- Joined
- Sep 6, 2010
- Messages
- 3,985
- Points
- 0
I love to take the time to choose the ideal words when I’m writing something, but sometimes the perfect word to describe something doesn’t exist in the English language. The following 28 words do not have direct equivalents in English. Some of them would definitely be useful if they existed in English.
.
Age-otori (Japanese): To look worse after a haircut
.
Arigata-meiwaku (Japanese): An act someone does for you that you didn’t want to have them do and tried to avoid having them do, but they went ahead anyway, determined to do you a favor, and then things went wrong and caused you a lot of trouble, yet in the end social conventions required you to express gratitude
.
Backpfeifengesicht (German): A face badly in need of a fist
.
Bakku-shan (Japanese): A beautiful girl… as long as she’s being viewed from behind
.
Desenrascanco (Portuguese): “to disentangle” yourself out of a bad situation (To MacGyver it)
.
Duende (Spanish): a climactic show of spirit in a performance or work of art, which might be fulfilled in flamenco dancing, or bull-fighting, etc.
.
Forelsket (Norwegian): The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love
.
Gigil (pronounced Gheegle; Filipino): The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute
.
Guanxi (Mandarin): in traditional Chinese society, you would build up good guanxi by giving gifts to people, taking them to dinner, or doing them a favor, but you can also use up your gianxi by asking for a favor to be repaid
.
Ilunga (Tshiluba, Congo): A person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time
.
L’esprit de l’escalier (or l’esprit d’escalier): usually translated as “staircase wit,” is the act of thinking of a clever comeback when it is too late to deliver it
.
Litost (Czech): a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery
.
Mamihlapinatapai (Yaghan): A look between two people that suggests an unspoken, shared desire
.
Manja (Malay): “to pamper”, it describes gooey, childlike and coquettish behavior by women designed to elicit sympathy or pampering by men. “His girlfriend is a damn manja. Hearing her speak can cause diabetes.”
.
Meraki (pronounced may-rah-kee; Greek): Doing something with soul, creativity, or love. It’s when you put something of yourself into what you’re doing
.
Nunchi (Korean): the subtle art of listening and gauging another’s mood. In Western culture, nunchi could be described as the concept of emotional intelligence. Knowing what to say or do, or what not to say or do, in a given situation. A socially clumsy person can be described as ‘nunchi eoptta’, meaning “absent of nunchi”
.
Pena ajena (Mexican Spanish): The embarrassment you feel watching someone else’s humiliation
.
Pochemuchka (Russian): a person who asks a lot of questions
.
Schadenfreude (German): the pleasure derived from someone else’s pain
.
Sgiomlaireachd (Scottish Gaelic): When people interrupt you at mealtime
.
Sgriob (Gaelic): The itchiness that overcomes the upper lip just before taking a sip of whisky
.
Shlimazl (Yiddish): Somebody who has nothing but bad luck
.
Stam (Hebrew): An agreement out of amusement and frustration that something doesn’t have a satisfactory answer among those talking
.
Taarradhin (Arabic): implies a happy solution for everyone, or “I win. You win.” It’s a way of reconciling without anyone losing face. Arabic has no word for “compromise,” in the sense of reaching an arrangement via struggle and disagreement
.
Tatemae and Honne (Japanese): What you pretend to believe and what you actually believe, respectively
.
Tingo (Pascuense language of Easter Island): to borrow objects one by one from a neighbor’s house until there is nothing left
.
Waldeinsamkeit (German): The feeling of being alone in the woods
.
Yoko meshi (Japanese): literally ‘a meal eaten sideways,’ referring to the peculiar stress induced by speaking a foreign language.
.
Age-otori (Japanese): To look worse after a haircut
.
Arigata-meiwaku (Japanese): An act someone does for you that you didn’t want to have them do and tried to avoid having them do, but they went ahead anyway, determined to do you a favor, and then things went wrong and caused you a lot of trouble, yet in the end social conventions required you to express gratitude
.
Backpfeifengesicht (German): A face badly in need of a fist
.
Bakku-shan (Japanese): A beautiful girl… as long as she’s being viewed from behind
.
Desenrascanco (Portuguese): “to disentangle” yourself out of a bad situation (To MacGyver it)
.
Duende (Spanish): a climactic show of spirit in a performance or work of art, which might be fulfilled in flamenco dancing, or bull-fighting, etc.
.
Forelsket (Norwegian): The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love
.
Gigil (pronounced Gheegle; Filipino): The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute
.
Guanxi (Mandarin): in traditional Chinese society, you would build up good guanxi by giving gifts to people, taking them to dinner, or doing them a favor, but you can also use up your gianxi by asking for a favor to be repaid
.
Ilunga (Tshiluba, Congo): A person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time
.
L’esprit de l’escalier (or l’esprit d’escalier): usually translated as “staircase wit,” is the act of thinking of a clever comeback when it is too late to deliver it
.
Litost (Czech): a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery
.
Mamihlapinatapai (Yaghan): A look between two people that suggests an unspoken, shared desire
.
Manja (Malay): “to pamper”, it describes gooey, childlike and coquettish behavior by women designed to elicit sympathy or pampering by men. “His girlfriend is a damn manja. Hearing her speak can cause diabetes.”
.
Meraki (pronounced may-rah-kee; Greek): Doing something with soul, creativity, or love. It’s when you put something of yourself into what you’re doing
.
Nunchi (Korean): the subtle art of listening and gauging another’s mood. In Western culture, nunchi could be described as the concept of emotional intelligence. Knowing what to say or do, or what not to say or do, in a given situation. A socially clumsy person can be described as ‘nunchi eoptta’, meaning “absent of nunchi”
.
Pena ajena (Mexican Spanish): The embarrassment you feel watching someone else’s humiliation
.
Pochemuchka (Russian): a person who asks a lot of questions
.
Schadenfreude (German): the pleasure derived from someone else’s pain
.
Sgiomlaireachd (Scottish Gaelic): When people interrupt you at mealtime
.
Sgriob (Gaelic): The itchiness that overcomes the upper lip just before taking a sip of whisky
.
Shlimazl (Yiddish): Somebody who has nothing but bad luck
.
Stam (Hebrew): An agreement out of amusement and frustration that something doesn’t have a satisfactory answer among those talking
.
Taarradhin (Arabic): implies a happy solution for everyone, or “I win. You win.” It’s a way of reconciling without anyone losing face. Arabic has no word for “compromise,” in the sense of reaching an arrangement via struggle and disagreement
.
Tatemae and Honne (Japanese): What you pretend to believe and what you actually believe, respectively
.
Tingo (Pascuense language of Easter Island): to borrow objects one by one from a neighbor’s house until there is nothing left
.
Waldeinsamkeit (German): The feeling of being alone in the woods
.
Yoko meshi (Japanese): literally ‘a meal eaten sideways,’ referring to the peculiar stress induced by speaking a foreign language.
.
