I've always been amazed by adopted words. The delightful thing about such words is the humour in saying them (especially when pronounced deliberately wrong) or the association with some similar phonetics and images. The following ones are quite funny when seen under the 'humourous' light:
hors d'oevre ("or duhrv"), which means delicacy - horse devoured.
annus mirabilis ("anus muhrabuhlis"), which means a wonderful year - anal ikan bilis??
coup de grace ("koo de grahss"), which means finishing blow - chickens in disgrace?
cri de coeur ("kree' de kur"), which means heartfelt appeal - can i answer that with cuckoo-raa-koo?
in loco parentis ("in loh'koh pa-rentiss"), which means in the place of a parent - yup, them craaazzy parents!
deus ex machina ("day'us ex mahkuh-nuh"), which means a contrived device to resolve a situation - sound more like 'the sex machine'? Say it slowly and you'll see what i mean.
doppelganger ("doppul-gang-ur"), which means a ghostly double of a living person - dope-algae angel...whatever does that mean?
feinschmecker ("fine-sh-meker), which means gourmet - a fine schmuck!
gourmet ("gur-me"), which means gastronome - somehow it always sounds like...door mat!
mano a mano ("mahno ah mahno") means directly or face-to-face confrontation - i get the image of two bulls facing each other with their nostrils flaring.
Well, that's all for now!
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