Re: Borrowings

Quoth Nik Taylor:
> Carlos Thompson wrote:
> > This lets me thing that when borrowing (from nat to nat, nat to con or
> > con to con) usually the meaning is not the same but either a narrowing
> > of the meaning (filling some gap) or even displacing the meaning.
>
> Quite true, borrowing is rarely, if ever, retaining the exact same
> meaning as the original.
Sometimes dramatically so.  I was recently talking to a Greek, and she
was saying that the Greek for airport landing gear was /Sa'si/ or
something similar.  I speculated that it was cognate with English
"chassis" /'tS&.si/, which meant the undercarriage of a car, like the
wheels and axle and such.  At which point a French friend said that was
_really_ weird, because the French "chassis" /Sa'si/ meant the *shell*
of the car.  Almost exactly opposite.  (Someone on this list might know
more than I---please clarify or explain if you can!)

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