View Single Post
  #8  
Old 01-24-2006, 04:44 AM
qgrande qgrande is offline
Gold
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 784
qgrande Level 1 (34)
Default

In Europe, I never use and hardly ever encounter those being used in texts or conversations in Dutch or English:

14) argot (French)- slang/colloquial jargon
17) auf Wiedersehen (German)- goodbye
23) autopista (Spanish)- highway (the Italian 'autostrada' sometimes is)
32) bon marché (French) –cheap, a bargain
36) caveat emptor (Latin)- 'let the buyer beware'
43) déclassé (French)- no class
51) moi non plus (French)- me neither

The other ones, including the Spanish terms are used here as well. I understood them all and I think it makes for a good 'universal' list, although it is easy to think of other French terms being used here ('Brasserie' if you list 'Bodega', a whole range of culinary terms and dishes if you list 'paella'), and much harder to think of other Spanish terms that are universal.
The list is a bit short on German terms, aren't 'Angst', 'Bierfest', 'Leitmotiv', 'Weltschmerz', etc. used in English as well?
Funny is that they are apparently really universal, not just in English, most on your list are used in Dutch as well (although of course there's lots of universal English terms used in other languages that should be added to a really universal list). A DR related question would be, how many on this list (apart from the Spanish ones of course) are generally used in the Dominican Republic/Latin America?

Last edited by qgrande; 01-24-2006 at 04:56 AM..
Reply With Quote