expressions - Is there a term for a foreign word that looks like an English word but has a completely different meaning?


examples:




  • Gift (German) = poison

  • poisson (French) = fish

  • embarazada (Spanish) = pregnant

  • sauce (Spanish) = willow

  • triviale (Italian) = vulgar

  • parentes (Portuguese) = relatives

  • slim (Dutch) = smart




Answer



False friends is the common word for that :)


As Wikipedia says:



False friends are pairs of words or phrases in two languages or dialects (or letters in two alphabets) that look or sound similar, but differ significantly in meaning.



The article goes on to mention one of your actual examples)


False cognates, is something different. If we look again at wikipedia:



False cognates are pairs of words in the same or different languages that are similar in form and meaning but have different roots. That is, they appear to be, or are sometimes considered, cognates, when in fact they are unrelated. This is different from a false friend, which two words may have similar roots but have diverged in meaning.



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