When the wordbaeseemingly make out out of nowherein the summer of 2014 to become every millennial ’s go - to term of endearment , the cyberspace was ready toseize upon the fact that , coincidentally , bae mean “ poop ” in Danish .
Bae , it soon release out , was n’t so much a full term of endearment as an instance of what linguists bring up to as a “ false friend”—a word that looks ( but does n’t necessarily profound ) similar in two unlike languages , but differ completely in its significance . Chances are if you ’ve ever ascertain a language you ’ll have bumble across a few false friends yourself , because there are a lot more besides bae to contend with …
1.Tunais the Spanish name for the bristled pear cactus .
2.Fartmeans speed or rapid motion in several Norse voice communication — which makes the Norse Scripture for a sea hybridisation anoverfart , and the Swedish word for a speed bump afarthinder .
3.Airis the Malay Good Book for water .
4.Kissmeans urine in Swedish …
5 . … while the Manx word for piss ismoon .
6.Farmermeans James Leonard Farmer in Hungarian — but it ’s also a Magyar word forum pair of jean , which are known in full asfarmernadrág , or farmer trousers .
7.Anginais theGerman namefor tonsillitis .
8.Derived from the same root asfatuous , fatmeans conceited or boastful in French .
9.Badmeans bath in Norwegian .
10.Catis the Malay word for rouge .
11.Homemeans mildew or mildew in Finnish .
12.Roofmeans robbery or banditry in Dutch . Aroofdier — literally , an creature robber — is a predatory animal .
13.A bike is arowerin Polish .
14.Popmeans octopus in Catalan .
15.As a noun , giftmeans poisonous substance in Danish . As an adjective , it means married .
16.Bangmeans fright in German , is an Irish word for asingle swimming solidus , and is the Javanese parole for anything red - coloured . Whereas …
- … redmeansnetworkin Spanish .
18.Peais the Estonian word for head — whileheadmeans skilful .
19.Zeemeans ocean in Dutch ( which is where the “ zea ” in New Zealand come from ) .
20.Madmeans lucky in Welsh .
22.A shopping cart is called achariotin French .
22.Bumis the Albanian combining weight of boom .
23.The Romanian name for the poplar tree isplop .
24.Amomis a mask in Dutch .
25.Dressis the Norwegian word for aman ’s suitor tuxedo .
26.Apigis abird ’s beakor a similar pointedness or spike in Welsh .
27.Buttmeans blunt in Norwegian .
28.Assis the Latvian word for an axle .
29.Thumbis theAlbanian wordfor a pricker or sticker , a minuscule nail or tack , the clapper inside a toll , or the point of an arrow .
20.Derived from exchangeable radical to our wordbrave , BRAmeans good or well in Swedish and Norwegian .
31.Fastmeansalmostin German .
32.Oneis the Hawaiian word for George Sand .
33.Sexis the Icelandic word for six …
34 . … and the Hungarian Bible for six ishat .
35.Oncemeans 11 in Spanish .
36.Cutemeansskinin Italian — but is also theRomanianword for a whetstone .
37.Nomeans surely in Czech ( and is a shortened form ofano , the Czech Christian Bible foryes ) .
38.TheFijian wordfor no issega .
