Harman Patil (Editor)

Pseudo anglicism

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit

Pseudo-anglicisms are words in languages other than English which were borrowed from English but are used in a way native English speakers would not readily recognize or understand. Pseudo-anglicisms often take the form of compound words, combining elements of multiple English words to create a new word that appears to be English but is unrecognisable to a native speaker of English. It is also common for a genuine English word to be used to mean something completely different from its original meaning.

Contents

Pseudo-anglicisms are related to false friends or false cognates. Many speakers of a language which employs pseudo-anglicisms believe that the relevant words are genuine anglicisms and can be used in English, which may cause misunderstandings.

When many English words are incorporated into many languages, language enthusiasts and purists often look down on this phenomenon, terming it (depending on the importing language) Denglisch, Franglais or similar neologisms.

Multiple languages

  • Air-Condition (German, Greek, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish) – air conditioning
  • Apart (Japanese アパート, Korean 아파트) – apartment
  • Autostop (or in some languages stop) (Bulgarian, Czech, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Spanish, Turkish) – hitchhiking
  • Basket (Arabic, Danish, French, Indonesian, Italian, Greek, Persian, Serbo-Croatian (one-hoop variant), Spanish, Swedish, Turkish) – basketball
  • Baskets (French, Romanian) – sneakers
  • Beamer (Dutch, German, Romanian) – (digital) video projector
  • Beefsteak (French bifteck, Spanish bistec, Serbo-Croatian, Turkish biftek) – from beefsteak, but steak in general
  • Beauty farm (Dutch, German Beauty-Farm and Beautyfarm, Italian) – spa
  • Black Music (French, German) – urban music
  • Body (Hungarian, Turkish) – bodybuilding
  • Body (for dancing) (German, Finnish, French, Italian, Romanian) – leotard
  • Body (for infants) (German, Finnish, French, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Turkish badi, Serbo-Croatian bodi) – infant bodysuit
  • Body (Estonian, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish) – bodysuit
  • Box (for toddlers) (Dutch, Italian) – playpen
  • Box (for vehicles) (French, Italian) – garage
  • Box (in motorsports) (German, Italian, Croatian variety of Serbo-Croatian, Spanish) – place on a race track where pit stops are conducted
  • Break (French, Romanian brec) – station wagon (American English) or estate car (British English) – cf. shooting-brake
  • Camera (Greek, Vietnamese, Russian, Polish kamera) – camcorder
  • Camping (Croatian variety of Serbo-Croatian, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish) – campsite
  • Camping-car (French, Japanese キャンピングカー) – campervan or "recreational vehicle"
  • Car (French, Swiss German) – coach, tour bus or inter-city bus
  • Catch (French; now considered old-fashioned in German and Italian) – professional wrestling
  • Classic music (Japanese クラシック音楽, Korean 클래식 음악, Turkish klasik müzik) – classical music
  • Clip (most languages) – short film
  • Closet (Serbo-Croatian, Russian, Turkish klozet) – watercloset
  • Coffee (some Arabic dialects) – café
  • Cornflakes (Arabic, Greek, Turkish) – any breakfast cereal
  • Cunning (Japanese カンニング, Korean 커닝) – cheating
  • Dancing (Belgian Dutch, French, Italian, Polish) – dance hall or dancing-house or nightclub
  • Discount (Diskont) (German, Polish, Serbo-Croatian) – a store
  • Dress (Estonian, Serbo-Croatian, Polish) – athletic garments
  • Evergreen (Dutch, German, Italian, Serbian variety of Serbo-Croatian, Swedish) – an enduringly popular song
  • Feeling (Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, Spanish) – personal chemistry, common bond
  • Fitness (Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Turkish) – fitness training as a kind of gymnastics
  • Flipper (Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish) – pinball machine
  • Footing (French, Italian, Spanish) – jogging
  • Fotoshooting (German, Romanian) – photo session, photo shoot
  • Fotoshop (Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian, Russian, Turkish) – manipulated photo (from the name of Adobe Photoshop)
  • Frac (French, Italian, Serbian variety of Serbo-Croatian), from "frock coat" – evening tailcoat
  • Fuel (various languages) – Diesel fuel
  • Full (French, Hungarian, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, Turkish, Polish) – full house (in poker)
  • Full (Spanish, Slovenian) – 'very'
  • Goalman (German Goalmann, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian) – Goalkeeper
  • Handyphone (Indonesian, Korean 핸드폰) – mobile phone (compare German Handy)
  • Happy end (Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, French, German Happyend and Happy End, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese ハッピーエンド, Korean 해피엔드, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian hepiend) – happy ending
  • Homepage (Danish, German, Japanese ホームページ Korean 홈페이지,H.P ) – website
  • Hometrainer (Dutch, German, Portuguese) – exercise bicycle or other low-level consumer fitness machine
  • IC (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) – interchange
  • Jolly (Italian, Romanian) – joker or wild card
  • Killer (Croatian variety of Serbo-Croatian, German, Italian, Polish, Russian) – hitman, contract killer
