Re: CHAT: False friends - echos from the mother tounge

michael poxon scripsit:

> I think it was George Orwell in 'Homage to Catalonia' (but I could be way
> off beam here!) who cited the example of a guy trying to get into France,
> who invariably gave his name to the authorities as m.Merdes of Spanish
> descent, and was always at pains to stress the fact that the name was
> Spanish rather than French. But isn't the Spanish equivalent of 'merde'
> similar to the French one? Forgive me, the only Spanish I know is through
> translated bits from Basque!
Not in any of these, from http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty.html :

    * Nineteen eighty-four (1949)
    * Animal Farm (1945)
    * Coming up for Air (1939)
    * Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936)
    * A Clergyman's Daughter (1935)
    * Burmese Days (1934)
    * Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
    * Shooting an Elephant (1936)
    * Politics and the English Language (1946)
    * The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)
    * Homage to Catalonia (1938)
    * Fifty Orwell Essays

But the cognate of Fr. merde is mierda in Spanish, so the story could be true.

--
"We are lost, lost.  No name, no business, no Precious, nothing.  Only empty.
Only hungry: yes, we are hungry.  A few little fishes, nassty bony little
fishes, for a poor creature, and they say death.  So wise they are; so just,
so very just."  --Gollum        jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan