[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 176 KB, 947x960, 1458828149148.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8599957 No.8599957 [Reply] [Original]

Name a word that is positive in one language and negative in another.

>> No.8599962

Pride

>> No.8599965

>>8599957
Ambition. Negative in Latin, positive in English.

>> No.8599966

Turk

>> No.8600015
File: 473 KB, 600x800, all cute girls are mine.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8600015

>>8599957
Kurwa (Polish) - Bitch/fuck.

La curva (Spanish) - Curve, can be used to describe curves o a woman; something positive.

Both pronounced the same.

Did I win?

>> No.8600030

JUST

>> No.8600033
File: 89 KB, 540x562, you're a wise guy.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8600033

>>8600015
To add to my post.

Suka (Polish) - Bitch

Suca (Spanish) - Blonde (Something very positive in Spanish speaking countries)

Monolingcucks btfo.

>> No.8600049

>>8599957

Diverse. Negative in Latin, positive in English.

>> No.8600066

Tak
Yes in Polish
No in Malay

>> No.8600079

>>8599957

pan

>> No.8600104

>>8599957
Gift.
"Poison" in German. Pleasant to receive in English.

>> No.8600108

>>8599957
Quite is positive in American English, but negative in British English.

>> No.8600111

>>8599957
Putin - Пyтин
Putain - Whore

>> No.8600114

>>8600015
Caldo means warm in Italian
Kald means cold in Norwegian

>> No.8600128

Cunt

>> No.8600179

>>8600108
Simply not true. Don't know where you have got that from. Can be used positively or negatively in English.
And what the fuck is British English? It's just English. You only need to name the version of English if another country dumbs it down a bit and changes it. Even then, it's just diluted English.

>> No.8600201

Rart

it means nice in Danish. In Norwegian it is strange.

>> No.8600203
File: 646 KB, 512x481, 1470173874343.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8600203

God
(positive: means dildo in french)

>> No.8600243

Nei Ge

>> No.8600262

>>8600128
Negative in English
Positive in Australian

>> No.8600276

>>8600201
Means both sweet (somewhat condescending/childish) and rare in Swedish.

>> No.8600291

>>8600276
slut
means "the end" in swedish

>> No.8600316

Bizarre means strange and weird in English, but bizarro means chivalric in Spanish.

>> No.8600337

I think the best example would be "egregious" and its cognates. In English the meaning has changed to "extremely bad," while in Spanish and other Romance languages it retains its meaning as "extremely good."

>> No.8600350

>>8600316
isn't that a word of basque origin?

>> No.8600386

>>8600316
first good one, thank you anon

>> No.8600409

Latin - merda - shit
French démerder - to fuck off
Romanian dezmierda - to cuddle
Vulgar Latin is vulgar by Classical Latin standards.
e.g.
bouche (mouth) are from a vulgar way to say it (~ pie-hole, maw)
jambes (legs) was originally "lobsters" (gammari -> gambari)
tête (head) from Latin testa (jar)
belle (beautiful) from the "little good one"
all examples from French since its best known to anglos. usually applies to other romance languages, too, although in spain they're usually more conservative in basic words (beautiful is pulcro from pulcher and head is cabeza from caput).

>> No.8600410

>>8600386

There were plenty of decent ones before that. Stop posturing.

>> No.8600416

>>8600316
>chivalric
More than that, it would mean brave (valiente) nowadays. Unfortunately, people use to be confused about the meaning. They use 'bizarro' as a synonym of rare or strange

>> No.8600450

>>8600409
>belle (beautiful) from the "little good one"

Nah there's a Classical adjective "bellus, bella, bellum" that simply means pretty, beautiful, neat, things like that. Etymologically it can be derived from the root be (good) and a diminutive suffix but it was a normal, common Latin word and nobody would have thought of it as "the little good one".

>> No.8600451

>>8600409
>French démerder - to fuck off
No, it means to help, usually oneself. You must be thinking of "démerde toi", but it means "do it on your own"

>> No.8600495

>>8600350
I wasn't talkingng about its origin, though.

>> No.8600499 [DELETED] 

nigger: negative in english, positive in ebonics

>> No.8600640

Apathy in ancient greek originally meant a rational ability to not be controlled by one's passions.

Now it just means disinterested or uncaring.

>> No.8600648

Douche means shower in french

>> No.8601064

karl means a manly man in Swedish, churl in English means buffoon

>> No.8601072

>>8599966
kek

>> No.8601154

>>8600450
War is beauty?

>> No.8601296

Bitch = weak man
Bitch = strong woman

>> No.8601332

Pish

>> No.8601343

God

Good or Tasty in Swedish.

>> No.8601350

>>8601154

And love is bitter. Bellum = war was originally duellum but sound-changes made it bellum.

at vobis male sit, malae tenebrae
Orci, quae omnia bella devoratis:
tam bellum mihi passerem abstulistis

>> No.8601361

>>8600049
>Diverse
>positive in English.

>> No.8601447

>>8600179
Consider "quiet good".
AmE: It means "very good".
BrE: It means "barely acceptable".

This is probably the trickiest difference between the two languages because it's not always obvious from context.

>> No.8601496

>>8601447
>BrE: It means "barely acceptable"
It's on the other side of "just good", compared to "barely acceptable". Overall less of an intensifier, sure, but that's not entirely consistent either... probably closer to "fairly" than "barely".

>> No.8601517

>>8601447
This isnt true. Whats your first language? I think youre trying to get at tonal differences maybe

>> No.8601553

>>8600499
Yeah but in Ebonics it's spelled "nigga"

>> No.8601561

>>8601496
>>8601517
"Quiet good" is worse than plain "good" in standard BrE.

>> No.8601574

>>8601447
>>8601561
>quiet good

kill self pls

>> No.8601585

>>8601561
First of all, "quite" is the word you're looking for, you dyslexic britbong

>> No.8601597

>>8600495
I know. I came for an answer, but never got one.

>> No.8601630

>>8601350
Thanks

>> No.8601659

>>8601561
It can be, but only depending on the tone.

>> No.8601672

"Pussy" is okay in English but derogatory in American.

>> No.8603440

>>8600079
>pan
in Greek: 'it's everything'
in English: 'it's nothing'

>> No.8603459

>>8599957
Nine. Positive in English (9>0) negative in German (nien=no)

>> No.8603621

no

yes in chech
no in english

>> No.8603628

I have a lot of these from Slavic false-friends. For example, trudno in Russian means difficult. In Serbian, pronounced the same, it means pregnant.

>> No.8603740

vader
star wars villain in English
father in Dutch

>>8600066
branch in Dutch

>> No.8603773

>>8599957
iiye
no in japanese
ye in english
i know i should jump in a lake

>> No.8603775

>>8600128
>>8600262
Came here to post this.

>> No.8603870

Dong
Vietnamese: the east, currency unit
English: dong

>> No.8604042

Ciao - Hello in italian (almost always positive)
Tchau - Bye in portuguese (can be negative)

>> No.8604518

western

>positive for 2004 EU joiners
>negative for westerners

>> No.8604528

2 WORDS THAT SOUND THE SAME IN 2 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES ARE ->NOT<- THE SAME WORD.

THIS THREAD IS FOR WORDS THAT MEAN THE SAME THING IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES OR REGIONAL VARIATIONS OF A LANGUAGE BUT HAVE DIFFERENT (POSITIVE/NEGATIVE) ->CONNOTATIONS<-
FFS