I love cognates in general and some cognates in particular. Like elucubrations. In English it has a very narrow definition. And is "obsolete" Antiloquesea (Spanish). Sounds nice, Isn't nice. παραλία playa p ...aa...aa That's where the life is.
In Dutch: kamperfoelie (honeysuckle) flierefluiter (a careless person) boompje (a little tree) In Swedish: fjord två (two) lögn (lie) namn (name) In English: huge human bath (British pronunciation) In Bulgarian: флюс In Icelandic: fljótt (quickly) I really like certain consonant combinations, in particular /mp/, /mn/, /ŋn/, /fl/, /fj/, /flj/ and /çj/ I also really like the voiceless th and the a-sound in father.
I like the way you can "juggle" words in English, creating meaningful sentences. I can't do this in my native language because it is highly inflected. But English is not, that's why it produces such neat phrases as this: "If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail."
A bit late, I didn't get notice, but thank you for that. I'll use it in a thread elsewhere about elucuthings...
In Italian: dimenticare (forget). Love the combination of sounds and the cadence, the rhythm. Luckily, it's something I've learnt to do over the years. Memory is good, but not too much of it.
Very musical Non moi 'je ne regrette rien, rien de rien', mais j'oublie tout.... Dementicare makes me think of dementeren in Dutch = suffer (from) dementia in English. The Italian word demente seems to be a true cognate Dement (Dutch) dément (French) demente Spanish Demented English demente Portugees ----- La Catalina for 'the moon' in Spanish. A friend uses that word, I don't know where it comes from....
Very interesting thread! I would say my favourite words are encore ("Keep going..."), oublieux ("oblivious"), chérir ("cherish"), fantaisie ("fantasy") and météore ("meteor").
I’m a big fan of heteronyms, basically words which are written the same but have different meanings with different pronunciations (that is perhaps not a watertight definition, but that’s the way I like to think of them, the ones that I like anyway). There’s a list of them in that Wikipedia article, but I had a nice time with a colleague coming up with them without such assistance. The one that always comes to mind is ‘entrance’/‘entrance’, also because the second is just a lovely word.
I see now that this is not only about words that sound nice, but also about words that have fun or beautiful meanings. I find "Put a sock in it!" a fun expression in English. It gives me the image of a Brit actually putting a sock in his mouth In Dutch I like "Wie de bal kaatst, kan hem terug verwachten!" = Those who bounce the ball can expect it to come back Meaning: You reap what you sow
In het hol van Pluto (Dutch) Used for: (living or being in) an isolated location. Hol=cave In the cave of Pluto (=Cerberus, the Guardian of the Greek underworld at the southernmost tip of the European continent in Mani, Peloponnese) But it sounds even nicer when you know that 'hol' also means 'ass'…
----- 'I have to believe that' is from Emmilou Harris... I also have to believe that... ----- Pame Gi Allou George Dalaras I've been going to the beach for the last 22 years, daily....
Red Arrow, I think you would like more the word "on women" in Hungarian. Do you know how you say "on women" in Hungarian?
I can't speak Hungarian, sorry, but it's nőken, isn't it? That reminds me of the Dutch expression "klaar is kees". Klaar is Dutch for ready, kész/kees is Hungarian for ready. Klaar is kees.
One such nice example in Italian would be the pair àncora (anchor) - ancóra (again, still); we could even create a small sentence using both terms: ancóra all'àncora (still riding at anchor).
I've fallen in love with this phrase that our friend Elcanario has chosen for his signature: Belief is a weak force, when it comes to moving mountains, gravity wins every time. By the great Terry Pratchett
Ahhh dear Amapolas, When I remember me reading Terry's books I always picture myself with an ear-to-ear grin and you know, the filthy lucre can't pay that bill. This thought makes me recall another memorable adage, poderoso caballero es Don Dinero, its author and the work that left me astonished, Gracias y desgracias del ojo del culo, dirigidas a Doña Juana Mucha, Montón de Carne, Mujer gorda por arrobas. Escribiolos Juan Lamas el del camisón cagado. I know, I know, strange train of thought. Sometimes I can't help it. Un saludo y felices fiestas.
I was just looking at the word ‘compliant’: I know that it’s really formed from the verb ‘comply’, but at a glance you might break it down as com- + ‘pliant’, which is semantically quite different, but ends up not being entirely unrelated all the same. That’s nice.
