Musings on Language #2

[Aedilred]

I figured as much..still, you'd think that the fashion conscious italians would have picked up on the difference

They probably thought smoking jackets were much more interesting than dinner jackets and thus adopted them as their standard formal evening wear.

Heck, I would, if I were able to dictate mens' fashion.

The Russians do this like crazy, you can read most loanwords phonetically. When I read advertisements or such things, I've learned to read words I don't understand out loud for that reason :-)

My favourite one is the word for "pencil", after the brand name emblazoned on the side of what I can only assume must have been the first pencil in Russia.