False cognates

[Wario Toad 32]

Arabic: Ard
Dutch: Aard
English: Earth

[KaiTheHomoSapien]

Arabic: Ard
Dutch: Aard
English: Earth

I remember seeing that one before. That's a pretty crazy coincidence. I think I just assumed they were related when I first saw it.

[GrandPiano]

元 yuán "yuan (Chinese unit of currency)" - 円 en "yen (Japanese unit of currency)" (formerly pronounced yen)

I thought for the longest time that 円 was the Japanese version of 元. Nope, it's the simplified Japanese version of 圓 (simplified Chinese 圆), also pronounced yuán in Mandarin.

[Lao Kou]

元 yuán "yuan (Chinese unit of currency)" - 円 en "yen (Japanese unit of currency)" (formerly pronounced yen)

I thought for the longest time that 円 was the Japanese version of 元. Nope, it's the simplified Japanese version of 圓 (simplified Chinese 圆), also pronounced yuán in Mandarin.

Character use and simplification strategies may have diverged here, but the words themselves (yuán/yen) are cognates.

The Papa Bear to all of these (also, Korean "won") is 圓, "round". In the Sinosphere, 元 appears in various monetary contexts (including the 1-yuan coin here on the mainland), but on banknotes, 圓 is still used in Taiwan, 圆 on the mainland, and both 圓 and 元 on paper bills in Hong Kong (though I have no idea what's in use there now).

As to why 元 didn't make the cut for currency use in Japan, I can only guess that its onyomi readings "gan" and "gen" homonymously disqualified it from "yen → en" (and it seems to be used more in its sense of "primary, principal" anyway). Meanwhile, 円 in its sense of "round" also pops up in its kunyomi reading "marui" (円い). Being more familiar with marui written as 丸い, I just assumed 円い was merely a variant, perhaps older form. But according to the Tangorin online dictionary: "丸い usu. refers to ball-shaped, and 円い to disc-shaped objects", which is a kinda neat factoid I did not know before (and makes sense from a kanji point of view). Clawgrip or Des can attest as to whether that's prescriptivist wishful thinking or actual usage on the ground. That distinction certainly was not on my radar during Lao Kou: The Japan Years, yet frankly, despite my ignorance in this, I remain skeptical as to how strictly this is enforced/maintained.

[GrandPiano]

Interesting. I suspected such, and I was mainly referring to the characters' etymologies, but it's interesting to have confirmation that the words themselves are etymologically related.

[k1234567890y]

Turkish ordu "army" and English order

[All4Ɇn]

gaz "goose"
gås "goose"

[protondonor]

groseille (from Middle Dutch kroesels; ultimately from PIE *gʰer-) ~ gradile (from Old Norse gaddr; ultimately from PIE *g̑hasto-), both meaning currant

ETA:
timah 'tin' (from Proto-Western Malayo-Polynesian *timəʀaq) ~ tin

[GrandPiano]

agō "I do" - hago /ˈago/ "I do"

( hago actually comes from faciō, also meaning "I do")

[protondonor]

emoticon ~ emoji

[Shemtov]

emoticon ~ emoji

And all this time I thought Emoji was a Japanazation of "emotion"

[Xonen]

emoticon ~ emoji

And all this time I thought Emoji was a Japanazation of "emotion"

Well, I would've guessed that the ji was 字 'character', but yeah, that emo- part not being related to emoti(c)on is pretty surprising. Appears to be true, though.

[Aevas]

but yeah, that emo- part not being related to emoti(c)on is pretty surprising.

I completely agree with this.

Another false cognate:

Finnish kirjekuori < kirje 'letter' + kuori 'shale, skin, shell, cover, etc.'
Swedish kuvert /kɵˈvæːr/ < Fr. couvert 'covered'

Both meaning envelope. For some reason I was initially certain that the kuori part was a Swedish loan, before recognizing it in kovakuoriainen 'beetle' < kova 'hard' + kuori + -iainen 'nominalizer'

[clawgrip]

Weird, it never even occurred to me that emoji might be perceived of as being related to emotion until just now. 絵文字 e-moji. And with "emoticon" sitting right there suggesting a connection.

丸い usu. refers to ball-shaped, and 円い to disc-shaped objects[/i]", which is a kinda neat factoid I did not know before (and makes sense from a kanji point of view). Clawgrip or Des can attest as to whether that's prescriptivist wishful thinking or actual usage on the ground.

This is legit. The actual word for "disc" is 円盤, unless you mean a computer disk, in which it's ディスク (I include this English loanword just to bother you). But it's analagous to disc vs. disk, at least in my usage.

[Lao Kou]

ディスク (I include this English loanword just to bother you).

Mission accomplished.

[Shemtov]

Weird, it never even occurred to me that emoji might be perceived of as being related to emotion until just now. 絵文字 e-moji. And with "emoticon" sitting right there suggesting a connection.

.

I think if you know how to read Kanji, and have encountered the Kanji for Emoji, the "connection" might not be that obvious.
I do wonder if Japanese people know the word "emoticon", and that influenced them to narrow the meaning of "絵文字" from "pictograph" to, well "emoji".

[GrandPiano]

soso "dull" - so-so

[All4Ɇn]

soso "dull" - so-so

Similarly:
まあまあ māmā "so-so"
馬馬虎虎 mǎmǎhūhū "so-so"

[clawgrip]

What kind of magical fun park is China if a bunch of horses and tigers is just so-so?

[Lao Kou]

There is a story. There's always a story :

In the Song Dynasty, there was a painter who liked to paint anything he felt like painting. Most people could not understand his paintings.

One day, when he had just finished a painting of a tiger's head, his friend came to ask him for a painting of a horse. So, he painted a horse's body behind the tiger's head. His friend asked him if the painting was of a tiger or a horse. He answered, "马马虎虎 (mǎmǎhuhu) horse and tiger". His friend rejected his painting, so he put it up in his living room.

His eldest son asked him, "What's that in the painting?" He answered, "A tiger." However, when his younger son asked him he answered, "A horse."

Shortly after this, his eldest son while hunting shot someone’s horse because he thought it was a tiger. The painter had to pay the owner of the horse a lot of money. His second son went out and saw a tiger and he wanted to ride it because he thought it was a horse. But, when the boy tried to ride the tiger it killed him.

The painter was very sad, so he burned the painting. Then he wrote a poem: "Horse-tiger painting; horse-tiger painting; my eldest son shot a horse because of the picture, my second son was killed because of the picture. The picture has been burned in my cottage. Hope other people will not make the same mistake as me."

马虎 （mǎhu） careless
马马虎虎 (mǎmǎhuhu) just so so