4 ms·

It's American English. For Americans, the word we just stole means whatever the fuck we want.

by saraid216 12y ago

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
shiven 12y ago
Same with biscotti, or so I have been told by nonplussed Italians who were offered some.
cbd1984 12y ago
That's how every language works. Every language borrows and repurposes words.
- davidw 12y ago
  Some of them are certainly odd for native speakers of the borrowed word though: "panini sandwiches" for instance. Sometimes languages "borrow" nonexistant words, like "footing" for jogging in Italian.
  - pluma 12y ago
    Or "pepperoni" being a salami. Cue confused Americans complaining about their pizza being too damn spicy and not having any meat on it.
    - davidw 12y ago
      Yep! Peperone is actually a bell pepper in Italian, so no meat, but not spicy either. Peperoncino is the spicy one.
      - pluma 11y ago
        Funny. "Pepperoni" in German generally refers to chili peppers (though recently I've heard it being used to describe salamis, likely due to US influence). Which confused the hell out of me as a child when I heard that the most popular pizza in the US is the "pepperoni pizza". Bell peppers and some other non-spicy peppers are called "Paprika" in German (whereas apparently in English "paprika" refers to a spice made from chili peppers). Amazing how these words tend to evolve to take on entirely contradictory meanings in different languages.
  - ocb 12y ago
    "Handy" is used as slang for mobile phone in German ;)
  - amyjess 12y ago
    > Sometimes languages "borrow" nonexistant words, like "footing" for jogging in Italian. German loves to do that, too. A cell phone is a "Handy", a projector is a "Beamer", etc. And then there's Japanese, which takes English words and abbreviates them differently. So "personal computer" becomes "persocom" instead of "PC", "remote control" becomes "remocon" instead of "R/C", "television" becomes "televi" instead of "TV". From that, you might think Japanese people don't like acronyms... until you see that they call a secretary an "OL", which stands for "office lady".
settsu 12y ago
Wow. Sad.

It's American English. For Americans, the word we just stole means whatever the fuck we want.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

shiven 12y ago

Same with biscotti, or so I have been told by nonplussed Italians who were offered some.

cbd1984 12y ago

That's how every language works. Every language borrows and repurposes words.

davidw 12y ago
Some of them are certainly odd for native speakers of the borrowed word though: "panini sandwiches" for instance. Sometimes languages "borrow" nonexistant words, like "footing" for jogging in Italian.
- pluma 12y ago
  Or "pepperoni" being a salami. Cue confused Americans complaining about their pizza being too damn spicy and not having any meat on it.
  - davidw 12y ago
    Yep! Peperone is actually a bell pepper in Italian, so no meat, but not spicy either. Peperoncino is the spicy one.
    - pluma 11y ago
      Funny. "Pepperoni" in German generally refers to chili peppers (though recently I've heard it being used to describe salamis, likely due to US influence). Which confused the hell out of me as a child when I heard that the most popular pizza in the US is the "pepperoni pizza". Bell peppers and some other non-spicy peppers are called "Paprika" in German (whereas apparently in English "paprika" refers to a spice made from chili peppers). Amazing how these words tend to evolve to take on entirely contradictory meanings in different languages.
- ocb 12y ago
  "Handy" is used as slang for mobile phone in German ;)
- amyjess 12y ago
  > Sometimes languages "borrow" nonexistant words, like "footing" for jogging in Italian. German loves to do that, too. A cell phone is a "Handy", a projector is a "Beamer", etc. And then there's Japanese, which takes English words and abbreviates them differently. So "personal computer" becomes "persocom" instead of "PC", "remote control" becomes "remocon" instead of "R/C", "television" becomes "televi" instead of "TV". From that, you might think Japanese people don't like acronyms... until you see that they call a secretary an "OL", which stands for "office lady".

settsu 12y ago

Wow. Sad.