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 Alan Stanton on
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The OED online (still free with a Haringey Library card) gives a U.S. origin to "overview" as: "A general survey; a comprehensive review of facts or ideas; a concise statement or outline of a subject. Also: a broad or overall view of a subject". In that sense, the earliest example given by the OED is from 1916. So a U.S. borrowing from German immigrants seems plausible.
However the OED also gives the meaning: "Inspection; overseeing, supervision". With an example from 1598. "Too bitter is thy iest. Are we betrayed thus to thy ouer-view?"
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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No Osbawn , that's a 'Quickie'
or a 'schnelle Nummer' in German
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Permalink Reply by james walsh on
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Thanks Alan that's handy to know
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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The establishment of kindergartens in NZ began in 1889 in Dunedin and was based on the ideas of German educationalist Friedrich Frobel.
As far as I'm aware there was no German immigration to NZ; it was overwhelmingly an English & Scottish affair and small numbers of Chinese. Later, small numbers of Danes & Croations. Postwar, some Dutch and Greek. Maoris were there before of course and there's been much Polynesian immigration, including from the former colony of German Samoa. The giant star rugby player Jonah Lomu is proud of his small part of German blood.
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I knew about the Samoa, Marshall Islands & Bismarck Archipelago German connection but thought there was more immigration to NZ. AUS has a large pocket in Adelaide.
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hhm.. that really was a 'Freudscher Fehler' or slip to you and me
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Apologies - I tried to delete my snitty comment but the system wouldn't let me
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Wabi-sabi - Japanese expression meaning "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete". Usually used to describe pottery when it comes from the kiln 'perfectly imperfect'. Hard for westerners to fathom this one. Wabi-sabi cannot be created in a contrived way therefore Wabi-sabi pottery can be worth eye watering sums of money.
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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I think "wabi-sabi" can also mean the beauty of things that are worn with age and use - like wooden furniture.
Another useful Japanese expression is "hara hachi bu" - the concept of eating until you are 80% full and letting digestion slowly do the rest of the work.
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