Bank and Gift

The word "bank" is one of the most commonly used examples of ambiguous words. By ambiguous words I mean words that have more than one meaning. In the case of "bank," it could refer to a financial institution or part of land by a river.

To me, the level of ambiguity for the string of letters "BANK" is higher. That is because "Bank" is also a word in German and also has more than one meaning. Bank can also mean a place where you store or loan money, or it can mean a bench.

True, the pronunciation is different, and even in written form, the German Bank always starts with a capital letter whereas that's not always the case in English (unless it is part of a proper noun or starts a sentence). Still the abstract form of the printed word is the same between the two languages, and I often find myself activating all three meanings I have associated with this particular combination of four letters.

Part of the reason may be because the German word Bank was one of the first words I learned when I started learning German. My father was working at a bank at the time, so, in case somebody asked me what my Dad did, I learned the word to be able to respond correctly. I do not recall if I ever got asked such question though.

Also, dwelling long enough in that memory of my childhood in Germany, I also see this picture of a long bench right by a ginkgo tree full of yellow ginkgo leaves. I think that was the bench at the bus stop that we frequently used when my family lived in Germany.


There is another word that I remember that shares the same printed form in German and English, but does not share its meaning. Gift in German means poison, whereas in English... well, I guess there have been occasions when people did send poisoned gifts to their enemies, but generally, gift is something positive and pleasant that you "give" to someone.

I remember finding an English Christian comic book that my mom had and the cover portrayed a grown-up person (don't remember if it was a man or a woman) lifting up a baby to the sky. The cover said "The Gift" and as I did not speak any English at the time, I wondered if the baby was poisoned and the grown-up's face was showing emotions of horror and sadness. Now that I think about it, I guess the "gift" was referring to baby Jesus and the person lifting him up was actually full of joy. Couldn't tell from the serious art style though.

When I started learning English, I remember that every time I encountered the word "gift," my heart gave a small jolt. In the case of this word, not only is the spelling the same, but the sound of the word is the same between German and English. And the primary meaning associated to this sound/letter combination was "poison," and I had strong emotional reactions to that. However, over the years of speaking and listening mostly in English and not having enough activity in German, my brain started to habituate... or, the new meaning of English started to overwrite the old German meaning. Now I don't think of poison when I see or hear the word unless I make a conscious effort.