Is there any foreign word that is used with a different meaning in your language?

27 comments

1. A handy is something very different in English than in German.

2. In Spain:

   Friki (freaky) for “nerd” instead of the real meaning.

   Footing for “jogging” instead of the real meaning; no idea how this came to be.

   Conversely, French and Italian borrowed words are used properly, exactly the opposite of what the English do (“actual/ly” for “real/ly” instead of, properly, “current/ly”).

3. There are a lot in Italian, especially English words.

   ‘Smoking’ for a tuxedo (originally an abbreviation of smoking jacket).

   ‘Box’ for a garage.. this one is logical I guess, but still strange.

   ‘Footing’ which means jogging in Italian.

   A personal favourite is ‘Bloc Notes’.. which means a notebook.Its an invented ‘English’ word,a translation of the Italian’blocco note’ (which means the same).

4. This one’s mostly a thing for the immigrant youth. They like to call Finns “Finski” which is from the Swedish word Finsk. Interestingly tho the Swedish word for a Finnish person is “Finländare” and Finsk is literally anything else Finnish. For example “A Finnish car” is “En Finsk bil”

5. The French concept of *pâté* ended up meaning exclusively liver spread in Romania. I guess this is not completely wrong since you also have liver pâtés

6. “Laufen” in Swiss German means walking (like going for a walk), while in Germany it’s more like jogging/running. Edit: I was informed that this applies to Southern Germany and isn’t really true for the rest:)

   A nice suit or tuxedo is called “Smoking”, although most people refer to it as “Anzug”.

7. French has a few false anglicisms :

   * “footing” means “jogging”,
   * “jogging” means “a tracksuit”,
   * “pressing” means “dry cleaning”.

8. Perhaps bit other way around. Recently I found out some people use a czechized form of protection – “protekce”, because they work with English a lot. Which would be “ochrana” or “obrana” in Czech while protekce (in the original sense from French I think?) here means favouritism, nepotism.

9. Flemish people use salut as a way of saying goodbye whereas in French it’s actually a greeting

10. Afters in English is desert. After in German is an Anus. Great if you like eating arse, but otherwise…

11. It might be risky in Poland to tell someone he is confident since the same word of Latin origin (written “konfident”) means here “snitch” in slang.

12. German:

    Beamer = videoprojector

    Homeoffice = work from home. It gets used a lot like “Ich mache homeoffice = I do homeoffice / I work from home”.

    French:
    too many to count but my favourites:

    Les people = Celebrities

    Il y a du level = you’re killing it/to the max (sarcastically) – literally means ‘there is some level’.

    tilt / tilter = notice something. J’ai pas tilté – I didn’t notice!

13. Yes, usually with a narrower sense, like “killer” meaning “hitman” or “developer” meaning “real estate developer”.

    Some other pseudoanglicisms:

    – fejs-kontrolj: the process of (not) letting you into a night club
    – avtostop: hitchhiking
    – avtogol: own goal
    – biznes-ledi: businesswoman

14. Live public screenings of big soccer matches are “public viewings” in Germany, and people might bring a “body bag” (that kind of one-strap, wrap around backpack).

15. “bunda” means jacket in Slovak, while in Portuguese it means butt for example.

    Edit: also quite funny “otroci” means children in Slovenian, but in Slovak it means slaves, so street signs like “pozor otroci”, which in Slovak means something like “be aware of slaves” have been popular on Slovak internet.

16. I think poepen in Dutch means to poop, as in, doing a big one on the toilet. But to our Flamish neighbors it means to fuck.

    And ‘kleedje’ to me means a small carpet, but to them it’s a dress.

    Usually we basically have the same language though

17. In Slovenian, “bela cona” means “white zone” but in Portuguese it means… “beautiful pussy”.

18. “Otrok” in Slovene is a child while in Slovak it means a slave

    There is also “stol” which means “chair” in Slovene but Croats, Slovaks and Czechs use it for the table

19. A coffee shop, in the Netherlands, doesn’t sell coffee… That’s where you go to buy marijuana.

    Oh, and while we’re on that, the Dutch call marijuana “wiet”. This comes from the English slang for marijuana “weed”, which is understandable, except in the Netherlands, it’s not slang I’ve even heard politicians talk about *wiet”

20. Stool and stůl (pronounced the same)
    stůl – table in Czech
    stool would be “stolička” in Czech

21. Sensibel in German means sensetive, while the english sensible is Vernünftig. That’s why I use reasonable instead of sensible.

22. Given that norwegian and danish language are almost the same (at least written) one can mention the use of the word *bolle*, which is different in denmark and in norway..

    bolle = bun (norwegian)
    bolle = to fuck (danish)

    In norway there is a petrol station that has become known for their buns in such a way that they named the place bolleland (bolle-“country”)… Giving some “nice” articles in one of denmarks main [newspapers](https://ekstrabladet.dk/ferie/rejsetips/article4752583.ece).. Funnily enough placed under “travelling tips” for the danes..

23. Scots has a lot of words that have different meanings in English (both British and American) which can lead to a lot of confusion…

    Greet means Cry (similar to Norwegian Gråte)

    Fanny means Vagina instead of Butt/Bum

    Puss means Face instead of… puss

    Burn is a stream (of water) not a heat injury.

    Stane means Stone not like Stain (similar to Danish Sten)

    Tea means Dinner

    Dinner means Lunch

    Messages means Food Shopping not Letters or Texts.

    Chore means Steal

    Nick means Condition (and sometimes Steal)

24. I’m sure there are many examples of this, I have one that is kinda the reverse that always sat weird with me.

    Sycophant in English means suck-up, yes-man to someone, a follower who flatters and agrees with everything another says.

    The word is Greek, but in Greek we use it almost as an antonym: it’s someone who insults someone else with lies. A derivative word of this is most commonly used in law to refer to defamation.

    I do not know why or how the English version of the word turned into the opposite meaning or if the Greek word “mutated” into a different meaning, but always thought this was weird.

25. The Irish language constructs past tenses very differently to English. When English started to be widely used in Ireland some of the Irish grammar got mapped onto English vocabulary. Leading to Hiberno-English phrases such as “I’m after reading that book” instead of “I have read that book”. This is known as the after perfect tense. Irish people also use the phrase “I do be” (the habitual be) instead of I do or I would: I do be reading my book every night. They also use a plural you (ye) that does not exist in standard English. These are constructions that sound very strange to non-Irish English speakers but are direct grammatical loans from the Irish language.

26. German “Ventilator” is not a ventilator but a fan.

    We call email often just “Mail” (you get strange looks if you ask US people to “just send me your contact information by mail”)

27. “Toast” or “toaster”

    We use them for a sandwich made with those square bread slices, and a small electrical grill, respectively