๐ฏ๐๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฐ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ญ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฏ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
Your language is weird and fucked up in its own ways, but something like 1.5 billion people know English and most of them as a second language.
Und ich musste Google Translate verwenden, um Ihnen das auf Deutsch zu sagen, aber Sie mรผssen es wahrscheinlich nicht tun, um auf Englisch zu antworten.
This is one of those things where formally, sure, thereโs a difference, but Iโve never heard anyone use that first term. Everythingโs a loanword. And these kinds of things are in many, if not all, languages, from my attempts at learning other languages.
What I think is interesting about the word flea market is that itโs a calque in pretty much all languages.
The Swedish word is โloppisโ, which is a cutesy colloquial term for โloppmarknad.โ Loppa, meaning flea, and marknad meaning market.
Flohmarkt in German also means lit. โflea market.โ
Marche aux puces is French, where โpuceโ means flea, I think this might be the origin of the term.
Japanese has the casual term ใใชใ (fleama), short for ใใชใผใใผใฑใใ, which is just the English term โflea marketโ, thereโs also the term ่คใฎๅธ, just meaning โmarket of fleas.โ
I believe Portuguese calls it a โthievesโ marketโ, but Spanish, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Dutch, and Mandarin all use their own native words for โflea marketโ; mercado de pulgas, mercato delle pulci, ะะปะพัะธะฝัะน ััะฝะพะบ, Bit Pazarฤฑ, Vlooienmarkt, ่ทณ่คๅธๅบ.
For all of the concepts and such that are identical across cultures, few things have universal names. Typically they enter the language as loanwords as well (e.g. karaoke, from Japanese โ็ฉบใชใฑโ, hollow orchestra), so the term โflea marketโ stands out to me. Iโm sure there are lots of other similar things Iโm not aware of though.
Edit: Itโs worth mentioning that other than Swedish (native), English, and Japanese, I donโt speak any of the other languages. Iโve asked a Russian-American friend about the Russian term, and a friend in Taiwan about the Mandarin term. Otherwise Iโve checked dictionaries and the like. Donโt take my word as fact, Iโm not a linguist. It was just a pattern I found interesting, because the term itself is so particular. Any and all corrections are more than welcome.
Iโm also delighted by the discussion this has sparked! ๐
Unimportant extra: itโs not a calque in British English, because we donโt use it (to the best of my knowledge). Like a potluck, we have the concept but not a word for it, and we donโt use the American phrases either
We have a car boot sale, but thatโs literal
Thereโs probably regional exceptions
Perhaps the Giant London Flea Market will start a trend: https://www.queenelizabetholympicpark.co.uk/whats-on/giant-london-flea-market
Urgh, I resent the english language so much. Itโs so inconsistent and weird and unintuitive, which my dumb-dumb rules-focused brain just does not gel with. We should all just use Esperanto or something instead.
Also has millions of people ready to correct your pronunciation of a word that is written completely randomly compared to how itโs spoken.