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

In Swedish

Bat - fladdermus or flutter mouse
Vegetables - grönsaker - green stuff
Athlete's foot - fotsvamp - foot mushrooms

Also Swedish

Slug - mördarsnigel - murderer snail
Batman - Läderlappan - the leather note

Baking house that pings

(And it's 'Popty' - sorry - Welsh pedant)

In Italian:
Reggiseno (bra) = breast holder
Pomodoro (tomato) = golden apple
Camicia da notte (nightie) = shirt for the night
Carro armato (tank) = armed charriot

I was coming on to say,sadly, this one. 😔

Yes, Wurf comes from the verb "werfen", to throw.

Swedish:

Hearse - likvagn - corpse carriage

German

das Gleichgewicht - "equal weight" = balance
die Straßenbahnhaltestelle - "street train stopping place" = tram stop
die Schadenfreude - "damage joy" = well, Schadenfreude! 😄

Icelandic for mole is moldvarpa - earth thrower. Probably similar to other Nordic languages since there are no moles here.

It's strange that there should be this earth/mouth difference, since I assume they have a common Germanic root. Something must have got switched at some point.

Seems like earth thrower makes more sense, though!

So many of these Nordic or German examples are the same in Iceland. Not surprising of course!

English is often just as literal, it's just literal in Greek/Latin instead. I thought eldfjall (fire mountain) for volcano was funny, but volcano means fire mountain too.

Some great ones here, I'm cuttently having a totally shit time so thanks for cheering me up.

A clove of garlic in German translates as 'garlic toe' (Knoblauchzehe)

@Puffinshop but it throws it with its mouth, which is the German translation. Either works. 😊

Toe! 😄

You got there as I posted. 👍🏻

@Brefugee sorry to hear that. This is a great idea for a thread. 😊💕

With its paws, surely?

sorry, @SeatonCarew i've edited the post (that will teach me to post on my phone without my glasses)
(for anyone who didn't see it - i wrote "tie" instead of "toe")

also hilarious in German is the word for puffin - parrot diver (Papageitaucher)

@Puffinshop Ooh, you've got me thinking now. I was presuming its mouth got there first, given the shape of its head and the shape of mechanical moles. I can see where either idea would come from in ancient times to form the word but I think you're right. Every day is a school day round here. Chapeau. 😊👍🏻

Oh @Brefugee, I'm as blind as a bat nowadays without my glasses. Ipad here whenever I can.

Can I have an English one? Genuflect. Literally "genu flectere", Latin for "bend the knee". It pleases me for some reason.

Oh I love that blutac one! I will try and always call it elephant snot from now on 🤭

Dutch. Panlikker is a spatula

German for vacuum cleaner is dust sucker. Staubsauger

Gosh, that’s fascinating, Puffinshop. It seems clear that mole, Maul and mold are all cognate in some way, and it makes most sense for them to be derived from a term for earth. It was only when writing my first post that I thought about how strange Maulwurf really is. Although moles do have one heck of a snout! Icelandic is such a cool language when you bring it together with other Germanic languages (including old English, of course).

Seaton, I think you misunderstood me, but thanks anyway for trying to help. I’m a translator so I’m well aware that Wurf is the noun of werfen - I was simply pointing out that Wurf has two meanings and I was assuming rather than knowing for sure that the throw meaning was correct. Puffin’s Icelandic contribution confirms it for me. Perhaps you can think of the word meaning earth that Maul might be a corruption of?
Edit to acknowledge that between you and Puffin you did indeed work it out while I was dilly-dallying. 😁

One of my favourites is apparently the German for hovercraft directly translates to air pillow vehicle - my German is virtually non-existent so I’m really hoping a (French) teacher from many years ago didn’t lie to me!!

Hello in Irish and goodbye in English are both "God be with you".