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Petusek Posted 14 years ago
Vocabulary
Vocabulary question: initials =basic information in English?
Hello,
In my native language, there's a word looking and sounding similar to "initials" in English, but I suspect they're false friends. While in both English and my native language "initials" means the first letters of all someone's names, there's one more meaning in my mother tongue only: "(basic) personal information" or "(basic) personal data".
Can somebody, please, confirm the word doesn't have this latter meaning in English too?
Many thanks in advance!
P.
In my native language, there's a word looking and sounding similar to "initials" in English, but I suspect they're false friends. While in both English and my native language "initials" means the first letters of all someone's names, there's one more meaning in my mother tongue only: "(basic) personal information" or "(basic) personal data".
Can somebody, please, confirm the word doesn't have this latter meaning in English too?
Many thanks in advance!
P.
Top answer
You're right, we don't have the same second meaning. Initial, as a root, means the beginning of something. "
- You're right, we don't have the same second meaning.
- Initial, as a root, means the beginning of something.
- "
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4 Answers
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You're right, we don't have the same second meaning.
Initial, as a root, means the beginning of something.
"Initially, my phone worked well..."
Initial, as a root, means the beginning of something.
"Initially, my phone worked well..."
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petusek Hello,In my native language, there's a word looking and sounding similar to "initials" in English, but I suspect they're false friends. While in both English and my native language "initials" means the first letters of all someone's names, there's one more meaning in my mother tongue only: "(basic) personal information" or "(basic) personal data".Can somebody, ple
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VorparYou're right, we don't have the same second meaning.Initial, as a root, means the beginning of something."Initially, my phone worked well..."Thanks for the confirmation!
As for the root, I did know the basic meaning as well as its Latin origin, including the morphological analysis (in-it-). Yet still, false friends are tricky, and the paths of
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Thanks for the confirmation, enoon. I thought so. Judging from what you say, "vitals" seems quite close to the second meaning. I assume biographical data and personal data are much broader terms then. Thank you, again! P.
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