Police....

Police....
In so many languages, the word 'Police' is similar.
Polizei, Policia, Politi, Полиция (Politsia) - etc.
What countries do you know of where the word relating to 'Police' (not the likes of Guarda Civilia, Gendermerie, Carabinieri etc.), is totally different?
In Icelandic.... Lögreglan
In Welsh.... Heddlu.

Arabic shurta, شرطة.

Vietnamese - Cảnh sát
Chinese - gong'an 公安
Thai - tamruat ตำรวจ

I don't know Irish but I think it's garda (collective noun) in Irish, and in Irish English usually the Gardai, gar DEE (Irish plural noun).

Good one - this one.

Hungarian - rendőrség.

Isn't it "keisatsu" in japanese?

Hebrew: Mishtara (meesh tah rah ?)

Yes VinnyD In Irish An Garda Síochána which translates as Guardians of the Peace.

@ambarush: Google translator provides póilíneachta for police in Irish, Can you put some light about it?

Anillos, repeating that I dont know Irish, it looks as if An Garda Siochána or the Gardai is the proper name of the Irish police force, but that póilineachta is the common noun for police, for example if you were talking about another country's police. So póilineachta is probably the relevant term for this thread. Whether it is dissimilar enough from "police" for OP's purposes I can't say.

Indonesian - polisi

deleted. Already said.

Edited by: iviehoff

Two more languages where it is similar
Pulis in Hindi
Polis in Marathi

and in Irish English usually the Gardai

I agree they often say that, but you often also hear them say "the guards", which is its direct translation into English. Apparently in previous times they were called the Civic Guard, which is very similar in name to what you have in Spain as the Guardia Civil. Btw there is an accent (fada) on the i in An Garda Síochána that you have missed, Vinny, if it bothers you. The o is silent, merely there for the broad/slender spelling rules.

Greek: Αστυνομία (Astynomía, or whatever depending upon you like your upsilons)

Póilíneachta Never heard it . Póilín - na póilíní can be used when talking about generic police but never about our specific Gardaí. Before Independence and the formation of the Garda Síochána the police force in Ireland (Royal Irish Constabulary R.I.C) could have been referred to as the póilíní in Irish. In Irish English sometimes you would hear the pronunciation po-liss instead of police.

@ambarush (#15): Thanks for the info.

Liverpool.... 'Bizzies'.

#15 - Looks like "Seirbhís Póilíneachta Thuaisceart Éireann" is the official Irish title of the Police Service of Northern Ireland: http://www.psni.police.uk/irish.pdf

"Póilíneachta" would be the genitive of "póilíneacht", which though I haven't heard it before either would logically be an abstract noun derived from "póilín", which means "a policeman". "Póilíní" is the word that's usually used where one might say "police" in English, but it's simply the plural of "póilín".

@Vinny #1: I once heard a shopkeeper in Damascus greet the arrival of a policeman with the words, "Ahleen bil-shurta, ahleen bil-boliis, ahleen bil-hukuumeh!" All apparently synonyms, in this context.

Милиция

Prahari, if I remember correctly, in Nepali.

American (and English) English = Pigs.

If we are on animal names: poulets in french (or volailles, schmitts, bleus, and far more desultory terms...)

Is that current British English, go_2? i don't think it's current American. I hear Five-Oh these days, although there's a good chance that an slang term I'm familiar with is obsolete on the street.

Micolett, in the US in the past there was "bull", which I believe was borrowed from German.

I thought it had died out, Vinny, but heard it again a couple of weeks ago.

"Rozzers" is still current as well on the eastern side of the Atlantic, I think.

American (and English) English = Pigs

Not everywhere.

London -- Bobbies, or Peelers after Robert Peel, or The Bill.

Cops.

In many languages it's the same or almost the same (in Dutch: politie, Indonesian: polisi, Afrikaans: polisie).

In Lao it's tamluat.

In Greek, it's Astinomia (as-tee-noh-MEE-a)

Haven't seen you for a while, furs. Welcome back!

Thanks, Vinny. In fact, I am still so out of touch that didn't even realize that someone else had already given the Greek word for Police...
Cheers,
F

as far as i know 'police' (or 'polizei') means 'town' or 'government' in the ancient greek language. an image of what the german word 'polizei' means i cannot describe. i believe that 'polizei' is re-derived from the english language. mostly words travelled from french (latin), (ancient greek) or german (maybe slavic) into english (GB, USA, AUS, CA) during the last six hundred years. there is other organisations which have different names such as 'bundsgrenzschutz' (the 'federal border patrol' (- or police)) securing the former border to eastern (communist) germany as well as to czechoslovakia. today 'bundesgrenzschutz' is called 'bundespolizei', the 'federal police' securing airports, trainstations as well as mass-protest-events. spanish 'guardia civil' same as the 'carabinieri' or the dutch marechaussee have a diffenent duty than policework (securing traffic accident sites, to write/process parking tickets, to go on neighbourhood-crime-watch). mostly special "polizei"-branches (not "polizei"-units) are beeing called when gangs or certain (known/unknown) groups of considerable "negative persons" are planning (or fulfilling) to steal/rob, to attack or to trespass. the 'guardia civil', same as 'koninklijke marechaussee' (or in the USA, FBI agents) tend not to argue or to discuss with "the opposite".

the police (in germany) always has to negotiate and to discuss with german/foreign citizens.

'super from cologne in germany

Police is police in France, not gendarmerie. Gendarmes are part of the military and have a highway patrol function, as well as maintaining order on a national level.

Now, maréchaussée is a more interesting word, which is a different term for the gendarmerie, and it contains the word 'road' (chaussée) in the name.

According to the Petit Robert:

"étym. 1718; mareschaucie xiie ◊ de maréchal
❖

■ Anciennt Sous l'Ancien Régime, Corps de cavaliers placé sous les ordres d'un prévôt des maréchaux, et chargé des fonctions de la gendarmerie actuelle. Les archers de la maréchaussée.
◆ (1899) Mod. et plaisant Gendarmerie."

So apparently "chaussée" being in the word is either coincidence, or folk etymology.

The English equivalent is Marshalsea.

Ha of course. Didn't occur to me (I seem to be saying that a lot lately).

#33, according to the german wikipedia, 'marechaussee' means and is the predecessor of the french 'gendarmerie nationale'. 'maréchaussée des voyages et chasses' is the historic name of the organisations known today as 'koninklijke marechaussee'. it is an organisation close to the military, in germany situated maybe in between the 'feldjäger' (the german military police) and the bundespolizei (the federal police).

'super from cologne