157

What's a word you've spent a long time not using right? (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago by shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

256 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Just recently I was in a conversation with a number of UK mainlanders and we had a debate over what "tories" meant, apparently disproportionately ordinarily it refers to a political party and it's not usual to use it as short for "territories" as I've used it (according to how the debate ended, it was half and half between them). And once again I'm reminded of how people feel to look back at their usage of a word/phrase over the years and cringe.

More tragically, me and a friend were embarrassed once upon realizing everyone was confusing "encephalitis" with "hydrocephalus" when talking to someone about their kid with hydrocephalus. Awkward because encephalitis is caused by HIV.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Saigonauticon@voltage.vn 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I lived for the better part of a decade in Vietnam thinking "đại lý" was a loan word from English meaning "daily".

It actually indicates an agent (like a reseller) -- e.g. a lottery ticket seller, news stand, and so on. "Daily" just worked in all those contexts by coincidence.

I also mix up "in stock" (in a warehouse) and "available". So an analogy is I often ask people if they have "a clock in their warehouse" instead of if they "have the time".

Also probably two dozen equally weird things I'm not even aware of. People are pretty chill about it, mostly because the number of people without Vietnamese heritage that speak the language in any capacity, rounds down to zero.

[-] tetris11@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago

In Germany, it's really popular to call each other "Digga" as a way of saying "Dude" or "Man". Its origins come from the word "Dicka" (read: hey fatty, hey thicko), but the Hamburg dialect changed the k to a g.

I, uh, thought it came from a different route via the US. I was wrong...

[-] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I made a... similar mistake due to Sonic Allstars.

[-] RBWells@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Similarly, I saw "fija" in the Spanish description on so many bottles of hairspray that I thought it meant "spray" in English. No. It's "hold" in that context.

this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023

157 points (93.9% liked)

Asklemmy

44149 readers

1589 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS