Quote:
Originally Posted by DonQuigleone
Actually, there are many cases where the english meaning differs substantially from the original meaning of a loanword.
For instance, in English, Sombrero means a festive mexican wide brimmed hat, in Spanish it's just a generic hat. Entrée in English means a main course, in French, it's the course preceding the main course (IE appetizer). Baguette in English means a long french style bread, in French it also refers to any long thin object, for instance a magic wand is a "baguette magique". In english Portmanteau means two words being joined together. In French it's a type of coathanger. En English mousse is a type of foamy desert, in French, it's any type of foam.
It's not unusual for loanwords to differ from their original, or to refer to a specific subset when the original refered to a generic category.
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Unlike those words that might have differentiated from their original meaning but are generally accepted, is the word "shounen" really accepted as a genre? I have my doubts that everyone does though.
As for your examples, there are some flaws.
Sombrero might be a originally based off a spanish word but the hat that we are talking about originates from Mexico. So it doesn't matter if it's just any hat in Spain, the hat that we associate with somebrero is based off the version from Mexico.
Baguette simply means stick. The bread is called like that because of it's shape, so it's just a name and i would not call it a different meaning. It's the same for croissant though, because that bread has also it's name originated from it's shape.
The dessert mousse is simply a name based of the original french word because of it's shape and texture.
Those food examples are in my opinion just names rather than words that are misused from their original meaning.
edit:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Qilin
Again, this all hinges on the assumption that the ones who refer to "shounen" as a genre comprise the majority (or at least a significant portion) of the English-speaking anime community.
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Define the majority. I don't think there is enough proof at this moment to call the people who think Shounen is a genre a majority