the newly minted word. For
example, бутсы. It's pronounced "boots-y" where 'y' denotes plural. The word
referes to these things
[https://www.google.com/search?q=%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%82%D1%81%D1%...](https://www.google.com/search?q=%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%82%D1%81%D1%8B&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwipiITPot7PAhVBez4KHaEUDt0Q_AUICCgB&biw=1202&bih=644).

Also, "le week-end" comes to mind although it's not different from its English
original. "Naan bread" is also interesting.

~~~
villedespommes
what we really like to do is to append a bunch of affectionate diminutive
suffixes to English common and proper nouns. It's just soooo entertaining. You
can do it all day. Here's a few examples:

Mr. Obama (Обама) -> Obamushka (Обамушка) Mr. Trump (Трамп) -> Trumpuoshechka
(Трампушечка)

My personal favorite: Okay (Окэй) -> Okaayshki (Океюшки)

If you curious you can fire up Google Translate and make it say all these
words :-)

~~~
allendoerfer
Do you use them to make fun of them or just to make the words sound nice?

I think Russian makes heavy use of diminutives, doesn't it? I worked somewhere
where two women were called Natalia and Natasha and I am still confused what
their actual name were, because Natasha seems to be the diminutive form of
Natalia and sometimes Natasha called Natalia "Natasha".

I do not think that there are any German names which are the diminutive of
other names.

~~~
pluma
I can't think of any German diminutive names but there are cases where the
"short form" is distinctly different from the long form as in English "Bob" vs
"Robert" or "Dick" vs "Richard".

E.g. "Jupp" is short for "Joseph" and "Kalle" is short for "Karl" (or variants
like "Karl-Heinz").

~~~
taejo
The name Gretchen is a fairly ordinary English name, but it looks like it was
originally a German diminutive of Greta/Grete? Which are themselves nicknames
for Margarete.

~~~
xg15
From what I know, it's Gretel. But both the name as well as the -el diminutive
form are so long of style that they're practically not used anymore.

I think they have been popular in the generation of (and before) WW2 and Nazi
Germany - though I don't know if there is actually a causal chain to the name
vanishing.

------
ekianjo
They forgot parking in french which is the word for car park.

And japanese has so many of such words that are imported from English with a
totally different meaning you d need a book to cover them.

~~~
ScottBurson
> They forgot parking in french which is the word for car park.

In the US that would be a "parking lot" \-- so the French term is pretty
close.

~~~
thaumasiotes
You can get the English even closer to the French by saying "parking is
available".

------
Eric_WVGG
Japanese word for "blue" is apparently "boo-roo"

“The Japanese language has no exact word for the color blue. The term the
Japanese use, ao, is ambiguous – best translated as blue-green. Ao has the
connotations of immaturity and inexperience that the English word green has.
When the Japanese wish to be exact – when describing the color of Siamese
cats' eyes, for example – they will sometimes resort to the English word blue,
which they pronounce "boo-roo."”

[https://www.wired.com/1995/03/blue-
laser/](https://www.wired.com/1995/03/blue-laser/)

~~~
fenomas
I don't think that passage came within ten feet of anyone who speaks Japanese.
Ao doesn't mean blue-green, it's more of a word that spans both, with set
usages for things we'd consider unambiguously one or the other (e.g. a
cloudless sky, or the "go" part of a traffic light). In the context of eyes it
always means blue though, so the example doesn't make much sense.

~~~
xg15
Out of couriosity, how do they describe green eyes then? or do they have a
separate word that _only_ means green?

~~~
fenomas
Yep - it's "midori". I'm no expert but according to wikipedia it all stems
from a time when Japanese had only four color names (red, white, black and
"ao"), whereas other more specific names came later.

~~~
xg15
Ah, that makes sense. Thank you.

------
Al-Khwarizmi
In Spanish we have plenty of these false anglicisms, and we seem to be
obsessed with the "-ing" English ending:

un smoking (lately adapted the ortography to "esmoquin") -> a tuxedo

un parking -> a garage, car park

hacer footing -> to do jogging

hacer zapping -> to channel hop (when viewing TV)

tuning -> customizing/accesorizing cars

un lifting -> a facelift

Also some hybrid anglicisms:

hacer puenting -> to bungee jump (from Spanish "puente", bridge)

hacer balconing -> to jump from a balcony, typically to a swimming pool (from
Spanish "balcón", balcony).

And of course, some "true" anglicisms like catering, casting, camping, etc.

