From what I can remember, false cognates are words of similar form with similar meanings but without a common root, which would satisfy 5.Squall wrote:What is a false cognate?
This list says that it has false cognates. I thought that false cognate is the eight item in the list below, but in this topic uses the definition of the fifth item.
1) Similar words, same origin, same meaning (origin, orīgine (Latin))
2) Similar words, same origin, different meaning (actual, actual(current in Spanish))
3) Different words, same origin, same meaning (beauty, bella (Latin))
4) Different words, same origin, different meaning (sure, sēcūrus(secure in Latin))
5) Similar words; different origin; same meaning (examples in this topic)
6) Similar words; different origin; different meaning (come, comer(eat in Portuguese))
7) Similar words; the origin does not matter; same meaning (includes 1 and 5)
8) Similar words; the origin does not matter; different meaning (includes 2 and 6)
There are "false friends", which, IIRC, are words of similar form with a common root, but with a different meaning, which would satisfy 2 (it would also, from what I can tell, make them cognates). I think it might also cover 6 as well, but they wouldn't be cognates.
1) Similar words, same origin, same meaning (origin, orīgine (Latin)) = cognate
2) Similar words, same origin, different meaning (actual, actual(current in Spanish)) = cognate false friend
3) Different words, same origin, same meaning (beauty, bella (Latin)) = cognate
4) Different words, same origin, different meaning (sure, sēcūrus(secure in Latin)) = cognate
5) Similar words; different origin; same meaning (examples in this topic) = false cognate
6) Similar words; different origin; different meaning (come, comer(eat in Portuguese)) = non-cognate false friend
7) Similar words; the origin does not matter; same meaning (includes 1 and 5) = ?
8) Similar words; the origin does not matter; different meaning (includes 2 and 6) = false friend (cognate or non-cognate)
I'm not sure, though, if 1, 3 and 4 are distinguished with specific terms.