2023-10-09 09:59 pm
Entry tags:

clean out

more inter-lingual polysemes:

to clean out (English), נָקִי (Hebrew), обчистить (Russian)
these derivatives of the root normally meaning to clean have an informal/vernacular connotation of depriving someone of all their possessions.

PS. TBH, I suspect that the Hebrew reference might not be relevant today...

2023-06-29 05:00 pm
Entry tags:

Dress

more inter-lingual polysemes:

dress (English), שמלה (Hebrew), платье (Russian):
female garment of a specific style and generic garment requiring a modifier (e.g., ceremonial dress or work dress do not have to be female)

2022-09-04 03:06 pm
Entry tags:

Work vs Slave

In quite a few languages these words are related:

LanguageWorkSlave
Greekδουλειάδούλος
Hebrewעֲבוֹדָהעֶבֶד
Russianработараб

In many European languages slave comes from Slav (via Latin).

Славяне были вольнолюбивым народом. Их часто угоняли в рабство, но и там они не работали…

2022-06-09 12:07 pm
Entry tags:

Language understanding is non-transitive

I once had to talk with an Austrian co-worker, and it turned out that we cannot understand each other's English. We ended up speaking through an interpreter (our common boss, who spoke English natively).

An even more hilarious episode: a Québécois and a Parisienne could not understand each other's French, but a Russian bystander who studied French in high school understood both of them.

2021-12-08 02:23 pm
Entry tags:

Words for "Knowledge"

Both English and Russian have just one word for Knowledge: to know/знать. All other terms, like familiarity/знакомство, convey connotations that can also be expressed by the main word, possibly with an adverb.

However, in French and Hebrew, there are two words for knowledge, and the difference between them appears to be identical:

savoir/לָדַעַת
to know something one has learned, and never a human being (outside of the biblical context)
connaître/להכיר
to know about something or someone by having met them

What about other languages?

PS. Apparently, Spanish is like French...