7 ms·
Interesting case of double-layered false nominative determinism. Although foresta in Italian means "forest" and thus the surname would seem eminently plant-base
by phikappa 3mo ago
Interesting case of double-layered false nominative determinism. Although foresta in Italian means "forest" and thus the surname would seem eminently plant-based, it actually means "foreigner", which I guess he also ended up being as Italian immigrant in the US. The etymology of forest and foreigner is closely related and means basically just "(from the) outside".
- rob74 3mo agoWow, that's a really sneaky "false friend" in Italian! Especially since it even has the meaning of "forest-related" in other Latinic languages, e.g. in French route forestière = forest road.
- bonzini 3mo agoForest-related is "forestale" in Italian.
- phikappa 3mo agoI wouldn't call it so much a false friend as forest/foreign (and forfeit and I'm sure a bunch of other words) all coming from the same Latin "foris" root and being semantically related. In Italian, outside is just "fuori". You're a foreigner to what you've forfeited in the forest.
- world2vec 3mo agoIn Portuguese "forasteiro" can also be used to mean "foreigner" or "outsider".