Round-Trip Words
Round-Trip Words are those words that leave one country and then return with a completely different meaning, e.g., grog. This is the tot of rum served out to seamen of the British Navy; you can order a variation in any bar in France. Strangely enough, it started out as a French material, gros grain , a tough cloth: in English, grogram. Vice Admiral Edward Vernon of the Royal Navy, called “Old Grog” because of his grogram cloak, decreed in 1740 that sailors' rum be cut with water to make it harder to get drunk: groggy. The unpopular diluted drink was then named after him, “grog.” (Whoever doled it out got a free share called “Plush.”)
Few citizens of Genoa know that their blue jeans are named after the English pronunciation of the French name, Genes, for their own city. Nor are the burghers of Nîmes conscious that the denim their jeans are made from came centuries ago from Nîmes itself (de Nîmes). Still another fabric, mohair, or cloth made from goat's wool, emigrated from France , and was reintegrated into English as moiré, or watered silk. Some women are aware that what we call a redingote is the French garble of our “riding coat”.
French boef, “beef,” for example, sallied forth to England with the Normans, was accepted as beefsteak, and recently returned to the Academie Francaise dictionary as biftek.
Many words have been altered by a sojourn south of the Rio Grande. For example, a Frenchman speaking of mariachi music is referring to mariage, at which it was played when the French occupied Mexico. A freebooter is a highwayman or land pirate. In Central America he became known as a filibustero. The word returned to America as filibuster, and acquired its new sense of a drawn-out Senate oration.
Travelers to India who stay in a bungalow are often unaware that the English word started out there as Bangalore .
The young man who today accompanies a Frenchman playing golf, was in his earlier days a cadet, “youth,” who made his way to Scotland , was rechristened a caddie, and then returned to the golf courses of France as le caddie.
Flirt left Italy referring to flowers and returned as a girl. Fleureter in French, like fiorare in Italian or echar flores in Spanish, means to “toss a bouquet” – a compliment. As flirt it returned to Italy as a euphemism for “mistress.” An Italian actor is photographed at Cannes con la sua ultima flirt – pronounced “fleert.”
Many round-trip words are the labels put by the Portuguese explorers to what they found on their travels, and were later re-imported to Europe.
Caste is Portuguese casta, “chaste” or “pure.”
Cobra is from the Portuguese word for “snake,” from Latin coluber.
Fetish is Portuguese feitico, from Latin facticius, a “made thing.”
A joss stick is Portuguese deos, from Latin deus, “god.”
Corral is Portuguese curral, from Dutch kraal.
Mandarin is Portuguese mandarim, from a Malay word meaning official.
Palaver is Portuguese palavra, from Latin palaber, “word.”
Tank is Portuguese tanque, a pool or cistern.
Tempura is Portuguese for “times,” originally Latin tempora . The Japanese servants of Portuguese missionaries noticed that in certain seasons, e.g., Lent, the fathers switched from meat to fish. They concluded that the Portuguese word for times instead meant seafood.
Japanese has about 60 Portuguese words, led by arrigato, “thanks,” from the Portuguese obrigado and pan, “bread”.
