Words with several meanings

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linflas
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Words with several meanings

Post by linflas »

Sometimes I learn some new "false friends" in english or some typical sentences that mean something completely different. Today I'm surprised with the verb "dribble" : how "salivate/drool" can be in sport the action of maneuvering of a ball around a defender... Did I missed anything in etymology ?
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beowuuf
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Re: Words with several meanings

Post by beowuuf »

Nope, that's right :) I guess it's the idea of a small amount of liquid, or a small amount of movement - like small drops of water?
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Re: Words with several meanings

Post by linflas »

it must be that, yes. But snails do dribble too ! ;)
i might post other words or phrases into that thread, other people can use it as well of course
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terkio
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Re: Words with several meanings

Post by terkio »

"Sky my husband". :wink:
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Re: Words with several meanings

Post by cowsmanaut »

My poor french wife encounters these often enough too.. if I were not on the verge of passing out from tiredness I'd probably be able to remember some.. However, I do note that french is filled with it's share of these things as well. Many moments where information is implied, yet not clearly stated.. or words with multiple purpose. "Voler" for example.. spelled and pronounced the same, yet depending on the context of the sentence they can mean theft, or flight. These things, as native speakers, often go missed until pointed out by someone new to the language :)

Oddly enough flight is a word in english which also can take on dual meaning, which is to run away, or again.. flying in the sky... a "flight of fancy" which is in essence "wishful thinking".

(just a funny side note.. my grammar and spell check is pointing out that I didn't capitalize English, but French is ok without capitals.. it is set to american after all)

I've never heard "sky my husband" though..

A good deal of slang exists in any language which can over time become common usage. The name of the first or most popular variant of a tool, can often become the word for it's usage. Ie. Hoovering.. The terms Truck and Lorry also derive from something before them and were in essence slang usage..

Something my wife hates is we often call most cooking things a pot or pan.. they do have more involved names (sauce pan, skillet, etc) but we often just say pot or pan depending on the depth of it. and then add, big or small to it to help define it.. or "the silver one" .. Though having never lived with a chef, I only go on my family and friends usage :P

Gestures are another funny thing.. come here finger gesture is seen as an insult to most Asian countries apparently, as a friend of my mother explained his first visit to Canada being filled with people trying to help him by repeatedly making rude gestures. :P He had no idea why everyone was so nasty, he'd heard that Canadians were supposed to be very nice.. :D

It's a small wonder more wars didn't happen based on simple missunderstandings :P
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Re: Words with several meanings

Post by linflas »

"Sky my husband !" :lol:
"Ciel" is of course the great blue thing over our heads but also has a religious meaning : "God's place", "Paradise", etc. "Ciel ! mon mari !" is commonly said in "Vaudeville" theater comedies by a woman to her lover. If he's quick enough, he tries to hide into the closet :)
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Re: Words with several meanings

Post by oh_brother »

In Spanish "constipado" means to have a cold, nothing to do with the English meaning.

But I had a Spanish friend who fell into a "false-friend" trap, and at a party went around telling us all - including strangers - that she was very constipated. It was awkward for everyone. Except her.
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Re: Words with several meanings

Post by terkio »

An american friend of mine told me: Beware of fruit jam in the US, they put preservatives in it.
She was happy to tell this in french, translating "preservative" by "preservatif".....So the actual meaning was: They put condoms in fruit jam.

In Italy, it can be fun to ask where is the casino. ( Dove e il casino ). Depending on which syllable you put the accent, casino means the game house or the whore house.

In Bulgaria, Russia, head gestures for Yes or No are just the opposite. Fun when making a deal.

In most arab countries the thumb sign for hitch hacking is an obscene gesture.

