In Hungarian, there’s a whole genre of silly jokes that have to do with an agresszív kismalac, or “aggressive piglet.” Each joke ends with an absurd punchline shouted obnoxiously. There are collections of these jokes online, as...
Have you ever googled your own name and found someone else who has the very same moniker? There’s a word for that: Googleganger, a play on the word doppelganger, from German words that literally mean “double goer.” This is part of...
You might assume that the Welsh word plant means the same thing it does in English, but this word is a linguistic false friend. The Welsh word plentyn means “child,” and the word plant means “children.” Some false friends are...
Tara in Westby, Wisconsin, says her family asks for just a shlook of milk, meaning only a sip or tiny bit more. The word comes from German Schluck, “a swallow,” related to schlucken, “to swallow.” That tracks with her grandmother’s German background...
John in Brattleboro, Vermont, is pondering words and phrases that change their meaning when they move from one language to another. For example, in Germany the English phrase public viewing doesn’t have to do with a wake, but a live sporting...
Judy from Binghamton, New York, remembers her aunt in Redding, Pennsylvania, using the term ferhunsed to mean “confused.” Sometimes spelled fahunst or ferhoonsed, it means “teased” or “mixed up,” and derives from...