# Does the word "bad" mean "good" in some language? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-bad-mean-good-in-some-language/349426 "2006-03-22T13:50:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-bad-mean-good-in-some-language/349426/21 "2006-03-23T05:31:49Z")
Spanish “yo” means “I” and sounds similar-ish to English “you” - that’s all I got. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-bad-mean-good-in-some-language/349426/22 "2006-03-23T05:42:27Z")
Hmmm… the Klingon verb prefix that’s used when there’s a plural subject and singular object is “wI”, which is kinda like English “we”… dammit, there’s no more straws. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-bad-mean-good-in-some-language/349426/23 "2006-03-23T06:31:53Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > The Hebrew word for _she_ is _he_. And the Hebrew word for _he_ is _hu_ (ie, “who”). And the word for _who_ is _mi_ (ie, “me”). > > These coincidences are more funny than they are confusing, honestly. It’s all captured in a bi-lingual nursery rhyme: “me” is who? “who” is he “he” is she … and “dog” is a fish! (although the last one does not work as well for the current [non-ashkenazi] Hebrew pronounciation rules – I’d say it more like “dug.” Oh well) ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-bad-mean-good-in-some-language/349426/24 "2006-03-23T07:02:01Z")
Reminds me a little of the D’Antin (sp?) Manuscript - it has English nursery rhymes “translated” into pseudo-French - a mixture of French words and made up words that approximate the sounds of the English. One of them goes like this - see if you can figure it out. Read it as French but hear it as English: Un petit d’un petit, s’etonne aux Halles Un petit d’un petit, A degres te falle. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-bad-mean-good-in-some-language/349426/25 "2006-03-23T07:56:18Z")
I get it. 😉 You know, I went to the banks of the Potomac just above Washington, DC, and I saw the Great Falls. > [@yBeayf](#): > > I agree, it looks like grasping at straws. I was just questioning your implication that English had borrowed the word from Persian. Borrowing from Persian was something I had once considered, but dropped. I’m now certain they’re cognates. I should have phrased it differently. I suppose we could say the Persians had the word first, but only because Persian has a longer history than English. But both can trace it back to the same origin at the same time depth, so it isn’t entirely accurate to say Persian has had it longer. Contemporary Persian is as drastically changed from the Old Persian of the Achaemanids as modern English is changed from Proto-Germanic, 500 BCE. Speaking of Germanic: what’s the etymology of a German word for bad, _bös_? It doesn’t look like it could be a cognate of the English word, but I just wondered. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-bad-mean-good-in-some-language/349426/26 "2006-03-28T00:01:32Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > In Czech, “no” means “yes.” It’s the short form of “ano.” Which in turn means asshole in Spanish. The physical part, not the personal classification. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-bad-mean-good-in-some-language/349426.md?page=1)