anglicisms

There are some words, as I mentioned before, that have been borrowed from English by the French to mean something completely different than their original definition. Sometimes they even invent English words!

Take the word self, for example. Do you have any idea what it means in French? I'll give you some hints: you can eat in it! I had somebody ask me where the self was at school. Give up? It's a cafeteria. Presumably it comes from self-service cafeteria and the French have reduced it down to one word.

One of the invented words is relooking. It also exists as a verb relooker. No, it doesn't mean to do a double-take, but rather a makeover. You can find it related to homes (a house makeover/renovation) and personal style. I have been tempted to use my interior design skills and enter the world of relooking as a side job. We'll see!

Then there are the words that are used with the same definition but are pronounced in a French way (we do the same with French words in English). One such word is discount. It is pronounced dees-koont and if it's a big discount, it is preceded by the word hard:  aard dees-koont.