English Loan Words in Other Languages
ITALIAN / FRENCH / GERMAN / JAPANESE
Note how many of these English words have a slightly different meaning in the language which borrows them.
from L'inglese - Lezioni semiserie by Beppe Severgnini
Many of the English words used in Italian are more British than American in meaning.
autogrill
service station
autostop hitch-hiking
box lock-up garage
camping campsite
dancing dance-hall
eskimo parka
flipper
pin-ball machine
footing
jogging
golf jumper jersey
notes
notebook
parking
car-park, parking garage
plaid
travelling rug
slip
underpants / knickers
smoking dinner
jacket / tuxedo
spider (car) convertible
spot
commercial
stage
training course
starter (of car) choke
tight
morning suit
toast
toasted sandwich
No English equivalent
slow : uno slow' is the sort of dance in which you just shuffle your feet.
tilt: Just as pin-ball machines go dead and display TILT when shaken, the espression 'andare in tilt' has become an Italain cliché; it is a safe bet that
any report on a traffic jam will include the sentence 'il traffico P
andato in tilt'.
'Authority' (pronounced /autoriti/) for 'regulator, regulating agency'. The Italian equivalent of the FCC, FTC etc. are called 'AutoritB' (on the model, I imagine, of the French 'Autorités') but everybody, including ministers, refers to them as 'le autoriti'.
"anti-baby Pille" birth
control pill
Handy
cell phone
Trainer
coach
French
"Real" French rejects franglais terms, and there
are different brands of franglais everywhere (in Paris, in Montreal, in Quebec,
in Dakar, in Saigon, etc.)
Dakar - Paris.
le
parking
car
park
le weekend
the weekend
le
smoking
tuxedo
les toasts au beurre buttered toast
les
tennis
sneakers
les
jeans
(blue)jeans
le
pullover
a pullover sweater
dining kitchen dining room with a
kitchen
OL
office lady [no real translation]
salaryman
white-collar worker
Mixed terms (hybrids):
kyoiku-mama education mother (pejorative): mother who
pushes her child to study excessively)
This material has been published on the web by Prof. Tom Sienkewicz for his students at Monmouth College. If you have any questions, you can contact him at toms@monm.edu.