How about a game?

SaraP

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Ok, so here's what I thought:

A lot of people know Los Angeles means The Angels in spanish. Fewer people know the name Linda means Beautiful in portuguese (and I'm guessing in spanish too?).

The idea is to post a word in any language that we know to have a different meaning in another language and have everyone else guess what the new meaning is. Clues would be given. Whoever guesses correctly is not obligated to post a new challenge, but it would be appreciated. Googlefu won't be allowed of course, but as we have no way of knowing whether people cheated or not, we would just make the pledge not to do it.

What do you all think?
 

SaraP

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Mark, the english name? You have to say what the meaning is in the original language and the language in which the word has an alternative meaning, as well as provide a clue.

For example:

Everyone knows the actor Mel Gibson. Does anyone know what Mel means in portuguese? Let's just say this sweet stuff is very common.

ETA: by golly, my brain is asleep today. I've edited this post way too many times already.
 
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Kitty Pryde

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OK, I just read a sci-fi book with two small and obscure jokes in it. The first was that one model of flying aircar was named the "Laputa"--after the flying island in Gulliver's Travels.

The second joke was a small news item reporting that the "Laputa" had awful sales in Spanish-speaking countries. :D
 

SaraP

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Liosse, did you know that or did you just guess? :D

Yeah, Honey Gibson - fitting, no? LOL!

Kitty - LOL! Let's just say that when we talk about The Castle in the Sky movie, we have to make sure we say that name with the english accent. ;)

A new one:

Birra is beer in italian, yet I wouldn't want my kid to have a portuguese birra either. Guess away!
 
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Liosse, did you know that or did you just guess? :D

Yeah, Honey Gibson - fitting, no? LOL!

Kitty - LOL! Let's just say that when we talk about The Castle in the Sky movie, we have to make sure we say that name with the english accent. ;)

A new one:

Birra is beer in italian, yet I wouldn't want my kid to have a portuguese birra either. Guess away!


I knew. "mel/mellis" in Latin, "miele" in Italian, and "miel" in French and Spanish.
 

Dawnstorm

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OK, I just read a sci-fi book with two small and obscure jokes in it. The first was that one model of flying aircar was named the "Laputa"--after the flying island in Gulliver's Travels.

The second joke was a small news item reporting that the "Laputa" had awful sales in Spanish-speaking countries. :D

Would it really have awful sales, I wonder? It could be a cult hit.

I'm guessing La Puta = (female) prostitute. It's similar in Italian, so...

***

Btw, don't offer Germans a "gift". They won't like it.
 

poetinahat

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Before setting off on our own honeymoon, I was amused to learn that "honeymoon", in Italian, is "luna di miele" - same expression!
 
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Would it really have awful sales, I wonder? It could be a cult hit.

I'm guessing La Puta = (female) prostitute. It's similar in Italian, so...

***

Btw, don't offer Germans a "gift". They won't like it.


You're right, KP.

I guess "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" wouldn't sell very well either, in Spanish-speaking countries. lol
 
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SaraP

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Puta is not a nice word in portuguese either - quite a derogatory term. The funny thing is the male version - Puto - is very very common and means kid (applied to either a boy or a group of kids, but never just to girls).

Honeymoon translates into Lua de Mel in portuguese as well.

As for the word I posted, Birra, here's another clue: it is most often associated with pouting kids, but adults aren't exempt from throwing one every now and then. ;)
 
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Puta is not a nice word in portuguese either - quite a derogatory term. The funny thing is the male version - Puto - is very very common and means kid (applied to either a boy or a group of kids, but never just to girls).

Honeymoon translates into Lua de Mel in portuguese as well.

As for the word I posted, Birra, here's another clue: it is most often associated with pouting kids, but adults aren't exempt from throwing one every now and then. ;)


Oh, are we still on that? Tantrum.
 

SaraP

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Tantrum it is!

And keeping with the italian to portuguese theme ...

Burro is butter, but in Portugal you wouldn't want to spread it on bread. That would be animal cruelty!
 

MissMacchiato

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burro is a donkey :)

in Italian, morbido is something you'd want your clothes to be - nothing like what it means in english!
 

Diver

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burro is a donkey :)

in Italian, morbido is something you'd want your clothes to be - nothing like what it means in english!

... nor in spanish.

Another example would be exquisito, meaning exquisite in spanish. I was told to avoid using this word to describe food in Brasil.
 

maxmordon

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Puta is not a nice word in portuguese either - quite a derogatory term. The funny thing is the male version - Puto - is very very common and means kid (applied to either a boy or a group of kids, but never just to girls).

Puto in Spanish does not only describes a manwhore, but used as a noun it's an insult equivalent to "homo".

There's this word in Spanish, especially Venezuelan spanish means a rundown bus, but if you ask for a "buseta" in Portuguese it will surely earn you a slap from a woman and not an indication the bus stop!
 

truelyana

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... nor in spanish.

Another example would be exquisito, meaning exquisite in spanish. I was told to avoid using this word to describe food in Brasil.

In Portuguese 'exquisito' means strange, so that probably would explain something. It's amazing the meaning of words and the way they are used through the languages!
 

Ehab.Ahmed

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Can anyone guess what "puta" means in Japanese? It's actually "buta" in Japanese, but it's close, lol. Hint: an animal that can't physically look at the sky.
 

mattias

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Mark means "property" or "land" in Swedish, as in "50 acres of forest". Using definite article, it also means the surface of the Earth.