  • K-Way (French [kawe], Italian) – windbreaker
  • Lifting (Brazilian Portuguese, French, Swiss German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Turkish, Russian) – facelift
  • Limousine or limousine bus (Japanese リムジンバス, Korean 리무진 버스) – airport shuttle
  • Limousine (some Arabic dialects) – taxi
  • Living (European Portuguese, Belgian Dutch, French, Japanese リビング, Romanian, Argentinian Spanish) – living room or set of living room furniture
  • Looping (French, German) – vertical loop in a roller coaster
  • Luna park (Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Serbian variety of Serbo-Croatian, Turkish, Russian) – amusement park (derived from the name of an amusement park in New York)
  • Mail (Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese メール, Norwegian, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish mejl, Turkish, Russian) – email
  • Marketing (Arabic, German, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish) – advertising
  • Mobbing (German, Norwegian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish) – bullying
  • Montgomery (Greek, Italian) – duffle coat
  • MV (Chinese, Korean) – music video
  • Open space (French, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian) – open plan office
  • Panty or panti (Dutch, Spanish) – pantyhose
  • Parking (Arabic, Belgian Dutch, French, Swiss German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian паркинг, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish) – parking lot / car park
  • Peeling (French, Romanian, German, Russian, Polish, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Swedish) – facial or body scrub
  • Pickup (Dutch, Greek) – turntable
  • PK (Chinese) – play-kill (this term usually refers to a lighthearted competition/conflict and originates from arcade games)
  • Playback (Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish) – lip-sync(ing), miming (a song)
  • Poker (French, Hungarian, Italian [ˈpɔker], Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Russian) – either the game or straight flush
  • Pressing (Swiss German, Italian, Polish, Russian) – forcing (in sport)
  • Pullman (Greek, Italian) – motor coach, tour or inter-city bus, not a railway vehicle
  • Puzzle (Arabic, Croatian variety of Serbo-Croatian, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish pussel, Spanish puzle, Turkish) – jigsaw puzzle (rather than puzzle in general)
  • Reality (Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Greek, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish) – reality show
  • Recordman (French, Greek, Italian, Romanian, Russian recordsman, Turkish) – record holder in sports*
  • Roastbeef (sometimes dropping the 't') (Danish, German, Portuguese, Serbian variety of Serbo-Croatian, Spanish rosbif) – cut of beef located roughly at the short loin (US) or sirloin (UK)
  • Rolling stone – vagrant (from the proverb A rolling stone gathers no moss)
  • Scotch (French, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian) – clear adhesive tape of any brand
  • Service (Japanese サービス, Korean 서비스, Taiwanese sa-bi-su) – free, complimentary, from 'self service'
  • Sharp pencil (Japanese シャープペンシル, Korean 샤프펜슬) – mechanical pencil
  • Sig (French, Italian) – sigh (in cartoons)
  • Skilift (Croatian variety of Serbo-Croatian, German, Italian) – platter lift
  • Slip (Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Turkish) – briefs
  • Smoking (Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian smoching, Russian смокинг, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish esmoquin, Swedish, Turkish) – dinner jacket or tuxedo, rather than a smoking jacket in the Edwardian sense
  • Speaker (French, Italian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Turkish) – announcer, news anchor; also French feminine speakerine
  • String (Dutch, French, German, Greek, Polish, Russian стринги, Swedish, Turkish) – G-string
  • Strip (Dutch, Serbo-Croatian) – comics, comic book or comic strip
  • Telefilm (Croatian variety of Serbo-Croatian, Italian) – filmed TV series
  • Tennis (Portuguese tênis, Spanish tenis) – both the sport and tennis shoes, trainers, and sneakers
  • Toast (Croatian variety of Serbo-Croatian, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Italian [tɔst], Korean "토스트", Polish, Swedish, Turkish, Russian) – toasted sandwich
  • Top (for women) (most languages) – sports bra
  • Topfit (Dutch, German) – perfectly physically fit
  • Training (Hebrew טריינינג, Hungarian, Romanian, Korean "츄리닝") – tracksuit
  • Tramway (French, Russian трамвай, Serbo-Croatian tramvaj) – tram
  • Trench (French, Italian, Russian) – trench coat
  • Tuning (French, Portuguese, Italian, Russian) – car tuning
  • Videoclip (or in some languages clip) (Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Greek, Italian, Indonesian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian видеоклип, Serbo-Croatian, Turkish) – music video
  • Volley (Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese vôlei, Danish, French [vɔle], Greek, Italian [ˈvɔllei], Japanese バレー) – volleyball
  • Wellness (Croatian variety of Serbo-Croatian, German, Hungarian) – a holistic sense of mental and physical well-being; feeling well by expensive means, especially in a chic hotel near a spa
  • Zapping (French, German zappen (verb), Greek, Italian [ˈdzappiŋɡ], Dutch zappen, Swedish zappa) – (TV) channel-surfing, channel-hopping

