# False friends: familiar names which mean something very different elsewhere **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 24, 2018, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121 "2018-03-24T18:07:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/201 "2018-03-27T20:13:49Z")
> [@Reeses\_Monkey](#): > > In my neck of the woods, “pigs in a blanket” are cabbage leaves stuffed with meat and covered in tomato sauce. (If the meat has rice in it, my mother called them hedgehogs.) Imagine my surprise when I went to a potluck in Texas and somebody brought cocktail weenies wrapped in biscuts as “pigs in a blanket.” Not bad, but not what I was expecting at all. > > I’m from Western PA. I grew up in a mill town full of Eastern Europeans. Halupki is the proper name for the dish I grew up with. I always knew “pigs in a blanket” as the sausage wrapped in dough. The other dish was “stuffed cabbage” if it was in tomato sauce, and “beef birds” if it was cooked in brown gravy. Not quite on topic, but one of my uncles used to make what he called “beer-ox”. This always puzzled me as, while there was beef (“ox”), there was no beer in the recipe, just beef and cabbage and such in a dough wrapper. Then I took Russian in college and learned the word _pierog_ (pie). Dawn breaks over Marblehead. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/202 "2018-03-27T20:25:16Z")
> [@BobBitchin](#): > > I played a few gigs with an English guy. > > First gig he asked me if I had an extra lead. > Huh? > Did you bring extra leads? > Um… > Turns out cables/wires are leads.:smack: Interesting, as I call small wires for measuring voltage “test leads”, but I wouldn’t have thought to apply that word to all cables, or guitar cables specifically. > [@furryman](#): > > Are you sure you didn’t order a peperoncino pizza. A peperoncino is a type of banana pepper. > [Peperoncino - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peperoncino) That’s another false friend then, because I would call that a cayenne pepper and call [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friggitello) a peperoncini. > [@Kimballkid](#): > > I think you are slightly confused. Bib overalls and overalls are the same [thing](https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/overalls-for-men). > > Where [coveralls](http://www.walls.com/workwear/coveralls/) are what a grease-monkey mechanic would wear. I would say “overalls” is a general term that could include both. In fact, if I recall correctly, it originally just referred to high waisted pants. But with no other context to go on, if someone says “overalls”, I think of the bib kind. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/203 "2018-03-27T20:28:13Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Not only that, but US pancakes are fairly different from many other parts of the world. Thick fluffy things here but essentially crepes elsewhere. Or so foreigners on message boards have claimed in the past. I knew flapjacks as slightly different from pancakes. Flapjacks were thin like a crepe, and pancakes were the thicker, fluffier item. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/204 "2018-03-27T20:44:43Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > We used “rubbers” in Canada too, at least when I was a child. Never thought of them as erasers; they were simply rubbers. And the teacher didn’t find anything wrong in telling me (for example), “You made a mistake here, rub it out. Oh, you don’t have a rubber? See if you can borrow Johnny’s.” From what I recall, that is the original usage. Rubber - the compound - was named that because it was discovered to rub out pencil marks. Then the term spread to shoe protectors and pregnancy protectors due to their being made of it. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/205 "2018-03-27T20:53:25Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I’m from New York and I don’t know if I’ve ever heard “moolie” before. If I had to guess, I would think it was some kind of 1930s era gangster slang. An Italian-American friend of mine from Ohio made a short movie about Mafiosi having a run-in with black gangbangers, and he used the word “moolie” in his script, I had never heard the word before. ---
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/206 "2018-03-27T20:57:13Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > An Italian-American friend of mine from Ohio made a short movie about Mafiosi having a run-in with black gangbangers, and he used the word “moolie” in his script, I had never heard the word before. Gangbangers is another one, actually. In the UK, a “gangbang” is a orgy of the one female, multiple male kind, and the association of gangbanging to mean being a member of a gang just isn’t there, so I always have a giggle when one of the American crime dramas my wife watches mentions them. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/207 "2018-03-27T21:04:09Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Crib is also a US slang term for the house you live in. Somewhat less common is as a term for a hooker’s “office” :rolleyes: ---
**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:** [March 27, 2018, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/208 "2018-03-27T21:21:39Z")
> [@Teuton](#): > > In the UK, a “gangbang” is a orgy of the one female, multiple male kind It has that meaning as one of its meanings in the US, as well. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/209 "2018-03-27T21:28:17Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > In Mexico, a quesadilla is a tortilla that’s filled with cheese and sometimes meat and then folded in half and grilled. This is also what a quesadilla generally means in the United States. > > But a few years back, I found out that a quesadilla is something entirely different in Central America. It’s a cake flavored with cheese. In Panama, a [tortilla](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9f/c3/11/9fc311dc894e22c6e59199e1bf572145.jpg) is quite different from those familiar in the US. They are much smaller and thicker and usually deep fried. And then in Spain, a tortilla is a [kind of omelet made from onions and potatoes.](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9f/c3/11/9fc311dc894e22c6e59199e1bf572145.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/210 "2018-03-27T21:36:23Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > In Mexico, a quesadilla is a tortilla that’s filled with cheese and sometimes meat and then folded in half and grilled. This is also what a quesadilla generally means in the United States. > > But a few years back, I found out that a quesadilla is something entirely different in Central America. It’s a cake flavored with cheese. > > [Mexican quesadilla.](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mdZoe3i0oTI/TMCHDY2TmWI/AAAAAAAAAAw/yXSIWTFnT84/s400/FINAL_Recipe_Assigme_Cordes_1067587-1029310-1039999.jpg) [Salvadoran quesadilla.](http://www.sercano.