Crazy English @ Leon's EFL Planet

CRAZY WORD OR EXPRESSION

EXPLANATION

vegetable
(three meanings)

The word 'vegetable' comes from the Latin word 'vegetare' which means 'to grow or flourish'. 'vegetable' is the adjective form, meaning 'able to grow'. It is not a noun in Latin. English-speaking people made it into a noun--a noun which bares only slight resemblance to the Latin verb or adjective. It is a kind of verbicide. It could also be called "Latinglish" (to coin a new term: Latin + English). In English, it has three definitions (source: www.m-w.com):

1. a plant; herb.

2(a) a plant which is grown for the edible parts.
2(b) the edible parts of plants.

3. [metaphor] a person who's mental and physical functioning is severely impaired.

Yet, colloquially, many (native English-speakers) distinguish fruits from vegetables, when fruits are actually a subset of vegetables.

Think about vegetarians. They eat fruits, lots of them I'm sure. Why do "fruits" have to be excluded from the meaning of 'vegetable'? I don't know. English is crazy.

tomato
(fruit or vegetable?)

Look in any dictionary and it will say that a tomato is a fruit. Biologically (Botanically) a tomato is a fruit, because it is the seed-bearing part of the plant. Believe it or not, pumpkins, cucumbers, and chili peppers are fruits as well. I don't get upset when people call them vegetables, because by the second definition of vegetable (above), all fruits are vegetables. Crazy, huh?

herb
(two meanings)

This is another "Latinglish" word. In Latin, it means 'grass' [and that is 'grass' in the broad sense, including all grain-bearing plants]. But, in English, it has quite a different meaning. Actually, it has two meanings:

1. a plant with no woody tissue (this is quite close to the Latin meaning, but, we don't use this meaning nowadays in English).

2. a plant valued for its medicinal, savory, or aromatic qualities. (this is the common meaning used by English-speakers these days).

Ironically, an "herbivore" is an herb-eating creature (by the first definition).

plant

This is another "Latinglish" word. In Latin, it is a noun: 'planta' (sole) & a verb: 'plantare' (to put one's sole on the floor/ground). In English, the verb has the same meaning, but the noun... Well, it means:

the noun: plant =

(1) any growing thing that has a cell wall and chlorophyll.

(2) any non-animal, growing thing, growing out of the ground/soil.

(3) a factory (which is planted/built on the ground)

I know what you are thinking: "Where else would one build a factory?" I don't know... in the sea perhaps, and even then, it might still be called a 'plant'. Who knows? English is a crazy language!

embarrass

This is another confusing word. It came to English from Latin 'imbarrare' -to-> French embarasser -to-> English 'embarrass'. em = "in", and "barra" = bar. Literally, it means 'to bar' or 'to put in bars', but it carries abstract meanings as well, such as 'to hinder'. In Spanish (embarazar) also means to impregnate.

In English, it only carries the abstract meaning of-- making ((sb)) feel confused, mentally frustrated, and/or self-conscious.

Note: English has a lot of words "borrowed" from Latin, but English has changed the meaning, perhaps a case of verbicide.

troop(s)

This is the craziest word I have ever seen regarding meaning. A troop is a group of persons, usually soldiers, and yet it is often used to represent one single soldier. For example, "There are 37,000 US troops in Korea" means "There are 37,000 US soldiers in Korea."

But, in the Boy Scouts of America, a troop is a groups of scouts. Crazy English!

one

This is one of the craziest words regarding pronunciation. I remember when I was in primary school and I was learning how to spell. One day I was writing a letter and I asked my mother how to spell "1". She said, "O-N-E." I wrote it down, then I said, "Mom, come on! Don't trick me, Mom." She said, "No, really, that's how it is spelled." I asked, "Why?" She said that she didn't know. I remember thinking, "That is stupid!"

Driveway/Parkway

We park a car on a driveway.

We drive a car on a parkway.

Crazy English!

Polish/polish

Polish (adj) of Poland; /polish/

polish (v.) to make (sth) shiny; /palish/

A Polish person can polish his/her shoes.

Finnish/finish

Finnish (adj) of Finland; /finish/

finish (v.) to complete (sth); /finish/

The Finnish person did finish the project.

Bomb
Comb
Tomb

Bomb /bam/
Comb /kom/
Tomb /tu:m/

Truly crazy pronunciation of English!

Blood, Flood

Door, Floor

The double "o" in English typically has two sounds:

/u/ and /u:/ depending upon the word; BUT, not in "blood" & "flood" or "door" & "floor".

Crazy English!

warm/worm

Why is "warm" pronounced like "worm" and why is "worm" pronounced like "wirm"?

take

"Take" means to physically obtain something (usually something concrete, but can be something abstract). And yet, it seems to lose its meaning in various English idioms. See:

take = obtain concrete thing	take = obtain abstract thing	take = do
take a photo	take a break	take a bow
-	take a chance	take a dump
-	take a "crack" at	take a leak
-	take one's time	take a look
-	take a ride	take a swim
-	-	take a walk
-	-	take a whiff

take (sb) in (accept someone into one's home)
take (sth) in (learn something)
take (sb) down (ruin sb's reputation)
take (sb) on (fight sb)
take (sb) out (make sb lose a fight; kill sb)

wind/wind

wind /wind/ = breeze, a gust of air

wind /waind/ = to turn something, usually something which will turn back automatically

shoe/toe

shoe /shu:/
toe /tou/

What the...?

do/to

huh?

sew

sew /sou/

goose/geese

moose/meese?

If the plural of goose is geese, why isn't the plural of moose meese?

bow/bow/bow/bow

bow /bou/; n. a curve (like rainbow, or bow & arrow)
bow /bou/; n. a kind of tie (bowtie)
bow /bau/; v. to bend at the waist for an audience at the end of a performance; n. a bend at the waist
bow /bau/; n. the front part of a boat/ship
bow wow /bau wau/; sound of a dog