    • Belarusian

  • Box (бокс) – boxing
  • Break (брэйк) – breakdance
  • Camping (кемпінг) – camping site
  • Cross (крос) – cross-country race
  • File (файл) – punched pocket
  • Player (плэер) – portable media player
  • Shop tour (шоп-тур) – an organized tour to a foreign country for shopping

    • Chinese

  • ABC – American-born Chinese, also CBC = Canadian-born Chinese, BBC = British-born Chinese, etc.
  • BB call – pager
  • BBS – web forum, as opposed to an actual bulletin board system
  • DM – flyer, brochure, junk mail (from "direct mail")
  • KTV – a karaoke establishment with private rooms. Called karaoke box in Japan.
  • MIT – Made in Taiwan
  • VC – Vitamin C

    • Czech

  • Box - boxing (noun for the sport)
  • Czech POINT – Czech public administration contact point
  • Nightclub – meaning extended to brothel, erotic club
  • Rifle – (pronounced ree-fleh); denim or jeans (from the registered trademark Rifle Jeans)

    • Danish

  • Babylift ([beɪ̯bilifd]) – baby transport/carrycot
  • Bake-off – parbaking
  • Butterfly – a bow tie
  • Cottoncoat – trench coat
  • Cowboytoast – minced meat sandwich
  • Grillparty – a barbecue party
  • Monkeyclass – economy class
  • Rocker – biker
  • Sixpence – a flat cap or cloth cap
  • Smoking – a dinner jacket
  • Speeder – an automobile pedal
  • Speedmarker – a felt-tip pen
  • Stationcar – a contraction of station wagon (US) and estate car (UK)
  • "Strips" – a cable tie
  • Timemanager – a calendar or notebook in which you write down appointments (from the registered trademark Time Manager)

    • Dutch

  • Agenda – diary (UK) or appointment book (US)
  • Airco – air conditioning
  • Boiler – a water heater and not a central heating boiler (ketel)
  • Box – a loudspeaker
  • Coffeeshop – a bar or cafe selling cannabis and non-alcoholic drinks
  • Dumpstore – an army surplus store
  • Junk – junkie, a drug addict
  • (Koffie)pad – (coffee) pod
  • Loverboy – a pimp who grooms (often very young) women to fall in love with him, in order to force them into prostitution.
  • Mobile home – Belgian Dutch for a campervan
  • Occasion – bargain (especially a car sold at a favourable price), or even: second-hand car. Originally a French loanword with the meaning of "bargain" and pronounced as in French, it is now often pronounced as in English
  • Pocket – small book, usually paperback, that fits in a pocket
  • Sheets – transparencies or computer presentation slides
  • Shovel – a loader
  • Songtekst – lyrics
  • Sweater – sweatshirt
  • Touringcar – a motor coach; not a touring car, which is either an obsolete automobile body shape or a classification of racing car.

    • Finnish

  • College – sweater/jumper

    • French

    Note: In Europe, '-ing' (/ɪŋ/) is usually pronounced [iŋg].

