About the kind of English I actually study ;)
In an in-flight duty-free magazine my eye caught a «bracelet with healing properties»®, recommended to everyone except passengers with pacemakers. The word was unfamiliar, but I guessed they meant cardiac pacemakers. Then I peeked in the dictionary and saw that pace is stride length or walking tempo. That made me curious about the lookalike peacemaker. Of course that is a peacemaker, but also a revolver (jokingly) and even a machine gun.
A little later, in the tail of the plane, bored in line for the head (we are on a vessel, after all!), on one of the many pull-out boxes I read the baffling holloware. A holographic projector? The dictionary at first balked at the word. Even the root looked doubtful. Hollo is some kind of shout or cry. And hologram, it turns out, is spelled with one «L».
Then I thought to try another spelling — hollowware — and it all clicked. That is the name for deep dishes (pots, bowls, and so on). And the root fell into place at once: hollow — cavity, recess, hollow.
What else to translate? For example, how do you say «snot» in English? Sniffles. Odd, but I don’t think I had come across that word before. I finally made it into the toilet and, left alone, can deal with, pardon, boogers — snots. By inertia I look up «blow your nose» — blow your nose. At last a familiar word! Now I can return to my seat with a clear conscience and sleep. Three long hours still to the destination.
