Cool, double meaning words in other languages?

[HunterT98]

I've been trying to learn Spanish lately, and I came across the word "salvar" in a Spanish worship song, and while I figured it meant "to save," I went ahead and Googled it and found that it means "to save" OR "to salvage." Now, correct me if I'm wrong on this, as I would love to learn, but when I found this, I felt this was a much more meaningful word than it's English equivalent, as I view it as God finding something with little or no purpose, and giving it a purpose. I.e. "Dios me salvó" "God saved me (from death)" or "God salvaged me (even though I was nothing.)" So my question is, does anyone else know of cool little tidbits like this that they might share?

 

[look4hope]

How awesome that you wanna learn Spanish.
The word "salvar", basically means save. But, depending on the situation, you may also use the word "salvage", like salvaging a marriage, or a vintage car.

 

[bhillyard]

Even cooler are auto antonyms - words with two meanings each the opposite of the other.
For example cleave - join together; cleave - split apart.
In English (at least U.K. English ) there are many more.
This means that "word for word" translation needs great care - the context is essential with these words.

 

[gudz23]

Really hard to come up with something, but I came up with this:

In Norwegian the word "gift" has two meanings: One is "married", the other one is "poison"... Coincidence? I'm not sure

 

[look4hope]

Really hard to come up with something, but I came up with this:

In Norwegian the word "gift" has two meanings: One is "married", the other one is "poison"... Coincidence? I'm not sure

Hehe....hope both aren't relevant

 

[gudz23]

Thanks for the laughs. I came up with another peculiarity... or two... or one and a half... (again, not sure)

In Norwegian, "fett" means "grease", "drit" means "feces".

Not nice things, in other words...

Put together on the other hand, we get the expression: "drit fett", which we obviously all agreed should bare the meaning "awesome"

So yeah, Norwegian makes sense, right?!

 

[Kalevalatar]

A typical Finnish midsummer conversation:

"Kokko! Kokoo kokoon koko kokko."
"Koko kokkoko?"
"Koko kokko."

It's about ordering this person Kokko (a Finnish surname) to assemble (=kokoo) together (=kokoon) the whole (koko) bonfire (= kokko).

Of course, you can always make it longer:

"Kokko! Kokoo kokoon koko kokko."
"Koko kokkoko? Kokoonko kokoon koko kokon?"
"Koko kokko, Kokko."
"Kokoon kokoon koko kokon."

 

[gudz23]

Hehe, must be a Nordic thing Reminds me of something similar (but not so extreme) in Norwegian dialects. It goes like: "Dom som si dom e domme, dom e domme dom"

Dom = they/others/themselves (take your pick), som = who, si = say, e = am/is/are, domme = stupid.


Also, in another Norwegian dialect, this is a sentence:

"Æ e i Å æ å"

Whereas I myself would write: "Jeg er i Å jeg óg"

It means: "I am in Å (a town) as well"

 

[gudz23]

A typical Finnish midsummer conversation:

"Kokko! Kokoo kokoon koko kokko."
"Koko kokkoko?"
"Koko kokko."

It's about ordering this person Kokko (a Finnish surname) to assemble (=kokoo) together (=kokoon) the whole (koko) bonfire (= kokko).

Of course, you can always make it longer:

"Kokko! Kokoo kokoon koko kokko."
"Koko kokkoko? Kokoonko kokoon koko kokon?"
"Koko kokko, Kokko."
"Kokoon kokoon koko kokon."

While on the subject of Finland, I came across this little tidbit:

Is this true?

 

[Kalevalatar]

While on the subject of Finland, I came across this little tidbit:

Is this true?

Look, I'm a LADY and I shouldn't reply to this, but... Despite the crude term referring to the part that only men have as the base of that word, Finnish is a genderless language, so yes, the word can be used as a term of endearement for both men and women, I suppose... Thankfully, my husband is a Swedish-speaking Finn!

 

[Nithavela]

German has some double meaning words. For example, the word for a lock and for a castle are the same, "Schloss".

 

[PaaKne]

A typical Finnish midsummer conversation:

"Kokko! Kokoo kokoon koko kokko."
"Koko kokkoko?"
"Koko kokko."

It's about ordering this person Kokko (a Finnish surname) to assemble (=kokoo) together (=kokoon) the whole (koko) bonfire (= kokko).

Of course, you can always make it longer:

"Kokko! Kokoo kokoon koko kokko."
"Koko kokkoko? Kokoonko kokoon koko kokon?"
"Koko kokko, Kokko."
"Kokoon kokoon koko kokon."

And in Norwegian the word "koko" (sometimes also written ko-koo) is simulating the bird's "cuckoo" - and also means crazy (as an old tradition says one gets crazy of listening to long to this bird)...

