Friday, July 6, 2012

和製英語: Miss

和製英語 (わせいえいご) refers to Japanese words that have been imported from English but with altered meaning. This is another topic that has been covered before, both by myself and others (Daniel, Orchid), and it can provide much frustration for native English speakers. パンツ and ジュース (which don't actually mean "pants" as Americans would understand the word, or "juice" as any English speaker would as far as I know) are big agitators for me personally.

Another one, that I just came across today, is 「ミス」. Most commonly, this is used to indicate an error or failure. I've heard it used in the context of typing ミス (yes, typing mistakes), and spotted it in this headline in a much sadder usage: 心臓手術ミス、4歳男児死亡. It says that a 4-year old boy died during heart surgery due to a 「手術ミス」. That is, a surgical error. What a depressing example of ミス, I know...

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