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Quesadilla-de-arroz.jpg) The Salvadorean “cognate” to a Mexican quesadilla would probably be a [pupusa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupusa). Made somewhat differently, but similar in character as a finished product. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/211 "2018-03-27T21:37:41Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I’m from New York and I don’t know if I’ve ever heard “moolie” before. If I had to guess, I would think it was some kind of 1930s era gangster slang. As has been said, derived from the Italian dialect moulinyan/moulignon, which is from melanzane,“eggplant.” A highly derogatory word for black people, referring to the dark color of eggplants. It was used a few times in the Sopranos and turns up in other movies. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/212 "2018-03-27T22:42:30Z")
> [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](#): > > Biballs? Never heard that before! It sounds a bit…well…silly, really. It was used in a work by Stephen King, which is where I read it. And overalls, in my experience, do not necessarily have a bib. They can be synonymous with coveralls. Never have I heard “gangbangers” used in anything other than a sexual context. The term “gangbusters” comes from a popular radio show that started during the Depression era. It told stories about crime-fighting G-men (“G” for government) in the mold of Eliot Ness. The violent opening (gunfire, squealing tires, sirens) led to the expression “Coming on like Gang Busters” (i.e., being heavy-handed about something). > **[Gang Busters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_Busters)** > > Gang Busters is an American dramatic radio program heralded as "the only national program that brings you authentic police case histories." It premiered on January 15, 1936, and was broadcast over 21 years through November 27, 1957. > So-called "true crime" magazines were highly popular in the 1930s and the movie G Men starring James Cagney, released in the spring of 1935, had proven to be a big hit. Producer-director Phillips H. Lord thought there was a place on radio for a show of the same type... “Yom,” BTW, is another slur equivalent to “moolie.” ---
**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:** [March 27, 2018, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/213 "2018-03-27T22:57:21Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Never have I heard “gangbangers” used in anything other than a sexual context. I wonder if it may be somewhat regional. I grew up first knowing the “member of a gang” meaning here in Chicago and only much later the sexual meaning (this would have been the '80s). It’s still the usual term used here, when you’re not being formal and using a phrase like “gang member.” (Though looking around on Google, it seems to be fairly common and general US English, from what I can tell.)0 Speaking of, the Chicago term “gangway” is pretty local. That’s what we call the narrow passageway in between two buildings in the city. I believe elsewhere they’d call that an “alley,” but an “alley” for us is specifically the roadway in between two city blocks where you can access the garage and where you put out your garbage for the trucks to pick up once a week. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/214 "2018-03-27T23:13:49Z")
To me, a “gangway” is the narrow walk you use to get on and off a boat or a ship. It’s also what you yell when you want people to get out of your way in a hurry: “Gangway!”\* \*Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/215 "2018-03-27T23:15:46Z")
Origin of “gangway”: > **[gang - Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gang)** ---
**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:** [March 28, 2018, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/216 "2018-03-28T00:09:13Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > To me, a “gangway” is the narrow walk you use to get on and off a boat or a ship. It’s also what you yell when you want people to get out of your way in a hurry: “Gangway!”\* Those meanings are known here, as well, but “gangway” is used commonly, while the other two definitions are fairly niche usages. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/217 "2018-03-28T01:16:41Z")
Another one: Solicitor, US: a person selling something on the street, especially sex. Solicitor, UK: A type of lawyer who deals with contracts, commercial law, preparing cases for court, etc, but does not represent defendants or act as a prosecutor. Really quite different occupations! The verb, soliciting, is used in pretty much the same way in both countries, but often in the UK it means selling stuff door to door, so you occasionally see signs in people’s windows saying “no soliciting.” An American friend many years ago saw one and assumed it meant we were in a really rough red light district 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/218 "2018-03-28T01:30:42Z")
In my part of the US, “no soliciting” signs are also common, and mean the same thing as in the UK. ---
**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:** [March 28, 2018, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/219 "2018-03-28T01:53:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > In my part of the US, “no soliciting” signs are also common, and mean the same thing as in the UK. Same here. It’s the standard sign, AFAIK, to discourage door-to-door folks from bothering you. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/220 "2018-03-28T04:55:08Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Another one: > > Solicitor, US: a person selling something on the street, especially sex. > Solicitor, UK: A type of lawyer who deals with contracts, commercial law, preparing cases for court, etc, but does not represent defendants or act as a prosecutor. > > Really quite different occupations! I’m a lawyer in Canada, and though I am technically a “Barrister and Solicitor” (as are pretty much all Canadian lawyers), I always have to be careful when I’m in the USA. If the guy on the next barstool asks “what do you do?” and I answer “I’m a barrister and solicitor,” he won’t understand. So I just say “I’m a lawyer,” and he gets it. I’ve drafted contracts and represented clients in court, so I guess that I am truly a barrister and solicitor. But in the US, I find that it’s best to just call myself a lawyer. Not a bad thing, really–Abraham Lincoln was one too. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121.md?page=12)