~~~
seszett
All of these are exactly the same in French though (apart from _puenting_ ).
Now I wonder if they actually came from English in parallel or if some came by
cross the Spanish/French border instead.

------
funkyy
Spruce is a Polish word, and it means "From Prussia" which would be written as
"z Prus".

Ref:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spruce#Etymology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spruce#Etymology)

------
codyb
There are no double entredre's in France because they never say anything that
could mean two things or because, "double entendre" (double hear), literally
doesn't make sense?

~~~
eeks
Of course there are "double entendres" in French.

They can take the form of "sous-entendus" where the same sentence can be
interpreted differently depending on the level of knowledge of the listeners
for a particular context.

Play-on-words are also widespread, including the "contrepèterie" art form
unique to French.

Various form of "argot" (slang) also use identical words bearing different
meanings.

All of these are a big part of our second and third degree humour that elude
so many foreigners.

This journalist from the BBC does not seem to be much aware of French culture
at all.

~~~
eeks
I went and read that passage again, and I'm sorry but the phrasing is
ambiguous.

"There is no double entendres in France" literally means that "double
entendres" are nowhere to be found in France, which in itself makes no sense.

The sentence "there is no double entendres in French" would actually make
sense but bears the meaning with which I credited it initially.

If the journalist meant "The expression double entendres is borrowed from
French but not used in France where it has no meanings" he/she did a poor job
phrasing it.

~~~
fenomas
Read literally it's ambiguous - it could mean either that the concept doesn't
exist or the term doesn't. But considering the article is one big list of
borrowed phrases that aren't used in their native land, it's pretty clear what
the author meant.

------
ScottBurson
Let's not forget that _entrée_ , in French, means "appetizer".

ETA: I see this is mentioned in the article. Posted too hastily :-)

~~~
Camillo
This confused me when I moved to America, because I thought it meant an
appetizer. Then, when I visited France, it confused me again, because by that
point I thought it meant a main course.

~~~
dorfsmay
Same here, actually asked the waiter for the menu with the main dish. And same
with "matinee", morning in french, but a daytime performance in english, which
is typically taking place in the afternoon.

------
Crisco
The Dominican Republic (and I think other Spanish-speaking Caribbean islands)
has a lot of words they use that come from English but have been modified over
the years, or were brand names that are now used to describe something
Generic.

SUV is "Jipeta" or "Yipeta" sounding like "Jeep-eta", Diaper is "Pampa"
sounding a bit like "Pampers", Trash-can is "Zafacón" coming from the English
"Safety-can", and my personal favorite is the word "boche" which is a bit like
a scolding or reprimand but comes from "Bull shit."

------
ekianjo
Note that the academie francaise is way flexible to accept english words in
the official vocabulary. In Quebec they literally have a french word to
replace all common english expressions and prevent borrowing.

~~~
byoung2
_In Quebec they literally have a french word to replace all common english
expressions and prevent borrowing._

I met some ladies from Quebec while in France, and they were horrified at how
tainted the French spoken by the natives had become. They said at one point
they just started speaking exclusively in English because they couldn't stand
hearing French butchered by the natives.

It's apparently a common phenomenon that language continues to evolve and grow
in the native country, while in colonies and former colonies, people tend to
become more protective and orthodox about the language. There is some research
that suggests that certain American accents are closer to the British accents
of the colonists than the modern British accent is.

~~~
thaumasiotes
> It's apparently a common phenomenon that language continues to evolve and
> grow in the native country, while in colonies and former colonies, people
> tend to become more protective and orthodox about the language.

Language continues to evolve and grow everywhere. What's going on isn't some
impossible impulse in the Quebecois to conserve their language; they are
trying to differentiate themselves from English-speaking Canada. The French in
France don't need to worry about getting culturally absorbed in the way the
Quebecois do.

~~~
vidarh
> The French in France don't need to worry about getting culturally absorbed
> in the way the Quebecois do.

But they still do, sorty of, in that France has some of the strictest laws
pertaining to language use in Europe.

