# Any unrelated "words" have meaning in three or more languages? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 16, 2004, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375 "2004-04-16T15:46:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/21 "2004-04-16T19:45:26Z")
> [@AwSnappity](#): > > I believe in German, Mensa means cafeteria. If it does, I would suspicious that it was derived from the Latin, so it wouldn’t count. Same with the Dutch/Swedish example from **Captain Amazing**. Not derived from Latin, but actually the same word root that means something slightly different in two closely related languages. As for “Da” meaning “Father”, I thought that was an Irish coloquialism, not an English one. But I could be wrong on that… ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/22 "2004-04-16T20:05:31Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > If it does, I would suspicious that it was derived from the Latin, so it wouldn’t count. I guess my stipulations are a little unclear … German **mensa** is OK even if it derived from Latin. You still have the Spanish/German doublet. BTW, **mensa** does mean “cafeteria” in German (so says Google). It also seems like **cafeteria** is perfectly good German. ---
**Author:** ![hildea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ebca7d/32.png) [@hildea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hildea)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/23 "2004-04-16T21:05:49Z")
In Norwegian, “do” means “toilet”, and “gift” means both “poison” and “marriage”. ---
**Author:** ![Lobelia\_Overhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@Lobelia\_Overhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobelia_Overhill)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/24 "2004-04-16T21:39:01Z")
Yes\* Da\* is “Irish”, but it is also used in Britain as well, it all depends on where in the UK you are (not everyone in Britain talks like the Queen) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/25 "2004-04-16T21:50:25Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > I guess my stipulations are a little unclear … German **mensa** is OK even if it derived from Latin. You still have the Spanish/German doublet. In that case, you could have instances like \*torch \* meaning \*flashlight \* in “English” and _lighted stick_ in “American”. But it’s your thread, so have at it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/26 "2004-04-17T01:34:05Z")
“gay” In English it can mean “happy” or “homosexual”. In German, it can mean “go”(as in, "Go to school). In Chinese, it means “give”. In English, “sure” can be used to confirm something, such as: You: “Is this a good car?” Me: “Sure!” In Chinese, it can mean the same sometimes(“sure” means “to be” and can sometimes be used to confirm something state of being). ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/27 "2004-04-17T03:50:04Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > In that case, you could have instances like \*torch \* meaning \*flashlight \* in “English” and _lighted stick_ in “American”. But it’s your thread, so have at it. 🙂 Both British and American usage are considered the same language, though. Now if “torch” meant "flashlight in Danish or something, then we’d be on to something. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/28 "2004-04-17T03:51:51Z")
**Mahaloth** , you’re thinking of homophones, or sound-alikes. I’m thinking strictly of look-alikes – words with the same orthographic form regardless of pronunciation. That eliminates Chinese words right off the bat. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/29 "2004-04-17T05:38:22Z")
I can’t help here, because I know only English and some Spanish, but… Given a procedure that takes a sequence of letters and interprets it as a word in all roman-alphabet languages, one at a time, then translates it into English, could you write a program that automatically finds these triplets? Would it feel like cheating? For example, the program is searching through a list of Spanish words. It gets to “comprar” then tries to translate it from all languages… COMPRAR Spanish: to buy French: n/a German: n/a Dutch: n/a etc…\* 1 match So it would give up on that and move on to another word, until it found one with 3 matches. When all Spanish words had been tested, it would move on to all the other languages, one at a time, until it had discovered all possible triplets. I don’t think such a program is inconceivable, but is it possible to build one that utilizes Babelfish or some other pre-existing translator? \*AFAIK, comprar doesn’t mean anything in any language besides Spanish. If I’m wrong, pretend I said something else. You get the idea… ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/30 "2004-04-17T07:05:29Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > “gay” > > In English it can mean “happy” or “homosexual”. > > In German, it can mean “go”(as in, "Go to school). > > In Chinese, it means “give”. As has been said, you are thinking of words that sound the same. The German command “go” is written ‘geh,’ from the infinitive ‘gehen.’ e.g. “Geh zur Schule” (go to school), or alternatively formal “Gehen Sie zur Schule.” ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/31 "2004-04-17T18:44:50Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > I’m thinking strictly of look-alikes – words with the same orthographic form regardless of pronunciation. That eliminates Chinese words right off the bat. > [@zut](#): > > _da_ > English: father > Spanish: it gives > Portugese: of > German: there how about hanyu pinyin? :board (a train/cab/etc) ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/32 "2004-04-18T03:35:49Z")