  • Baby-foot (m, pronounced [ba.bi.fut]) – table football
  • Box (f) – internet access device, following the trend of brand naming initiated with Free Telecom's "Freebox", then imitated by others (Livebox, Neufbox...)
  • Brushing (m) – blow dry
  • Building (m) – skyscraper
  • Caddie (m, [kadi]) – shopping trolley, from a brand name
  • Dressing (m) – dressing room
  • Fashion – as an adjective rather than a noun
  • Foot (m) – Football (soccer) (In Canadian French, this would refer to Canadian football, or sometimes in context to American football. Association football is le soccer.)
  • Forcing as in faire le forcing or faire du forcing – to pressure
  • de grand standing – high class (of property), luxury (flat, apartment)
  • Jogging (m) – Tracksuit (jogging suit)
  • Night shop (m, Belgium) – late-opening grocery shop
  • Paper board (m) – flip chart
  • People (sometimes spelled pipeuls, pipoles to reflect the pronunciation [pi.pœl] or [pi.pɔl]) – celebrities, also used as adjective (ex. "Il est très people"), derived from the US celebrity magazine People
  • Planning (m) – schedule, to-do list
  • Pressing (m) – dry cleaning shop
  • Pull (m, pronounced [pyl])– pullover, sweater
  • Punching ball (m) – punching bag
  • Recordman/Recordwoman – record holder in sports
  • Relooking (m) – makeover (also: relooker – give a makeover to)
  • Rollers (m) − Roller skates
  • Rosbif – English person, especially a man, mildly derogatory (from roast beef)
  • Rugbyman – rugby player
  • Self (m) – self-service restaurant
  • Shampooing (m, pronounced /ʃɑ̃.pwɛ̃/), also spelled shampoing – shampoo
  • Smoking (m) – dinner jacket
  • Star (f, even referring to a man) – a celebrity
  • Surf (m) – surfboard
  • Sweat (m, pronounced [swit] or [swɛt]) – sweater
  • Tennisman – tennis player
  • Top (adj.) – brilliant, great
  • Tramway (m) – tram
  • Warning(s) (m) – (car) hazard-lights
  • Zoning (Belgium) – industrial estate

    • German

    Many of the following examples may be found in several words (Fun Sport), hyphenated (Fun-Sport), in one word (Funsport) or CamelCase (FunSport).

  • Basecap – baseball cap
  • Best Ager – a person over the age of 50 (German Wikipedia)
  • Body-Bag – a type of Messenger Bag. The bag which is slung across the midriff in English is called cross-body bag. In Germany, the term Body-Bag was for some time a registered trademark.
  • Box – box, but also loudspeaker
  • Casting-Show – talent search television series
  • Catchen – wrestling
  • Containern – Dumpster diving
  • Cutter – film editor
  • Discounter – discount store
  • DJane – female disc jockey
  • Dressman – male model
  • Drive-in – drive-through
  • Ego-Shooter – first-person shooter (FPS)
  • (to do) Fitness – workout in a gym
  • Fitness-Studio or Fitnessstudio – gym
  • Foil – PowerPoint slide
  • Fun-Sport – a sport primarily practised in leisure time and for fun without organized competitions or rules, especially when it is risky, extravagant, modern and suitable to express an independent young lifestyle, e.g. Free climbing, Snowboarding or Surfing
  • Handy – mobile phone, cell[ular] phone
  • Happy End or Happyend – a happy ending
  • Highboard – a table-high cupboard
  • Horrortrip – bad trip
  • Inboard-Kamera – onboard camera
  • Inliner – inline skates (shoes)
  • Kicker – table football ("foosball" in American English, a variation on the German word "Fußball" (football))
  • Leader(innen)board – provisional ranking; in English leader board is only used in professional golf
  • Leader(s)box – Platform or site, where the provisional leader(s) of a current event is displayed to the public; in English leader's box stands for a collection of important rules and statements of a Christian sect—e.g., the United Church of Christ
  • Lifting – taking the ski lift uphill. Common term in Kühtai region in Austria
  • Logical – riddle/puzzle to be solved by logical thought (German Wikipedia)
  • Longseller – long-term (best)seller (German Wikipedia)
  • Lowlight – opposite of "highlight" (used in business environment in management reporting)
  • Lowrider – a pair of luggage carrier, which are fixed at both sides of a bicycles frontwheel near its axis (German Wikipedia)
  • Mailbox – voicebox
  • Musicbox/Musikbox – jukebox
  • No-Go – taboo, no-no
  • Pocketbook – paperback (derived from the German "Taschenbuch", "Tasche" = pocket, "Buch" = book)
  • Public Viewing – outdoor screening
  • Pullunder, often Pollunder or Polunder – sweater vest
  • Punker – a punk (dated: punker)
  • Shooting – photo or film shoot
  • Shootingstar – (successful) newcomer (sports, music, literature, business, politics...)
  • Slipper – lace-less shoes
  • Showmaster – show host
  • Sprayer – graffiti artist, tagger
  • Steadyseller – a book that sells consistently over a long term (variant of bestseller)
  • Tabletop – miniature wargame
  • Talkmaster – talk show host
  • Trainer – coach
  • Training – without any specification it means to workout in a gym, synonym to do Fitness or Training; with a (implicitly) given specification it means exercising under practicing conditions even if the results of this have consequences for a following competition, e.g. Qualifikationstraining means Qualifying Session or Balltraining means exercises with a ball
  • Trainings- – in compound terms such as Trainingsanzug, -hose, and -jacke for tracksuit, -trousers, and -top
  • Trampen; Tramper – hitchhiking; hitchhiker
  • Twen – a person in his or her twenties, or the time period of one's twenties
  • Vote – a poll

    • Greek

  • Barwoman – barmaid
  • Jean (τζιν) – denim
  • Trafficator – indicator

    • Hebrew

  • Back-Axe (בק-אקס) – rear axle
  • Chaser (צ'ייסר) – small shot glass
  • Coacher (קואוצ'ר) – practitioner of life-coaching, a coach. ("Coacher" is a valid, but rare, English variant)
  • Combinator (קומבינטור) – a swindler/cheater/con-artist, but also less negatively just someone who's good at smooth talking and getting out of trouble, or finding quick-fix solutions to problems.
  • Front Back-Axe (פרונט בק-אקס) – front axle
  • Golf (גולף) – turtleneck sweater/jersey
  • Maniac (manyak מניאק) – an undesirable person, akin to "asshole" or "son of a bitch" in English. (Probably derived from Arabic, where it has some negative sexual connotation)
  • Money time (מאני טיים) – crunch time (in sports)
  • Nylon (ניילון) – any form of flexible plastic
  • Patent (patent פטנט) – an improvisation/innovation
  • Presenter (פרזנטור) – celebrity endorser
  • Punch (פאנצ׳) – a short joke, one-liner (not the punch line!)
  • Puncture (pancher פנצ'ר) – any mishap causing a delay
  • Scouter (סקאוטר) – talent scout. ("Scouter" is a valid, but rare, English variant)
  • Selector (סלקטור) – airport security screener, club bouncer
  • Snappling (snepling סנפלינג) – abseiling
  • Talkback (tokbek טוקבק) – A comment on a blog or an internet news site
  • V (וי) – check mark (✓). Used in the expression "לעשות וי" ("to do a V") meaning "to check off, indicate as done".

    • Hungarian

  • Drill – three of a kind in poker.
  • Farmer – denim or jeans
  • Winchester – computer hard drive

    • Indonesian

  • Mini Market – Convenience store

    • Italian

  • Autogrill (Italian pronunciation: [autoˈɡril]) – motorway snack bar (used for any brand, not only for Autogrill chain)
  • Baby killer, or babykiller – juvenile murderer
  • Bar – café (the English "bar" is called "pub" in Italy)
  • Beauty case or Beauty – vanity bag
  • Block-Notes or Bloc-notes (Italian pronunciation: [blɔkˈnɔtes]) – notebook
  • Body rental – temporary staffing firm
  • Box doccia – shower cubicle
  • Cargo – cargo-boat (or cargo aircraft)
  • Cotton fioc – Cotton swab
  • Charleston (instrument) – Hi-hat
  • Custom – custom motorcycle, but very often used to indicate cruisers instead.
  • Discount – discount store
  • Fiction – TV miniseries
  • Golf (diminutive: golfino) – sweater/jumper
  • Hostess – female flight attendant, stewardess
  • Job on call – sort of casual employment, whose intermittent working times are based, from day to day, on the needs of the employer (compare Zero hours contract in the United Kingdom)
  • Mister – football coach
  • Night – nightclub
  • Plum cake – loaf cake
  • Pullman – coach
  • Pungiball – punching bag
  • Sexy shop – sex shop
  • Social – social network, using the English adjective as a noun
  • Spot – (TV) advert
  • Stage (Italian pronunciation: [staʒ] from French stage "internship", but also [steidʒ] via erroneous connection to the English stage) – internship
  • Talent – talent show
  • Ticket – cost associated to a service provided by National health care system
  • Tight – morning suit
  • Trolley (Italian pronunciation: [ˈtrɔllei]) – trolley case
  • Tutor or Safety tutor – traffic enforcement camera
  • Videobar – a cafe or bar focused on entertainment based on music videos
  • Water (Italian pronunciation: [ˈvater]) – shortened form for water closet
  • Writer – graffiti writer

