Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
25 handy words that simply don’t exist In English
"Age-otori" is Japanese for looking worse after a haircut
I loved this find on the So Bad So Good website via yesterday's Metro - 25 words that don't exist in English.
Although English is the world's most widely spoken language, there are some words we just don't have. Many of those reflect particular facets of other cultures that I suppose we just don't feel it's important to recognise. Perhaps, the most famous example is the clutch of a dozen or so words in the Innuit language for snow versus our own single word (or two if you count sleet).
So Bad So Good came up with a serious but entertaining list of twenty five words, but I'm going to start off with my own contribution.
Lagom: Swedish word reflecting an important strand in Swedish culture, meaning just the right amount, not too much and not too little, without extremes. In a single word, lagom is said to describe the basis of the Swedish national psyche, one of consensus and equality. Despite a shift towards individualism and risk-taking in recent years, it is still widely considered ideal to be modest and avoid extremes.
Now here's a selection SBSG's 25:
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 .
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.
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 (French): 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 .
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 .
Sgriob (Gaelic): The itchiness that overcomes the upper lip just before taking a sip of whisky.
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 .
Tingo (Pascuense language of Easter Island): to borrow objects one by one from a neighbour’s house until there is nothing left
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Thanks for this one James - am half way through the Theroux video. Not sure I'm any the wiser wiser though. Seems like a complex concept to say the least.
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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Then there's "mono no aware" which is the fleeting joy of seeing beautiful cherry blossoms, pierced with sadness at their imminent passing. Rather like what Keats expresses in "Ode on Melancholy'...
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Permalink Reply by Kit on
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Hiraeth: a Welsh expression to convey a deep feeling for a place or person that blends melancholy, desire, homesickness, longing and nostalgia. Similar to the Portuguese saudade.
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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Peely wally: Pale and ill looking, off colour. Scottish. I grew up with this, a very handy word that I've never found an alternative to.
I love age-otori. What a handy word. I know that look so well.
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Permalink Reply by Takaokagiejin on
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bar kodo : Japanese for a Bobby Charlton combover hair style. Because the wisps of long black hair scraped over pale skin looks like a bar code
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it's all true :)
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Love these two too. Seems like the Japanese have a thing about words for hairstyles.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Alison - you'll be familiar with another rain-related word that I forgot: " drookit " and its extension " fair drookit "
Hmm - maybe we shouldn't get into Scottish expressions: that would be a hell of a stramash
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Another scots rain word: dreich - as I understand it a general unraining atmospheric wetness.
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I would say it's dry, tedious - often used about sermons - "The minister was gey dreich the day "
( until he got onto the subject of hochmagandy and bidie-ins )
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