Editing False friend (section)

=== Shared etymology ===

[[File:Cerstve pecivo-slovakian.jpg|thumb|An example of a West Slavic shared etymology; in Czech and Slovak, {{Lang|cs|čerstvé pečivo}} means 'fresh baked goods', whereas in Polish, {{Lang|pl|czerstwe pieczywo}} means 'stale bread', while in Ukrainian, {{Lang|uk|черстве печиво}} ({{Transliteration|uk|čerstve pečyvo}}) means 'hardened cookie (bakery)', while in Russian, {{Transliteration|ru|chyorstvy}} means "stale" again]]

If language A borrowed a word from language B, or both borrowed the word from a third language or inherited it from a common ancestor, and later the word shifted in meaning or acquired additional meanings in at least one of these languages, a [[First language|native speaker]] of one language will face a false friend when learning the other. Sometimes, presumably both senses were present in the common ancestor language, but the cognate words took on different restricted senses in Language A and Language B.<ref name=trussel />

====In loanwords====
''Actual'', which in English is usually a synonym of ''real'', has a different meaning in other European languages, in which it means 'current' or 'up-to-date', and has the logical derivative as a [[verb]], meaning 'to make current' or 'to update'. ''Actualise'' (or ''actualize'') in English means 'to make a reality of'.<ref>{{citation |title=Euro-English: assessing variety status
|last=Mollin |first=Sandra |year=2006 |publisher=Gunter Narr Verlag |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qPhULmMmqJMC&q=using+actual+to+mean+current&pg=PA107|isbn=9783823362500 }}</ref>

The Italian word {{Lang|it|confetti}} ('sugared almonds') has acquired a new meaning in English, French and Dutch; in Italian, the corresponding word is {{Lang|it|coriandoli}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/confetto |title=''Confetto in Enciclopedia Treccani'' |publisher=Treccani.it |access-date=2014-06-23}}</ref>

English and Spanish, both of which have borrowed from Ancient Greek and Latin, have multiple false friends, such as:
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!English
!Spanish translation
!Spanish
!English translation
|-
|actually
|{{Lang|es|en realidad}}
|{{Lang|es|actualmente}}
|currently
|-
|advertisement
|{{Lang|es|publicidad}}
|{{Lang|es|advertencia}}
|warning
|-
|bizarre
|{{Lang|es|extraño}}
|{{Lang|es|bizarro}}
|brave
|}
English and [[Japanese language|Japanese]] also have diverse false friends, many of them being {{Transliteration|ja|hepburn|[[wasei-eigo]]}} and {{Transliteration|ja|hepburn|[[gairaigo]]}} words.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Johnson|first=Chalmers|date=1980|title=Omote (Explicit) and Ura (Implicit): Translating Japanese Political Terms|journal=Journal of Japanese Studies|volume=6|issue=1|pages=89–115|doi=10.2307/132001|jstor=132001}}</ref>

====In native words====
The word ''friend'' itself has cognates in the other Germanic languages, but the Scandinavian ones (like [[Swedish language|Swedish]] {{Lang|sv|frände}}, [[Danish language|Danish]] {{Lang|da|frænde}}) predominantly mean 'relative'. The original [[Proto-Germanic]] word meant simply 'someone whom one cares for' and could therefore refer to both a friend and a relative, but it lost various degrees of the 'friend' sense in the Scandinavian languages, while it mostly lost the sense of 'relative' in English (the plural ''friends'' is still, rarely, used for "kinsfolk", as in the Scottish proverb ''Friends agree best at a distance'', quoted in 1721).

The [[Estonian language|Estonian]] and [[Finnish language]]s are related, which gives rise to false friends such as swapped forms for south and south-west:<ref name="Knospe-2016"/>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Estonian !! Finnish !! English
|-
| {{Lang|et|[[wikt:lõuna|lõuna]]}}|| {{Lang|fi|[[wikt:etelä|etelä]]}}|| south
|-
| {{Lang|et|[[wikt:edel|edel]]}}|| {{Lang|fi|[[wikt:lounas|lounas]]}}|| south-west
|}

Or Estonian {{Lang|et|vaim}} ('spirit' or 'ghost') and Finnish {{Lang|fi|vaimo}} ('wife');<ref name=Korpela-2014 /> or Estonian {{Lang|et|koristaja}} ('a cleaner') and Finnish {{Lang|fi|koristaja}} ('a decorator').

A high level of lexical similarity exists between German and [[Dutch language|Dutch]],<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://languagetsar.com/how-similar-or-different-are-german-and-dutch/ |title=German and Dutch: similar or different? |date=2016-11-17 |work=Language Tsar |access-date=2018-02-15 |language=en-US}}</ref> but shifts in meaning of words with a shared etymology have in some instances resulted in 'bi-directional false friends':<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.uitmuntend.de/extras/valse_vrienden.html |title=''valse vrienden – Falsche Freunde'' |website=uitmuntend.de |language=nl,de |access-date=2018-02-15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nubeterduits.nl/website/index.php?pag=132 |title=''dürfen / müssen / sollen / mögen'' |website=nubeterduits.nl |language=nl |access-date=2018-02-15}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!German
!Dutch
!English
|-
|{{Lang|de|der See}}
|''meer''
|mere 'lake'
|-
|{{Lang|de|Meer}}
|{{Lang|nl|zee}}
|sea
|}
Note that ''die See'' means 'sea', and thus is not a false friend.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!German
!Dutch
!English
|-
|{{Lang|de|mögen}}
|{{Lang|nl|houden van}}
|like, love
|-
|{{Lang|de|dürfen}}
|{{Lang|nl|mogen}}
|be allowed to
|-
|{{Lang|de|wagen}}
|{{Lang|nl|durven}}
|dare
|}

The meanings could diverge significantly. For example, the [[Proto-Malayo-Polynesian language|Proto-Malayo-Polynesian]] word {{Lang|poz|*qayam}} ('domesticated animal') became specialized in descendant languages: [[Malay language|Malay]]/[[Indonesian language|Indonesian]] {{Lang|ms|ayam}} ('chicken'), [[Cebuano language|Cebuano]] {{Lang|ceb|ayam}} ('dog'), and [[Gaddang language|Gaddang]] {{Lang|gad|ayam}} ('pig').<ref name=trussel>[https://www.trussel2.com/ACD/acd-s_q.htm#27688 Austronesian Comparative Dictionary]</ref>