    • Japanese

  • Live (ライブ, raibu) – any sort of performance-related live thing; e. g. a live band, live concert, live recording, etc.
  • Love hotel (ラブホテル, rabu hoteru) – a type of short-stay hotel
  • Lolicon (ロリコン, rorikon) – pedophile (adjective), portmanteau of "lolita" and "complex"
  • Mansion (マンション, manshon) – a condominium apartment
  • New-half (ニューハーフ, nyūhāfu) – a transgender or transsexual woman
  • OL or Office Lady (オフィスレディー, ofisu redī) – A female office worker
  • Revenge (リベンジ, ribenji) – to try again in spite of previous failure
  • Salaryman (サラリーマン, sararīman) – a white collar employee (salaried worker)
  • Style (スタイル, sutairu) – a woman's figure (particularly if slim or skinny)

    • Korean

  • Apart (아파트) – this word is used to mean not only individual suites, but "apartment building" or "apartment complex"
  • Fighting (화이팅 or 파이팅) – a Korean cheer that can roughly be translated as "Victory!" but can also be used as a word of encouragement (a la "Courage!")
  • Note (노트) – a notebook
  • Officetel (오피스텔) – this word is a portmanteau of "office" and "hotel" and means office and hotel combined
  • One room (원룸) – a bachelor-style studio apartment
  • One shot (원샷) – a form of toast, roughly equivalent to "bottoms up". It challenges the drinker to finish his drink in one gulp
  • Skin scuba (스킨스쿠버) – scuba diving

    • Persian

  • Machine – is used for Vehicle and Automobile beside general use for describing machines.
  • Traffic (ترافیک) – traffic jam.

    • Polish

  • Boks – boxing
  • Deweloper – real estate developer
  • Dres – tracksuit; sometimes also chav(s) (short for dresiarz)

    • Portuguese

    Except when the English pronunciation is obviously indicated by widely known spelling rules, such as "ee", "ay", "oo", "ou" and "a+consonant+e" standing for [i], [eɪ], [u], [aʊ], and [eɪC] (only in Portugal; Brazilians will pronounce the vowels near-correctly but the consonants always in the way they would pronounce them in Portuguese), instead of the expected [ej], [aj], [ow], [ow], [aCi ~ aCɨ] (non-nasal consonant) and [ɜ̃Ci ~ ɐCɨ] (nasal), all Lusophone Latin Americans and Africans and most Portuguese and Macanese will invariably use spelling pronunciations for pseudo-anglicisms as those that know proper English pronunciation and spelling rules would naturally be expected to know that those words are not real English, so that soda and tuning come out as [ˈsɔðɐ] (roughly like "sawtha" or "soth-a") and [ˈtũɲĩ] (roughly like "toonyeen'"), much as English-like filler (used mainly in Brazil, in the context of anime episodes not derived from the storyline of the manga from which they derive) and nylon would be [ˈfileʁ] (roughly "feel-egh") and [ˈnajlõ] (roughly "nye lon'") in non-affected pronunciations, though tupperware is rather similar to a native form ([tɐpɐˈwɛɾ], [-ˈwɛʁ]).

    Phonotactic and phonological rules of Portuguese or of certain Portuguese dialects, such as specific palatalization and vowel reduction patterns, also apply, so that while e.g. nice in São Paulo would become [ˈnajs], a native English form, in Rio de Janeiro it would become [ˈnajsi] (roughly "nicie") or [naj s̩] ("nye, sss!"), as [s] at the end of a syllable in the local dialect is non-existent – the local pronunciation of the archiphoneme /coda sibilant/ is palatalized [ɕ], the hushing second consonant in Japanese sushi. Brazilians, and some Africans and rural Portuguese with archaic dialects resembling Brazilian Portuguese, are known to insert an epenthetic [i] after virtually every final closed syllable to break them into two different open syllables, so that hippie and hip (as [i]star and estar/está, similar to Spanish) would sound wholly or nearly homophonous as [ˈʁipi], in the same way flirt became flerte ([ˈfleʁtʃi], [ˈflɛɾt(ɨ)] in Portugal) with time. Words that are not slang anymore tend to be adapted to Portuguese orthography.

