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'Salaryman' and other freaky borrowed words

Olulabelle

21:02 / 28.02.07

I have just learned that the word salaryman means 'white collar worker' in Japanese and has literally come from the English 'Salary Man'. I did not know this (teh stupido) but I think it rocks.

What other words have been adopted by countries and languages and have become normal everyday words? I know that the English use heaps of French words but are there any like 'salaryman'?

Tell me, tell me.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

21:08 / 28.02.07

Spanish has quite a few. A campsite is un camping and a car park is un parking. (Outside many shops you'll see a little metal dealy to tie your dog's lead to, with a sign saying "parking para perros" or something of that nature.) Sexy is another one, spelt the same but pronounced with the emphasis on the final syllable.

Olulabelle

21:18 / 28.02.07

Yes! The whole camping camp-ing thing is interesting. I suppose it would help to know the origins of the word.

What I like about salaryman is the fact that it was a slang term which has become actual and identifying in the new language. Its literal meaning was probably the original reason for using it, (a man who works for a specific salary) but its generic meaning (as a category, he's a 'corporate' man) is what it now implies whilst still being the actual word the Japanese use. Does that make sense?

Mistoffelees

21:20 / 28.02.07

We have english (sounding) words, that are not used for the same object in the english language.

For example a Pullover is a sweater. Wikipedia says, this word has first been used in Germany in 1817.

A Handy is a cell phone. I couldn´t find an explanation how that word came into being. Maybe it was some smarmy marketing guy, since they are responsible for lots of english words especially in advertising. It´s supposed to sound more persuasive to the customer?

Olulabelle

21:25 / 28.02.07

A pullover is a sweater here in England, or at least it is to lots of Grandmas. Pullover or jumper. Not sweater. It's the U.S that made sweater common.

I''m a jumper girl myself.

sleazenation

21:34 / 28.02.07

I am only aware of two words for the Czech language that have made it into English and they are pistol and robot. I would not want to draw any conclusions on Anglo/Czech relations on the back of this information...

Closed for Business Time

21:51 / 28.02.07

Ski, fiord and slalom are all of Scandinavian origin. In fact, isn't this whole business of borrowed words a major sub-discipline of linguistics? Or are we primarily interested in relatively recent swaps?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

22:17 / 28.02.07

Aha!

I knew there was a website for this.

astrojax69

22:23 / 28.02.07

cul de sac..?

and a cell phone in oz is a 'mobile'. always handy to recall when someone stands still talking, when they could be walking with you!

Tsuga

23:10 / 28.02.07

A few semi-universal words are "taxi" and "okay." It seems I should be remembering more interesting borrowed words than that, but there you go. I'm not.

grant

03:34 / 01.03.07

"Chow" (as in "Grub's up!") comes from Mandarin, "chao," meaning a stir-fry. I suspect cowboys got it from railroad workers, but can't be sure.

miss wonderstarr

06:41 / 01.03.07

There are tons of borrowed words in English ~ too many for this thread I'm sure. Like, I don't know, "algebra", "kiosk".

Mobile phone also = "mobile" most commonly in the UK, rather than cell phone. I didn't realise that was an unusual usage.

One interesting use of a term that means something quite different in the UK and US is "tank top". Mostly, in the UK, it's a geeky sleeveless sweater for men. Mostly, in the US, it's a cute vest top for girls.

COG

14:27 / 01.03.07

More ones from Spain.

hacer windsurf (to go windsurfing)

A lot of English adjectives have become nouns here e.g.
un freaky = a hippy/punky type person.
un crack = a crack footballer for instance.

People use super a lot but I've no idea if it has ever been a real Spanish word direct from Latin, or came imported from English. Typical usage = super guay (super cool).

I'll keep my ears open for more. I love this kind of stuff.

Princess

14:34 / 01.03.07

How about all the words we imported from Yiddish?

charrellz

15:10 / 01.03.07

Mistoffelees: This is unverified information coming from one of my stranger german professors, but there is rumor that the german Handy thing was US military slang for their radios, which the Germans picked up and later applied to cell phones.

charrellz

15:11 / 01.03.07

Note to self: check wikipedia BEFORE posting.

a German Pseudo-Anglicism for a mobile phone; the term may have originated from the term 'hand held transceiver' or Motorola's Handie-Talkie, a World War II portable military radio; reappeared as a slang term for mobile phones in Germany in the mid-1980s, and was popularised there by advertising campaigns for miniature GSM phones in the 1990s.

All Acting Regiment

16:12 / 01.03.07

Saladywoman? I was looking for the geuushgushgush thread but couldn't find it.

Leigh Monster loses its cool

16:24 / 01.03.07

haha. they fuzzed out the food-genitals.

there's a lot of good ones in Japanese, the slang especially. "fera" is blowjob, from fellatio. I'm pretty sure pokemon is an abbreviation of pocket monster. The sarariman (not poking fun, that's how it's written and pronouced) has a counterpart known as an OL, which stands for Office Lady. Japanese uses so many borrowed words that there's a whole separate alphabet for non-Japanese words.

Olulabelle

20:30 / 01.03.07

That's what I liked about salaryman. I liked the fact that it's not even a word we really use except in jest.

Sort of adopted words that were never really words in the first place.

astrojax69

03:40 / 02.03.07

cultural differences? in australia, the things you wear on your feet consisting in a flat foot-shaped bit of rubber and a strap to keep it on is called, and always has been called 'thongs'.

i gather this term is used to refer to some undergarments elsewhere across our crazy globe...

i really hate their other names - flip-flops...

Baz Auckland

05:02 / 02.03.07

Korea and Japan have oodles of borrowed words. The trick is to just add a vowel sound after every consonant:

English: ice cream
Korean: ice-ah ca-reamah

English: apartment
Korean: aparta

English: beer
Japanese: biru

The Korean/English words are referred to as Konglish, and it's apparently going to be a big barrier to communication when reunification happens, since North Korea has zero Konglish, and the South has a LOT...

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