@CiaraNi The expression that springs to mind is ‘false friends’, but I’m not sure that covers what you mean.

I agree there should be a word for this, in English, Dutch and Danish.

@cassana @HenkvanderEijk Eng eng eng eng - deilightful. I didn't know 'eng' meant 'scary' in Dutch. That has an opposite feeling too, compared to the calm of the word 'meadow'. Now I'm reminded of this descriptive dissonance from Douglas Adams. I've been using the phrase 'like getting mugged in a meadow' for relevant situations ever since I first read this.

'The Galaxy, which had been enjoying a period of unusual peace and prosperity at the time, reeled like a man getting mugged in a meadow.'

@HenkvanderEijk @CiaraNi @cassana

Sometimes, you don't even need a full language shift.
'Cute' has very different meanings in British English and Hiberno-English

@faduda It does indeed. That's a great example of another linguistic variety - the same word meaning the opposite (or close to the opposite) in the same language, depending on which regional variation you speak.

@HenkvanderEijk @cassana