  • Agroboy (Brazil) – a non-urban Brazilian playboy or yuppie, generally with its wealth earned by agricultural businesses
  • Beauty case – vanity case
  • Box – a stall containing a shower or a toilet, as in a public restroom
  • Coffeeshop (a loanword from Dutch) – a store selling cannabis
  • Cooper – to jog
  • Fashion (Brazil) – as an adjective rather than a noun, slang for a cool fashion style. Used mainly in relation to female fashion styles (or that of males in a jocose way). Example: Ela está muito fashion agora! meaning "she is so cool now [with this makeover]!"
  • Funk – a musical genre from Rio de Janeiro, local spin-off from Miami bass, completely unrelated to American funk music
  • Grill (Brazil) – steak house. Most often the native name churrascaria is used
  • Hipster (Brazil) – slang for either the correct English usage (scenesters of underground and indie music scenes) or a contemporary hippie-derived subculture there prevalent
  • Hockey – icehockey (other varieties of hockey are virtually unknown)
  • Ice Tea – generic trademark for iced tea, informally more common than the direct translation chá gelado
  • Night (Brazil) – nightlife, particularly dating
  • Novo look – a makeover (hair, clothing, makeup, etc.)
  • Open House – housewarming party
  • Outdoor – billboard, using the English adjective as a noun
  • Playboy (Brazil) – while in first it had the same usage as in English, from the 1990s to the 2010s it changed its meaning to a local version of yuppie. Stereotypes of the Brazilian playboys include being classist, womanizer and sexist, at least way more than their yuppie counterparts from more developed nations, which in turn is result of social anxieties of the poor and the lower middle class against the upper middle and upper classes, or being great seekers of social status and influence. They also, contrary to yuppies, do not fashionize intellectuality, and can or can not be socially liberal (social divisions between liberals and conservatives, specially in the upper classes, makes much less sense in Brazil)
  • Shopping – shopping mall or shopping centre using the English gerund as a noun
  • Show – concert, particularly a pop music concert ("concerto" is used mainly for classical music, nevertheless it is the standard usage in European Portuguese for all kinds of concert and also used in Brazilian Portuguese by language purists)
  • Soda – short for soda limonada, lime-flavored soft drink (refrigerante sabor limão, lime and lemon are regarded as two variants of the same fruit in Brazil; not lime-lemon, ironically known in Brazil by the literal translation lima-limão) rather than soft drink in general; soda is also a native Portuguese word that conveys the chemical sense of soda (compounds that contain sodium), as well as a saltwort or a kelp
  • Style (Brazil) – as an adjective rather than a noun, slang for someone whose fashion, or for the said fashion in itself, is deemed as innovative, cool or unique. Unlike fashion, this slang is regarded as adequate for males (actually, this term is a stereotypical part of the vocabulary of urban worker class males lacking in education and refinement). Example: Deborah e Giovanni ficam tão style de calças skinny, óculos escuros e franja! (meaning "Deborah and Giovanni got so cool wearing skinny jeans and dark glasses, and cutting the hair in bangs!")
  • Top (Brazil) – using the English noun as an adjective, means genius, greatest, awesome. Another example of slang stereotypically associated with stigmatized speech registers of those of lower social standing. Probably itself a loanword from French
  • Video game ([ˈvidʒo ˈɡejmi]; [ˈvidʒu ˈɡẽjmi] in less cultivated registers) (Brazil) – also written vídeo-game, game console, although the term "console" is also used, the video games themselves are simply called "games", "jogos" (the standard translation for "game") or less ambiguously "jogos de videogame" (console games)

    • Romanian

  • Blugi – jeans, denim fabric (whether blue or not)
  • Tenisman – tennis player (feminine is tenismană)

    • Russian

  • Break (брейк) – breakdance
  • Business lunch (бизнес-ланч) – table d'hôte
  • Clipmaker (клипмейкер) – music video director
  • Creative (креатив) – inventiveness, creativity, the results of creative work
  • Cross (кросс) – cross-country race
  • Face control (фейсконтроль) – checking whether a person looks appropriate (a common practice at Russian night clubs)
  • File (файл) – punched pocket
  • Finish (финиш) – finish line
  • Folk history (фолк-хистори) – a widespread type of pseudoscientific historical writing, often politically engaged, sensationalistic, or negationist in nature; in more broad terms, pseudohistory
  • Killer (киллер) – assassin, contract killer
  • Metallist (металлист) – fan of heavy metal subculture
  • Pampers (памперс) – diaper of any brand
  • Parking (паркинг) – parking lot
  • Player (плеер) – portable media player
  • Rocker (рокер) – member of a biker gang
  • Puzzle (паззл) – jigsaw
  • Safing (сейфинг) – providing safe deposit boxes
  • Shop tour (шоп-тур) – an organized tour to a foreign country for shopping
  • Showman (шоумен) – entertainer, host of an entertainment-oriented show (TV or otherwise)
  • Smoking (смокинг) – dinner jacket
  • Start (старт) – starting line, launch pad
  • Strings (стринги) – thong
  • Xerox (ксерокс) – copier of any brand

    • Serbo-Croatian

  • Basket – 2 v 2 or 3 v 3 basketball
  • Body (Bodi) – Bodice
  • Drugstore (Dragstor) – a corner store that is open in evenings or overnight. They do not offer pharmacy services.
  • Goalman (Golman) – Goalkeeper, Goalie
  • Insert – Movie clip
  • Luster – Chandelier
  • Recorder (Rekorder) – record holder (in sports)
  • Site (Sajt) – Website
  • Spot – Music video