A little off the track, but I just remembered the story of the correspondence between two musicians–I forget who–one of whom wrote a letter with the German epigraph “O singe fort!” (“O sing forth!” quoted from _Das Rheingold_.) The recipient, however, thought it was French, and was startled to receive a letter that began “O mighty ape!” ---
**Author:** ![Nnythm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@Nnythm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nnythm)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/33 "2004-04-18T04:01:59Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > In German, **gift** means “poison.” So beware of Germans bearing gifts. 🙂 Especially gifts like train rides to special camps or free bars of soap for your “shower.” ---
**Author:** ![Gest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Gest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gest)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/34 "2004-04-18T07:26:15Z")
> [@Nnythm](#): > > Especially gifts like train rides to special camps or free bars of soap for your “shower.” Classy. People are slower to remember the free blankets various native peoples have been offered over the years. Much the same result but with a more agonising process. ---
**Author:** ![Roches](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc8723/32.png) [@Roches](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roches)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/35 "2004-04-18T16:11:32Z")
I don’t think biological warfare by smallpox-infected blankets was widespread. There is evidence that a small number of Americans considered the tactic, and probably used it. But it was probably not used against “various native peoples over the years”. The smallpox epidemics that ravaged indigenous populations in North America were probably caused by casual, non-malicious contact rather than deliberate infection. I’m sure there’s a thread on it somewhere. If the one about _do_ is correct with four false cognates, there is a fifth: _do_ means “I give” in Latin. Also, practically any one-syllable word can be expected to work in the Asian languages provided it agrees with their phonotactic constraints. I’m not sure if this is right, but _du_ (which probably sounds like do in English) means ‘city’, ‘dog’, ‘plant’, etc., with various tones. ---
**Author:** ![Asteroide](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Asteroide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asteroide)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/36 "2004-04-18T16:26:03Z")
Here’s a good SDMB oriented selection - **pie** Eng. : bring pie French : magpie Spanish : foot In the languages I’m familiar with it’s pretty easy to come up with short words spanning three languages : some others - **once** Sp. : 11 … Fr. : ounce **fin** Sp. : goal … Fr. : fine / goal etc **pan** Sp. : bread … Fr. : peacock **come** Sp. : eats … It. : like / how **son** It’s pretty tough finding any longer words though, or ones that show up in more languages. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/37 "2004-04-18T16:31:10Z")
> [@zut](#): > > Seems like the answer ought to be some ulta-short word. Taking a guess and using Babelfish, I get: > > _do_ > English: to perform > Portugese: of > Italian: I give > (and BF translates “do” in French as “C”, presumably from the musical scale. Does that count?) Polish (and several other Slavic languages): to/for (preposition) ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/38 "2004-04-18T16:52:09Z")
> [@Asteroide](#): > > Here’s a good SDMB oriented selection - **pie** > **pan** Sp. : bread … Fr. : peacock **Pan** is also good Polish … it’s a masculine form of “you”. ---
**Author:** ![Asteroide](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Asteroide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asteroide)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/39 "2004-04-18T17:06:03Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > **Pan** is also good Polish … it’s a masculine form of “you”. It presumably means “all” in Greek too - that would make 5 languages. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375/40 "2004-04-18T17:13:13Z")
> [@Asteroide](#): > > It presumably means “all” in Greek too - that would make 5 languages. Not a Roman alpabet, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-unrelated-words-have-meaning-in-three-or-more-languages/240375.md?page=3)