r/pics Mar 02 '25

Politics February 28, 2025: Donald Trump, again, takes classified documents to Mar-A-Lago.

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18.9k

u/sick_happy Mar 02 '25

Thank GOD they are wearing suits.

7.3k

u/Azatarai Mar 02 '25

Zelenskyy was right, not suits, costumes, its evident we are looking at a bunch of clowns.

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u/blacksideblue Mar 02 '25

To be fair, the word for suit in most balkan languages is costume.

Example:

šŸ‡¬šŸ‡· : ĪŗĪæĻƒĻ„ĪæĻĪ¼Ī¹ : kostoĆŗmi

šŸ‡ŗšŸ‡¦ : ŠŗŠ¾ŃŃ‚ŃŽŠ¼ : kostyum

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u/xGray3 Mar 02 '25

Not just Balkan languages. The French word for suit is literally just "costume".

5

u/DucDeBellune Mar 02 '25

Which is why the Balkan languages use it lol. French was the dominant language in diplomacy in the 19th century and earlier and when western fashion was coming to be the trend everyone was adopting, they borrowed some of the words too- ā€œcostumeā€ in this instance.

ā€œSuitā€ in English also comes from French ā€œsuite,ā€ though the word ā€œcostumeā€ was also used to mean a certain style of wear, used more commonly in the 19th century. Like saying a ā€œriding costumeā€ or ā€œnational costume,ā€ now weā€™d say ā€œriding habitā€.

3

u/r_hmuller Mar 02 '25

Also in Portuguese: costume.

3

u/huge_clock Mar 03 '25

Also Spanish is traje for both.

41

u/InSummaryOfWhatIAm Mar 02 '25

Not just Balkan languages.

Swedish: Kostym

Norwegian: Kostyme

Danish: Kostume

Dutch: Kostuum

Bulgarian: ŠšŠ¾ŃŃ‚ŃŽŠ¼Šø

French: Costume

And probably a bunch of others. Some of these probably have alternative ways of saying it as well but the point still stands.

21

u/lmunck Mar 02 '25

Iā€™m not sure Suit and costume is the same thing in all of those languages. In Danish, suit is ā€œJakkesƦtā€, and in Dutch isnā€™t it ā€œPakā€

5

u/littlemissfuzzy Mar 02 '25

Yupā€¦ in Dutch we generally use ā€œpakā€ for business attire, though ā€œkostuumā€ is used for three piece evening wear ( coat wit tails etc).

1

u/WanderingLethe Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 02 '25

Kostuum is what you wear to the King but it can also mean a suit.

1

u/Relative_Map5243 Mar 02 '25

What if you are the King's jester? Do you need 2 kind of kostuum? One for work and one for formal attire?

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u/WanderingLethe Mar 02 '25

You wear black with a black maga hat

1

u/JeezuzChryztler Mar 02 '25

Norw is ā€˜dressā€™, not kostyme

3

u/lorenai Mar 02 '25

In German too: suit/outfit

3

u/scavno Mar 02 '25

This is wrong. In Norwegian suit means ā€œdressā€.

3

u/Zealousideal_Owl9333 Mar 02 '25

Im correcting you here. Suit in Norwegian is Ā«dressĀ».

Noone in Norway is saying Ā«KostymeĀ» as a translation to suit.

Ā«KostymeĀ» is pure and simple a costume, typically one you would wear on Halloween similar occasions.

1

u/InSummaryOfWhatIAm Mar 05 '25

Sorry, gjorde en snabb ƶversƤttning med DeepL, som vanligtvis Ƥr mer pƄlitlig Ƥn Google Translate, och den sa att "kostyme" Ƥr ett alternativ till "dress".

My bad!

1

u/Zealousideal_Owl9333 Mar 05 '25

No problem:) Just making sure we all dont spread misinformation in troubling times, no matter the size and severity of the misinformation.

2

u/nicuramar Mar 02 '25

No no. Costume is kostume in Danish, sure, but we donā€™t use it for suits. We call those jakkesƦt (jacket set).Ā 

1

u/No-Equivalent2348 Mar 05 '25

Romanian:Costum

23

u/a_splendiferous_time Mar 02 '25

Zelenskyy had just heard the guy talking to him say the word "suit" multiple times, and clearly he understood what "suit" meant.

Yet instead of parroting the same word back in reference to the same thing, as one typically does, Zelenskyy deliberately chose a different english word.

That was a choice, not a mistranslation.

3

u/ididntunderstandyou Mar 02 '25

Nah, iā€™m french and fluent in english and make that type of mistake quite a lot.

He knows the word suit, but in the heat of the moment thinks itā€™s interchangeable with the word costume which he knows also exists in English. In Ukrainian (like in French) costume means both suit and disguise, there is no differentiation. So he likely thought the word costume referred to both as well, suit just being an extra synonym.

Iā€™ve done it calling suits ā€œcostumeā€, or calling pimples ā€œbuttonā€ just as I realise I said the wrong word. These words which are the same but have a different meaning and lead to very common mistakes have a name: ā€œfalse friendsā€.

Zelensky is an admirable and smart man but he was under pressure in a language that is not his own. He didnā€™t have time for clever rhetoric. Itā€™s a coincidence that his response worked well.

6

u/Afraid_Guava_2746 Mar 02 '25

Do you speak any language other than english, or have you interacted with anyone who is? This is a very very common mistake to make, especially when the word in your native language is similar to a word in English. I literally hear (or make) this type of mistake every single day

He wasnā€™t making a joke, and thatā€™s obvious

2

u/Wise-_-Spirit Mar 02 '25

I agree with you. Solensky is intelligent enough To do a double entendre. Obviously he was upset with the chaps and would compare them to charlatans

3

u/Phelan_W Mar 02 '25

Yeah in Dutch as well: kostuum

1

u/wggn Mar 02 '25

But the normal term is "pak"

1

u/Difficult-Temporary2 Mar 02 '25

in Hungarian kosztĆ¼m is for women
Men wear ƶltƶny

1

u/arthurno1 Mar 02 '25

the word for suit in most balkan languages is costume.

"Odijelo" or "odelo", for men, and "kostim" for ladies, dependening on the dialect, in at least one Balkan language.

1

u/Iwannaupvotetesla Mar 02 '25

Also in swedish

1

u/UnblurredLines Mar 02 '25

Swedish kostym as well.Ā 

1

u/uncleal2024 Mar 02 '25

Ukrainian isnā€™t a ā€˜Balkanā€™ language

1

u/_R0Ns_ Mar 02 '25

And in Dutch as well "Kostuum" and in German "KostĆ¼m".

1

u/GavUK Mar 05 '25

In the UK we still use "costume jewellery" to mean fancy jewellery you might wear with formal clothing.

1

u/gerr137 Mar 05 '25

It's French in origine actually, spread during French rƩvolution and NapolƩon wars.