| gen. |
ложные друзья (rechnik); ложные друзья переводчика (tart); межъязыковые омонимы (False cognates are pairs of words that seem to be cognates because of similar sounds and meaning, but have different etymologies; they can be within the same language or from different languages. For example, the English word dog and the Mbabaram word dog have the exact same meaning, but by complete coincidence. This is different from false friends, which are similar-sounding words with different meanings, but which may in fact be etymologically related. (For example: Dependiente looks like dependent, but means employee.) Even though false cognates lack a common root, there may still be an indirect connection between them (for example by phono-semantic matching or folk etymology). As an example of false cognates, the Spanish word haber sounds and looks similar to the English word have, but are in fact unrelated. WK Alexander Demidov) |
macmillandictionary.com Alexander Demidov); межъязыковой омоним (1. A word which is similar in meaning to another word, and which appears to also be cognate (etymologically related) to it, but which is in fact unrelated. 2. A word that appears similar in form to another word, but is both unrelated in its meaning and of unrelated origin. 3. (proscribed) A false friend, a word that appears to have the same meaning as a given word, but that does not (without regard to whether or not the two terms are cognate).