Linguistic homophones/homonyms? (Funny!)

#1

Since I have found my tribe among polyglots and I am nutty, I am wondering if anyone else has noticed various words that sound alike or are spelled alike but mean different things in different languages? It’s really quite funny! Here are mine:

Baba
Bulgarian: Grandma
Hindi, Arabic, Persian: Father
French: Sponge cake soaked in rum

Ithaca
America: College town, home of Cornell University
Korean: Brush your teeth

Smetana
Czech: Famous composer
Russian: Sour cream

Milarepa
Tibetan: Ancient cultural hero
Salvadorean: 1000 griddle cooked corn cakes, when plural (mil arepas)

Poo
Tamil: Flower
English: Excrement

Ohio
American English: A state
Japanese: Morning

Cola
Albanian: (with a K) Man’s name
English: Fizzy, carbonated drink based on sugar and caramel

Putin
Russian: Psycho, megalomanic, sinister leader of the country
French-Canadian: (spelled poutine) French fries covered in gravy and cheese curds

Panini
Sanskrit: (stress on the first syllable) Famous ancient grammarian
Italian: Sandwiches

Chacha
US: 1950’s ballroom dance
Hindi: uncle
Georgian: grape vodka

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#2

Cola en español es “tail” en inglés.

I know there’s a whole thread about “false friends” that kind of gives these sorts of interesting homophones between languages.

A few of my favorites are:

Dick: German=thick, English=a crude word

Gift: German=poison, English=present

Camera: Romanian=the room, English=photo equipment

Wand: German=wall, English=a stick

Prost: German=cheers, Romanian=dumb**s

A prune in English is a dried plum, prună in Romanian is a plum

Rot: German=red, English=decay

Red: English=a color, Spanish=net

Sol: Spanish=sun, Romanian=soil

Desert: English=dry, arid land, Romanian=dessert

This is always a fun topic, especially between languages. I’ll try to post a link to the other thread.

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#3
#4

BAKA
Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian = grandmother
Japanese = idiot

I was shocked when my Serbian teacher said this word suddenly :smiley:

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