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Old June 28, 2012, 12:16 PM
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Rusty Rusty is offline
Señor Speedy
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
Posts: 11,299
Native Language: American English
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'False friends' is the term you're looking for. False friends have the same ancestor but have divergent meanings.
'False cognates' is the term for words that look like they have the same ancestor but do not.

The second meaning of 'irritación' is understood in other Central American countries. My dictionaries list it as being used in Mexico and Spain. So, we need to hear from some of the South Americans to determine how universal it is.
Note that both meanings are used in Cental America and Spain. English has a whole bunch of words with more than one meaning. So does Spanish. Context makes the usage clear.
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