Culture · 6 pages · 12 min
How cognates can be false friends
Words from one source can drift until a similar shape no longer means a similar thing.
When the purchase is complete, return to the original window. It will refresh.
From the opening
Cognates are words that descend from the same earlier word. They become false friends when the meanings move so far apart that a similar shape suggests a shared sense the two languages no longer have. The opening covers same origin, different current sense, english actual is not Spanish actual, and gift and Gift went separate ways.
The rest of the brief — the later sections and the reading notes — opens after Stripe confirms payment.
Inside
- Same origin, different current sense
- English actual is not Spanish actual
- Gift and Gift went separate ways
- Similar shape need not mean cousins
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Semantic change between historically related words
- False friends such as English actual and Spanish actual