Quote:
Originally Posted by pholy
I think Google got 'shaft' from 'arbor' (as in the arbor of a lathe) not 'arbre'. I should double check, but I'm sure one of you will 
If I'm right, that would be one word - no doubt an exception, as English has plethora of words for any shade of meaning |
No, in some contexts the French "arbre" (tree) means "shaft" or "axle", as in "arbre de transmission" ("drive shaft", according to Google T). I doubt you could find a correct English translation using "tree", but I'm no mechanics expert.
Quote:
Originally Posted by omk3
You are cheating a little
Dictionaries always give more options and synonyms, and of course this is a good idea, they have to try to encompass every possible nuance. But in any given sentence, you can often substitute one word with another and have (almost, I know) the same meaning.
I don't mean to say that I don't agree with what you're saying here. But it is different to have one word that can be translated to one of two or three words in another language, and another to have to explain the whole concept in a paragraph. |
Well yes, I know what you mean, but those Google translate examples are not synonyms, not all of them anyway. See my reply above.
In English, "Tree" and "Shaft" are not synonyms as far as I know, and yet they can be translated by one single word in French.
I'm trying to point out that even simple words have more depth than we see at first glance.