[RoJoHen]

Rhubarbodendron wrote:

---

in Germany, we elect one un-word every year. Do you have something similar in your respective countries?

I totally hate the word "Handy" in German. It's used as a synonym for cell phone. They wanted an anglicism at any price (because if it's not American it's not good. Ahem - what about Pershings, GWB, A-bomb, MacCarthyism, Wounded Knee, etc.?) What they meant was hand-held, some bloody idiot got it wrong and now we're stuck with an embarassingly wrong word. Ironically, that wrong expression has recently begun to turn up in the local slang of some major US cities (and apparently in GB as well, from what I'm told).

Yeah, a "handy" in America definitely does NOT mean cell phone.