868: False Cognates and forlorn Apr 24, 2017

Learning another language can be difficult, but learning one that has similar vocabulary, grammar or another similarity would be easier, so languages like French or Dutch are easier for English speakers to pick up than Arabic or Mandarin. Nevertheless, a word that look similar to another in one language will not necessarily mean the same thing in the other. Generally, these are called "false cognates", and though this generally refers to similar pronunciation or spelling, two words could be cognates irrespective of their apparent relation so long as they derive from the same word. The English word 'forlorn' meaning 'sad, lonely, or abandoned' comes from the Old English 'forloren' when it meant ‘depraved’ as the past participle of 'forlēosan'. While 'forlorn' does not mean the same as the Dutch 'verliezen' or German 'verlieren' which both mean 'lose', they all come from a Germanic origin that in English became 'for-' and 'lorn' meaning 'lose'.