A pseudo-anglicism is a word in another language that is formed from English elements and may appear to be English, but that does not exist as an English word with the same meaning. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
For example, English speakers traveling in France may be struck by the "number of anglicisms—or rather words that look English—which are used in a different sense than they have in English, or which do not exist in English (such as rallye-paper, shake-hand, baby-foot, or baby-parc)". [6]
This is different from a false friend, which is a word with a cognate that has a different main meaning; in some cases, pseudo-anglicisms become false friends. [7]
Pseudo-anglicisms are also called secondary anglicisms, [8] false anglicisms, [9] or pseudo-English. [10]
Pseudo-anglicisms are a kind of lexical borrowing where the source or donor language is English, but where the borrowing is reworked in the receptor or recipient language. [11] [12]
The precise definition varies. Duckworth defines pseudo-anglicisms in German as "neologisms derived from English language material." [11] [13] Furiassi includes words that may exist in English with a "conspicuously different meaning". [14]
Pseudo-anglicisms can be created in various ways, such as by archaism, i.e., words that once had that meaning in English but are since abandoned; semantic slide, where an English word is used incorrectly to mean something else; conversion of existing words from one part of speech to another; or recombinations by reshuffling English units. [15]
Onysko speaks of two types: pseudo-anglicisms and hybrid anglicisms. The common factor is that each type represents a neologism in the receptor language resulting from a combination of borrowed lexical items from English. Using German as the receptor language, an example of the first type is Wellfit-Bar, a combination of two English lexical units to form a new term in German, which does not exist in English, and which carries the meaning, "a bar that caters to the needs of health-starved people." An example of the second type, is a hybrid based on a German compound word, Weitsprung (long jump), plus the English 'coach', to create the new German word Weitsprung-Coach. [11]
According to Filipović, pseudo-anglicisms can be formed through compounding, suffixation, or ellipsis. For example, the Serbo-Croatian word голман, golman was created from the English word goal, which the word man was added to. Alternatively, suffixes such as -ер, -er or -ист(а), -ist(a) may be added to an English word to create a new word in Serbo-Croatian, such as тенисер, teniser or ватерполист(а), vaterpolist(a). Ellipsis may also occur, wherein a component of an English word is dropped, such as the suffix -ing; examples include бокс, boks from boxing, or хепиенд, hepiend from happy ending. [16]
Another process of word formation that can result in a pseudo-anglicism is a blend word, consisting of portions of two words, like brunch or smog. Rey-Debove & Gagnon attest tansad in French in 1919, from English tan[dem] + sad[dle]. [17]
Pseudo-anglicisms can be found in many languages that have contact with English around the world, and are attested in nearly all European languages. [18]
The equivalent of pseudo-anglicisms derived from languages other than English also exist. For example, the English-language phrase "double entendre", while often believed to be French and pronounced in a French fashion, is not actually used in French. For other examples, see dog Latin, list of pseudo-French words adapted to English, and list of pseudo-German words adapted to English.
Some pseudo-anglicisms are found in many languages and have been characterized as "world-wide pseudo-English", [19] often borrowed via other languages such as French or Italian: [20]
French includes many pseudo-anglicisms, including novel compounds (baby-foot), specifically compounds in -man (tennisman), truncations (foot), places in -ing (dancing meaning dancing-place, not the act of dancing), and a large variety of meaning shifts. [37]
German pseudo anglicisms often have multiple valid and common ways of writing them, generally either hyphenated (Home-Office) or in one word (Homeoffice). [61]
German speakers, especially teachers, often refer to pseudo-anglicisms as false friends, a translation of the German term that may itself count as a pseudo anglicism. [62]
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