When a frenchman asks a french canadien "Comment vont tes gosses" ( How are your kids ) he understands, you ask about his balls.
In Quebec I needed a yard stick, at the hardware store they did not understand me until I understood they use an old french word "verge". Nowdays in France this means "penis".
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Re: Words with several meanings

Post by cowsmanaut »

Indeed French Canadian vs French from France is frequently awkward. We have a little notice up in one of our parks that mentions a type of berry bears enjoy. The french canadian version uses "gatrie pour les ours" which for them is a "Treat for the bears" but for France it's "blowjob for the bears" .. agreed... quite the treat... of course to get this information I had to wait for my wife to stop rolling on the floor for the next 30 mins laughing her head off before she could breathe and explain it to me. Now she's deeply concerned about canadian bears and their expectations on human encounters.. 0_0
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Re: Words with several meanings

Post by terkio »

The right spelling is: gâterie :lol:
As a foreign tongue practice, here is a "gâterie" on the subway.
http://www.buzzmoica.fr/video/une-femme ... etro-38763
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Re: Words with several meanings

Post by terkio »

A "gâterie" is known in France to mean a BJ.
However "gâterie des ours" is unknown, are you sure this is used by french canadians ? I don't find it.

Black bears have the reputation to be very found of blueberries. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6DDfSLQ50A
There are many other wild berries in Canada: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/ ... ld-berries
Bears are a well known hasard when picking blueberries.

(english) blueberry, (french) myrtille, ( french in Quebec ) bleuet.
Image
Which is funny for french people visiting Quebec. In France, "bleuet" is a flower.
Image
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Re: Words with several meanings

Post by cowsmanaut »

Yes, gâterie in french canadian is used as "treat" .. not BJ. Just as soulier is used for shoes in quebec rather than chaussure. Also, in french canadian car is translated as char instead of voiture. and so it goes.. watermellon, blueberries (as you mention). and many other food items and every day appliances.. Even in social interaction there is a huge difference. In french canadian, the use of "tu" rather than "vous" is acceptable for a total stranger. Which has caused me more than a little trouble since I learned french in quebec first.. and despite my poor grasp of it, all the rules changed once in france anyway. :P Meeting my wife's parents was a challenge given I was expected to use "vous" structures which I had very little practice with.

Anyway, I no longer remember which berry it was the bears like.. it was sort of lost in the joke about the bears expectations. Blueberries are an issue, in quebec with bears, my step dad had a job when he was a kid, to take a board with a nail in it, and smack bears on the bum with this stick to scare them away from eating all the berries.. not the most safe activity.. Anyway, here in BC we have a wild berry that is more likely target as it can be found just about everywhere and it's edible to humans as well.. it's called hucklberry, a relative of the blueberry.. but our variety are translucent rosy pink
Image there are also a lot of wild black berries everywhere.. amongst others. but those two are the most common.

So, hopefully that clears up the details of the little story. Also on the related topic. a friend of mine from spain, mentioned that his roomate who was from mexico laughed at him when he said he was going to "grab the phone" because it was ringing.. however the spanish word for grab in spain apparently means "to have sex with" in mexico.

Language being the organic beast it is.. shows it's evolution through the colinization of other places.. where each place which claims to speak spanish, french, or english, instead speaks some heavily modified version of the language, that is as it was once it landed in that place.. What I find interesting is how much of a cultural boiling pot the english language is.. given it's latin origins, but germanic gramatical structures. weve adopted so many other words into our language as well.. including french words and phrases, as well as german. Occupation of a colony has it's transferrence of these things, I discovered when taking russian that the russian word for library is biblioteka likely due to Napoleon's aspirations into russia..
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Re: Words with several meanings

Post by oh_brother »

cowsmanaut wrote: the spanish word for grab in spain apparently means "to have sex with" in mexico.
Yes, coger is Spanish means to grab or catch, but has a very different meaning in South America!
linflas wrote: Today I'm surprised with the verb "dribble" : how "salivate/drool" can be in sport the action of maneuvering of a ball around a defender
Reminds me of a famous quote be the football commentator Ron Atkinson: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition don't like it - you can see it all over their faces."
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terkio
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Re: Words with several meanings

Post by terkio »

Wrestling is known in Quebec and France as "Catch".
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch
Image
I was told it comes from "catch as can catch", but I hardly believe it.
I just found this: "Catch wrestling is a classical hybrid grappling style that was developed in Britain circa 1870 by Mr. J. G. Chambers".
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_wrestling
I think, this is why the french picked "Catch" enable to pronounce "Wrestling".
"You can be on the right track and still get hit by a train!" Alfred E. Neuman
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