Two Languages of Ambiguity - Competition

[Fernando]

Arabic and - perhaps - English.
In the thread "Ex-Muslims on Islamic Mindset" in the "Islam - questioned defended and explained" forum, I remarked on something in a video posted by pr: the old "Islam means peace/submission" confusion and wondered whether the Arabic language really was to blame. It led me to propose a little competition, if anyone is interested:

One thing I noticed in the video was Robert Spencer's citing one aspect of the Muslim mindset - almost as if he accepted it as natural. That is, the oft-repeated argument that two words mean (if the speaker wishes it) the same thing because they have the same root. In his example, submission and peace.
This makes me wonder: is this an inevitable consequence of the Arabic language's having (or having had) not only a defective script but such massive built-in ambiguity that native Arabic speakers find logical reasoning difficult? Or is it all a sham put up by apologists for Islam and its books?

I'm trying to think of English words that could be but are not treated in the same way: probably from Latin roots but possibly Norse or Germanic. It must be much easier to concoct something when you're trying to make a point but searching one's mental dictionary is much more difficult. So might I suggest a little competition? Who can come up with the best example of divergent words from the same root - not necessarily suitable for fudging an argument? I can't send anyone a prize on New Year's Day, but the winner and all entries will get my thanks!

Rather than derail this thread, anyone with suggestions please go to my post "Two languages of ambiguity" in Food for Thought.

Are there any takers? Happy brain-wracking!

[manfred]

"Same Roots" does NOT mean "same meaning". A root branches out into lots of different branches. The "root" of a word is merely telling us which family it is derived from. The actual meaning depends on two things: the derivative of the word, i.e. the particular branch, and the language it is used it. Often roots of words belong to an older language and they develop different meanings in different modern languages too.

Here are some Germanic roots:
In Danish there is a word "blød" which means "soft". In German the same word is spelled "blöd", pronounced the same, but there is means "stupid", "soft in the head". Another Danish word is "knallert" which is a "Moped". In German the root word is "Knall" which means "bang" and there is also "Knaller" which is a "banger", a firecracker, not a sausage. It also means, in German, a hot woman. I think there is a different between a sexy lady and a Moped... The root in both cases is "bang".

In Latin, root words often change their meanings by adding prefixes... "mission" means "sending" literally, from mittere to send. We have transmission, omission, intermission, remission, admission.... all have completely different meanings: Here is what the Latin means:
transmission literally sending from one place to another, omission failing to send, intermission sending in between, remission sending back, admission sending to... (going along with)

To make it even more complicated , just like all other roots, the same old Latin words develop differently in different languages: When we see "soft verges" written on a warning sign on the road, we understand that to mean a soft muddy edge of the road. A French person would understand that to be a warning against soft penises.

[Fernando]

Thanks Manfred - you win by default! It was a good reply, anyway
I would have entered even though not eligible for my own prize but my mental dictionary let me down and I never got round to digging out my SOED.