# Foreign words that may cause confusion **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 16, 2014, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-may-cause-confusion/679012 "2014-01-16T23:44:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-may-cause-confusion/679012/21 "2014-01-17T15:32:34Z")
First one that springs to mind is “douche”, which in France just means “shower”. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-may-cause-confusion/679012/22 "2014-01-17T15:42:54Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Never say _Bleah!_ to a Russian to express distaste of something, the way Charlie Brown and Snoopy do. _Blya_ in Russian is like saying “Fuck!” It can be inserted anywhere in a sentence: "So the cops _blya_ stopped my car _blya_ and fined me _blya_ 300 bucks _blya_, all of which _blya_ went straight into their pockets _blya!"_ Thus making bad Dracula movies (and _Hotel Transylvania_) hilarious in Russian. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-may-cause-confusion/679012/23 "2014-01-17T17:18:55Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Very Victorian. Back in the day, “legs” were considered so improper that people put long tablecloths on their tables _and their pianos_ to hide their legs. This is a myth. [From wiki:](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_morality) Victorian prudery sometimes went so far as to deem it improper to say “leg” in formal company; instead, the preferred euphemism “limb” was used. Such ideas even pervaded seemingly unrelated aspects of daily life: there is a myth, started by Frances Trollope’s Domestic Manners of the Americans, and later applied to the British, that furniture such as tables were covered with embroidery and tablecloths so that table legs were hidden from view, but no historical evidence suggest that this was actually practiced. ---
**Author:** ![James\_Toothpaste](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e56c9b/32.png) [@James\_Toothpaste](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/James_Toothpaste)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-may-cause-confusion/679012/24 "2014-01-17T22:59:11Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > In Russian, it’s _negr_, and it simply means a black man. That doesn’t sound good to me… ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-may-cause-confusion/679012/25 "2014-01-17T23:47:54Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Nope, _intoxicado_ means poisoned, so the same thing as in English. [RAE link](http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=intoxicado). > > translation: > intoxicate (verb) > 1 to affect with something toxic; poison > 2 to affect somebody’s mind in a morally damaging way > 3 to provide manipulated opinion in order to create opinions which favor one’s goals > > _intoxicado_ is simply the participle, it doesn’t get its own entry Huh. I have learned something new. I only ever thought of intoxicate as to get drunk or high, or loopily happy. None of which are the above. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-may-cause-confusion/679012/26 "2014-01-17T23:49:07Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > First one that springs to mind is “douche”, which in France just means “shower”. Or librarie, which \<\> library. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-may-cause-confusion/679012.md?page=1)