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These are called wasabi eigo in Japanese, and there are enough to fill a dictionary, they change all the time. My favorite are ones like "left over"... a baseb
by brownbat 10y ago
These are called wasabi eigo in Japanese, and there are enough to fill a dictionary, they change all the time.
My favorite are ones like "left over"... a baseball term for a hit that goes over the left-fielder's head, rather than uneaten food saved for later.
English admits a ton of these as well. I'd be horrified if someone recommended a board to keep English pure from foreign influences though. It seems both futile and xenophobic.
Languages are like old shoes. They are going to get beat up with use, but are wasted if you just lock them away to prevent it. And maybe as you wear them around, they'll get more character and more comfortable.
- johnzim 10y agoIt would be impossible - the language already contains huge numbers of loan words. All our eating meat words are French for instance (Beef, Mutton, Pork) whereas the animal words are "English" (Cow, Sheep, Pig) because the Norman invasion replaced all the old English aristocracy - the commoners raised the animals, the nobles ate them. That was just one conquest and we've had several - the Romans, Celts, Danes etc. To say nothing of important words taken from German, Italian let alone Latin and Greek. That's the reason it's such a mare to learn - it's accepted that we have more words than any other language. There is no such thing as pure English - and a good thing too!
- rflrob 10y agoLikely autocorrect "fixed" wasei eigo for you. Wasabi eigo would likely be pretty spicy language... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-eigo https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-eigo
- brownbat 10y agoSo it did, good catch.