    • Slovak

  • Nightclub – brothel/erotic club

    • Slovenian

  • Dbest [dəˈbɛst] – slang term meaning 'cool'
  • Full [ful] – slang term meaning 'very'

    • Spanish

  • Blue (Argentina) – grey market
  • Body – bodice
  • Casting – a screen test
  • Estárter – choke valve
  • Friki or friqui (from freaky) – fanboy, geek
  • Heavy – awesome, excellent, great, etc., in slang; also hard, strong, excessive. In the first sense, this word is used in the same way English speakers use the slang term "cool" (which is also used in Spanish). It also refers to the heavy metal subculture. Most likely from British slang word "Heavy" meaning "Cool".
  • Inbox – email, chat or messenger message.
  • KOM (Kick Off Meeting) – planning meeting, Project launch meeting.
  • Nuevo look – a makeover (hair, clothing, makeup etc.)
  • Planning – plan, program
  • Play, Hipermegaplay (in Colombia) – Used in the same way American English speakers would use the slang term "Cool".
  • Puenting (from puente "bridge", with English -ing added) – a sport that involves jumping from a bridge similar to bungee jumping, but the cord is non-elastic and the jump ends in a pendulum-like movement
  • Rolling stone – a celebrity
  • Round Point (in Colombian Spanish) – roundabout (from French rond-point)
  • Shopping – refers to both a shopping mall and to the activity of browsing available goods or services, regardless if products are actually purchased or not
  • Skate – skateboard
  • Snow – in some countries and regions, snowboarding. A snowboard is called a tabla de snow
  • Stalker – a hitman
  • Web – refers to both a website and to the Internet itself

    • Swedish

  • After work – A meeting for drinks after the workday is finished
  • Babysitter – seat made for infants
  • Backslick – slick-back hairdo
  • Brat – pejorative for a spoilt youth or young adult from the upper class who wears backslick and expensive clothes and exhibit extravagant behavior
  • Clicks – bicycle cleats
  • Freestyle – personal stereo; originally a marketing term
  • Homestyling – Home staging, making a home look better when presenting for sale, when done by professionals. Homestyling is used in the UK when helping residents fix their home for their own well-being.
  • Pocketbok or just Pocket – paperback book (mix of English and Swedish spelling)
  • Relax – Spa

    • Thai

  • Check-bill (เช็กบิล) – A combination of the US English "check" and the British English "bill" (adapted to Thai pronunciation), meaning the bill presented in a restaurant or bar.
  • Freshy (เฟรชชี่) – A college fresher or freshman.
  • Hi-so (ไฮโซ) – High Society describing someone who insists on designer labels
  • In-trend (อินเทรนด์) – Trendy. The word "trend" is usually pronounced in Thai accent as "tren" because final consonants are not as pronounced in Thai as in English.
  • Too fast to sleep – Too early to sleep. The Thai word /rēw/ (เร็ว) means either fast or early, depending on context.
  • Ver or Over (เวอร์ or โอเวอร์) – Exaggerated or overstated.
  • Inter (อินเตอร์) – means "international". "I am so inter" means the person has been abroad and is interested in foreign, mostly western things.
  • Goal (โกล) – means "Goal keeper". "No goal" means to play football without goal keepers.

    • Turkish

  • Flört (flirt) – dating
  • Fragman (fragment) – trailer
  • Klasik Müzik (classic music) – classical music
  • Klozet (closet) – public toilet or flush toilet
  • Spiker (speaker) – media commentators, and news presenters
  • Stoper (stopper) – in association football: Centre-back
  • Trafik (traffic) – can mean "traffic jam" based on the context
  • Tramvay (tramway) – tram
  • Web (web) – Internet (also used as "İnternet")
  • Web Sayfası (web page) – Website

    • Vietnamese

  • Coca (cô ca) – Coca-Cola
  • MC (em xi) – TV host, talk show host, television presenter; originating from hip-hop slang
  • Film (phim) – both movies and soap opera
  • Photo (phô tô) – photocopy
  • Sex (sét) – wearing revealing clothes that make the wearer appear lustful
  • Style (xì tin) – appearing teenage, active, playful and modern
  • Vest (vét) – Western suit in clothing

    • Yiddish

  • cherry lights (טשערי לייץ) – red headlights
  • payday (פּיידיי) – salary/payment

    • References

    Pseudo-anglicism Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


    Similar Topics