Your favourite foreign words with literal meanings

[Brefugee]

We were chatting about this on The Archers thread and i wondered if anyone else would like to join the convo.

I can't remember how it came about but anyway, two of my favourites are

• The Russian for machine-gun translates literally to bullet thrower
• The German for gloves translates literally to hand shoes

Chinese for computer = electric brain

Chinese for tomato is 'Western Red thing'

The German word for slug is die Nacktschnecke - naked snail

Tofu literally translates into decayed bean

I love German
Handy... mobile phone
Panzerringstrasse... tank road (sounds a lot more impressive)
Einhorn... unicorn (one-horn)

Spanish
paraguas - literal means ‘for water’ - umbrella
parasol - literal means ‘for sun’ -

Toes in Spanish are dedos del pie - fingers of your feet!!

Oh Danish is brilliant for this!
Moderkage - placenta. Mother cake.
Appelsin hud - cellulite. Orange (as in the fruit) skin
Græsslåmaskine - lawnmower. Grass fighting machine.
Hudorm - black head. Skin worm.
Elefant snot - blutac.

Fun French Expression (very informal) : il y a du monde au balcon

Means : to have a rather ample bosom

Literal Translation : there are lots of people on the balcony

x

German:
Oldtimer - veteran car
Dressman - male model
Krankenwagen - ambulance (ill people vehicle)
Krankenhaus - hospital (ill people house)
Stinktier - skunk (stink animal)

German is absolutely brilliant for this. My fave is that a bra is a BH - which stands for Bustenhalter, or bust holder.

Diseases are waaay easier to understand in German. Encephalitis is a Hirnhautentzuendung, or brain skin inflammation.

Another Chinese one - 'shouji' = mobile phone; literally 'hand machine'

And 'dianti' - elevator - literally electric ladder

Moderkage - placenta. Mother cake.
Appelsin hud - cellulite. Orange (as in the fruit) skin

German has Mutterkuchen and Orangenhaut too - there are so many similarities with Scandi langauges. I am devastated that we don't say grass fighting machine though, that's inspirational.

The French for table football is "baby-foot" which tickles me a fair bit.

There’s nothing like German…
Brustwarze (breast wart) - nipple 😊

German is such a lazy language (I can say that, I'm German).
Toys = Spielzeug = playing stuff
Tools = Werkzeug = crafting stuff
Vehicle = Fahrzeug = driving stuff
Plane = Flugzeug = flying stuff
Lighter = Feuerzeug = fire stuff
...
The list is endless.

These are great!

I like Russian podborodok ("under beard thing") for chin

Candyfloss in French literally translates to “daddy’s beard” - barbe a papa 😁

Another German one

Ladel = Schöpfkelle meaning scoop trowel

Fernschreiber = distance writer, German for fax machine.
A mate of mine who's fluent in German says it has a smaller number of words than, say, English and that's why there are a lot of compound words used.
Another friend was in the French Foreign Legion which has evolved a unique version of French. You get for example, a Brazilian recruit learning French from a Japanese capital, who learnt it from a Russian Sergeant...
His 2 favourite ones were "demerde toi" which means "unshit yourself" or get out of trouble, and "faire un banane", meaning "to make a banana" for making an error. One who regularly makes mistakes is referred to as a "bananier" or "banana tree"...

Russian:

Fridge: kholodnik - cold thing.
Teapot: chainik - tea thing (can also be used for kettle)

Norwegian:

Turtle: skillpadde - shelled toad.

I am loving these!

Another French one is :

word. bra
translation. soutien-gorge
literal translation. support the throat

I will think of others for your delight!

x

German is great for this
Ambulance - sick vehicle
Hangover - Cats being noisy
Bat - winged mouse
Butterfly - little fluttery thing
And so many more

In Greek phournos mikrokymaton - microwave, literally the oven of little waves.