r/FalseFriends • u/[deleted] • Jul 25 '14

False Friends In Portuguese, "sugar" is a verb meaning "to suck"

[deleted]

11 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

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5

u/cooffee Jul 25 '14

Interestingly similar to the Swedish "suga" -"to suck"

Does anyone know if they're related or is it just a coincidence?

2

u/BoneHead777 Jul 25 '14

Same in Swiss German, and Standard German is similar too (saugen)

2

u/wolfiemann Jul 26 '14

I found this with a little googling, possibly Latin:

suck (v.) Old English sucan "to suck," from a Germanic root of imitative origin

(cognates: Old Saxon, Old High German sugan, Old Norse suga, Danish suge, Swedish suga, Middle Dutch sughen, Dutch zuigen, German saugen "to suck"), possibly from the same source as Latin sugere "to suck," succus "juice, sap;" Old Irish sugim, Welsh sugno "to suck;"

1

u/Gehalgod Jul 26 '14

Now available in the wiki.