------
dpfu
Wikipedia has a nice list [0]. In German pseudo-anglicisms are an often used
method of word formation, e.g: Beamer (projector), No-Go (faux pas), Handy
(mobile phone), Oldtimer (classic car), Streetworker, Barkeeper and (brand
new) Shitstorm, etc. There are also pseudo-gallicisms in use (like "Blamage"
for disgrace, or "Friseur" for coiffeur). Fun stuff.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-
anglicism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-anglicism)

------
weinzierl
My favourite German one is _body bag_ for _rucksack_. I mean we have this
wonderful German word _rucksack_ , it is so nice it even has been imported
into English, then instead of just using it we import the wrong word from
English.

Unsurprisingly the phenomenon also exits in English, for example _Zeitgeist_
means something slightly different in German than in English and I wouldn't
use in German in the same way I see it used in English.

~~~
thesimon
Going to the _public viewing_ with a _bodybag_ sounds quite fun in German, not
so much in English :)

------
kcorbitt
ln Spain, everyone refers to Facebook as _el face_ , (with the English
pronunciation of the word "face") which sounded pretty funny until I got used
to it.

~~~
Oletros
I have never heard calling Facebook as Face, I live in Barcelona

~~~
jnbiche
> I live in Barcelona

Do you speak Spanish or Catalan with your friends and family when discussing
things like Facebook?

~~~
Oletros
Spanish and Catalan and I have not heard it in any of those languages

------
braythwayt
> And those Berliners who just can’t let the party end can carry on at _eine
> Afterhour_ until well after the sun comes up.

In Toronto’s nightlife, there were definitely establishments referred to in
English as “After Hours’.”

In the days when liquor could not be served after 1am in Ontario, such places
purported to serve only espresso and soft drinks, but there was nearly always
some kind of nudge-nudge-wink-wink way to order some kind of alcoholic drink.

The entire 80s decade is a hazy blur to me for some reason or other, but I
seem to recall places like “Le Tube” opening at around 11pm, but not getting
going until 1:30am when everyone left the ordinary clubs.

(The building that housed Le Tube is now the home to a leather shop that has a
large kink clientele. I believe that the things people wore to LeTube in its
heyday were at least as risqué as the fetish items they buy in that location
today.)

\---

Anyhow, absolutely these are loanwords from English into other languages like
German, but I dispute that “After Hours” is not used in English.

~~~
logicallee
it was quoted as an _afterhour_ \- singular! so your anecdote kind of
reinforces the story, of being almost, but not quite English. :)

------
gumby
I love these confused loan words (sometimes they are English-English as well,
as Australian and American English can collide in my household).

My wife got an advertising postcard (for hair gel) from her sister with a
picture of a woman whose hair was whipped into a swirl. The card said "Sei
kein Blender" (don't be a "blender"). I was sure this was Dinglish for "don't
look like you got your hair caught in a blender -- use our hair gel". But my
wife informed me that it was the opposite: "Don't look like everyone else
(i.e. blend in): use our hair gel to give yourself an absurd hairstyle"

There are also fun formations from ex pats, like the Franglais "callinsicker"
I've heard French friends use in SF when we're speaking French; it literally
means "to call in sick" (i.e. skyve off work).

------
_ix
I can't help but laugh at these—is there something the matter with me?
"ofisuredii" is particularly humorous.

~~~
astrange
There's no reason to spell it that way unless you're being obnoxiously
Orientalist.

~~~
rm445
Careful. Loanwords into Japanese are transliterated into a fixed syllabary,
that can then be transliterated back in a standard way.

i.e. that's an authentic transcription of a (borrowed) Japanese word, not a
rude impression of a Japanese person mangling English.

------
ommunist
Do you know that "bridge game" word in English is of Slavic origin, where it
came from Tartars.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Rus...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Russian_origin)

------
type0
In Estonian Bluetooth is called Sinihammas [1] which literally means "blue
tooth", being non indoeuropean language is difficult when you want to loan
words, it's often much easier to invent your own word that would follow the
existing grammar than wreck your head around all the grammatical problems
encountered when you use English words in Estonian sentences.

[http://www.arvutikaitse.ee/arvutikaitse-
algtoed/sinihammas/](http://www.arvutikaitse.ee/arvutikaitse-
algtoed/sinihammas/)

------
ivarious
And then there's the whole business of Wasei-Eigo,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-
eigo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-eigo).