 

[PaaKne]

Hehe....hope both aren't relevant

In fact, the author Mr Alexander L(ange) Kielland (1849-1906) - today considered one ot the "great five" Norwegian authors in the last part of the 19th century - bases one of his books upon exact this double meaning. The book is issued 1883, it's title is (surprice..) "Gift", and the key points in the book - describiing the life "in a small Norwegian town" (I.e Stavanger, his home town and at that time just a large village) are:

• The rather poor student Mr Marius Gotthardt, (age 12-13 . his nickname "Small Marius" is because he is looking (and in some ways also behaving) a couple of years younger) is the headmasters pet and "little professor" in a school based upon Latin (extreamly, 18 of total 42 lessons a week) . He suddenly dies due to (over)-studying Latin day and night to keep his free place in the towns recognized school for boys, given him by the headmaster himself due to his excellent skills in Latin (but struggling in all other subjects and being harassed by the teachers as well as some other students for this reason).
• Ms Wenche Knorr Løvdahl, daughter of the rich merchant Mr Abraham Knorr in Bergen, is married to Mr Carsten Løvdal - the town's first doctor, from a poorer line of an astoricratic old Danish familiy and with a very conserative life view. In a lot of ways Mr Løvdahl have started to consider his wife and all her "modern ideas" (but not her and her father's money...) like society poisson
• Ms Wenche Knorr Løvdal is also the mother to Abraham Løvdahl, little Marius' only friend in the school. She consider this school like gift (poisson) for young braines, a view she has also before "lttle Marius" dies (she often talk to the boys about "the nasty Latin" everyone think is that important when the friends are studying in Abraham's home), but especially after.
• In a party held by Mr Carsten Løvdahl is the headmaster of the school one of the honoured guests. After getting a question, Ms Wenche Knorr Løvdahl suddenly starts talking about the school's Latin like poisson silently killing the teenagers brains and - as long as this can be done without words - also indicate that the headmaster partly is responsible for this death, due to his loved Latin. The headmaster becomes rather upset, but hide her wrath quite well and Wenche dosn't notice it. However, Carsten does and also gets upset - and deeply irritated about his hopeless wife. (Later he also discover that his wife in this party has dishonered a possession he has in the school (and is proud of having, as it's very visible in the soceity), saying this possetion isn't of any use, just made to give a false impression that the parents have any influence in the school
• One day some later Mr Carsten Løvdahl for some unexplained reason leaves his doctor office downtown a little earlier than usual. When getting home, he gets aware of that Mr Mordtman - a stranger and the only agrreing with Ms Wenche Knorr Løvdahl in the party - are visiting his wife without his permission, and also find when they all are talking that this isn't Mr Mordtman's first visit. Mr Carsten Løvdahl says notthing to Mr Mordtman, but when he has left, Mr Carsten Løvdahl soon gets involved i a discussion with his wife about what is suitable, for a wife as well for a teenager's education. The discussion turns up to become a rather hard quarrel, and he leaves rather upset for visiting "the mens club" like always this day of the week. Here he stays a lot longer than usual to get his wife in bed before arriving home and not have the quarrel continued before bedtime.
• When ;Mr Løvdahl arrives home he finds that his wife has been so upset that she has sought into his home office to find a suitable medicine to calm down and has fainted, while holding a medicament in his hand. He gives her the medicament (knowing this very well may kill - poisson - her), then take a l a long walk, arrives home, "find"! his wife about to die and starts a useless "first aid" to give an impression that he has tried to save his wife's life after having taken an unsuitable medicine for her pains from his office.

Wonder a bit about whether this book has been transated to English and - provided it has - how the translator has handled the title and the double meaning of the word "gift" when translating. Btw an excellent showpiece of the translation difficults, valid even for the Bible, and clarifiying how even the best quality translations (like KJV in English) doesn't reflct the original text more than 99.98 %.

 

[Rubiks]

Even cooler are auto antonyms - words with two meanings each the opposite of the other.
For example cleave - join together; cleave - split apart.
In English (at least U.K. English ) there are many more.
This means that "word for word" translation needs great care - the context is essential with these words.

Inflammable means both flammable and not flammable LOL

 

[DeerGlow]

I've been trying to learn Spanish lately, and I came across the word "salvar" in a Spanish worship song, and while I figured it meant "to save," I went ahead and Googled it and found that it means "to save" OR "to salvage." Now, correct me if I'm wrong on this, as I would love to learn, but when I found this, I felt this was a much more meaningful word than it's English equivalent, as I view it as God finding something with little or no purpose, and giving it a purpose. I.e. "Dios me salvó" "God saved me (from death)" or "God salvaged me (even though I was nothing.)" So my question is, does anyone else know of cool little tidbits like this that they might share?

Adieu is French for "goodbye" but literally means "to God" said by soldiers who did not know if they would see each other or be dead after a battle. A teacher said something like that in class I hope I am not blurring the wrong details together.

 

[Vyrzaharak]

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Even cooler are auto antonyms - words with two meanings each the opposite of the other.
For example cleave - join together; cleave - split apart.
In English (at least U.K. English ) there are many more.
This means that "word for word" translation needs great care - the context is essential with these words.

Yup, like blessed. It also means to be damned.

 

[Sammy-San]

How awesome that you wanna learn Spanish.
The word "salvar", basically means save. But, depending on the situation, you may also use the word "salvage", like salvaging a marriage, or a vintage car.

This is more than double. Nihongo is so vague.Tanoshii Japanese