false friend
nounUK /ˌfɒls ˈfɹɛnd/ · US /ˌfɔls ˈfɹɛnd/
Etymology Calque of French faux-ami, from the longer phrase faux amis du traducteur (“false friends of a translator”), first used by Maxime Kœssler and Jules Derocquigny in 1928 in their book Les Faux Amis ou les trahisons du vocabulaire anglais (False Friends, or the Pitfalls of the English Vocabulary).
1
Human sciences, Lexicography, Linguistics, Sciences, Translation studies A word in a language that bears a deceptive resemblance to a word in another language but in fact has a different meaning.
- A word and its false friend may well be etymologically related: in such cases semantic shifts have made them drift apart.
2
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see false, friend.
- Related terms
- lists of false friends in various languages, cognate, false cognate, misnomer and phantonym
- Hyponyms
- partial false friend