~~~
jrockway
My favorite is "anime"; things went full circle and we got our borrowed word
back!

~~~
toufka
'Karaoke' too. Originally, 'kara'-'okestura' \- a compound word short for
'box-orchestra'.

~~~
jrockway
The kara is not 空 as in empty?

~~~
glandium
It is.

~~~
frooxie
A weird detail is the Chinese transliteration of "karaoke":卡拉ＯＫ. It starts out
with two Chinese characters pronounced "ka" and "la", and then tacks on the
English "OK": ka-la-OK. So the English word "orchestra" turned into "OK" after
two transliterations.

------
lokedhs
In Swedish, a portable cassette play is (or was, who uses these anymore?)
called a "freestyle". I have no idea what the etymology of that one is.

Then there is the old word for baguette (the French type of bread) that was
called "pain riche". This is from the first restaurant in Sweden to serve it
which was called "Riche". I think everybody have heard stories about Swedes in
the 80's trying to order that in France and the confused look from the French.
These days people use the proper French word to describe it.

~~~
GordonS
I _think_ 'freestyle' was a brand name, so it may have come from that?

------
smegel
Korean has some doozies:

[https://youtu.be/hQuJwjAnWHA](https://youtu.be/hQuJwjAnWHA)

"Skinship" \- try and guess what that means.

~~~
glandium
A lot of the ones mentioned in this video are also used in Japan. Check out
the thread about wasei-eigo
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12716517](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12716517)
. It would be interesting to know if they came from one to the other, or from
somewhere else.

Note that skinship has been borrowed back with a different nuance:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_intimacy#Skinship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_intimacy#Skinship)

~~~
smegel
Interesting, the Japanese and English nuances are similar. The Korean one is
almost exclusively (from what I can gather) used as a comment on dating that
is more physical than emotional, e.g. the English equivalent would be "they
are just physical".

------
f137
Well, "face control" in Russian has nothing to do with beauty of the people
entering a club. The aim of "face control" is to make sure that no people that
might possibly cause some trouble, or unable to pay, get into a nightclub or
the like.

Not sure if explanations of the words from other languages are similarly
misleading.

------
vidarh
Norwegian has e.g. "light" instead of "diet" for diet products ("Diet Cokie"
is "Coke Light" in Norway).

We also have e.g."vorspiel" and "nachspiel" for "pre party" (private party
before going out, where you can get drunk cheaply...) and "after party"
respectively.

~~~
robocat
As an English speaker from New Zealand, the American usage of light is
confusing to me as well.

Two of my favourite misunderstandings between NZ and US English are the
meaning of the words fanny and pissed.

------
santaclaus
Funsports sounds like a Krautrock band from the 70s. Maybe with an exclamation
point at the end.

------
asdfologist
My favorite is salaryman.

------
galago
If you use LaTeX for typesetting, the document class for slideshow
presentations is called Beemer. My understanding is that this is a German
psuedo-anglicism related to projectors.

~~~
_nalply
It's «Beamer». Example: [https://shop.mediamarkt.ch/de/tv-
audio/beamer/idknxq3w6ncm](https://shop.mediamarkt.ch/de/tv-
audio/beamer/idknxq3w6ncm)

------
ommunist
I have a large dictionary of word origins on my bookshelf. It seems every
basic 'English' word was borrowed somewhere some time ago. Its natural.

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kawera
In Brazil, any kind of sports shoes is a "tenis".

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maxerickson
"tennis shoe" has a pretty generic meaning in the US also.

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LyndsySimon
Apparently that's quite regional. I was corrected a few weeks ago because I
called a pair of cross-trainers "tennis shoes" \- where that person was from
"tennis shoes" is much more specific than I understand it.

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marssaxman
What region might that person have been from?

I grew up calling them all "tennis shoes", though I don't think I ever met
anyone who played tennis. "Sneakers" was a secondary term.

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LyndsySimon
I want to say they were from Philadelphia, but I'm not 100% sure.

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brownbat
Russian for train station is vokzal, like vauxhall.

I can't sort out the real from the folk etymologies though.

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type0
Some of the great pseudoanglicisms in swedish:

backslick chilla pocket

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sunstone
Clearly it's time to levelup our borrowed words.

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bgilroy26
'Portable bassinette' is American for carrycot

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kwhitefoot
Typical American; never use one syllable where two will do.

