Re: Very difficult Chinese words: can someone translate these words for me???

Am Sun, 19 Nov 2006 10:13:28 +0800 schrieb LEE Sau Dan:

"Peter" == Peter T Daniels <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

>> > Is Cantonese fiN22 derived form English "fling"?
>>
>> I doubt it. MacIver's Hakka dictionary lists fin4 in
>>
>> fin4 loi2 fin4 hi4 to swing too and fro.
>>
>> Faux amis?

Peter> That usually refers to cognates that have semantically
Peter> drifted apart. This falls under the term "coincidence."

Well? Are German "Gift" and English "gift" faux amis?

They are cognates, so they are faux amis by Peter's definition.

Middle-High-German "gift" still has the same meaning as the English
word. The meaning changed to "poison" under the influence of the greek
word "dosis" (literally "gift"), which even today denotes a quantity
of medicine to be taken.
The old meaning is still conserved in "Mitgift" 'marriage-portion'.

Joachim

Joachim
.

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