> To add to that, non-native speakers sometimes make mistakes that set
> it off. I remember an embarrassing case where I thought the word
> "gross" came from the German "Grosshaft", which means quite the
> opposite (great, fabulous), and responded to a new idea on a list with
> a heartily meant "Gross!".
Indeed, that German word would be "großartig!" (often spelled "grossartig"
especially in environments without easy access to the German "ß".
Responding "Gross!" would amount to saying "That's a great idea in that
it is all-encompassing and using a generic concept to nicely solve a
specific (class of) problem(s) and then some.". Entirely reasonable (if
a bit unusually worded) in German :-)
Karsten Hilbert