Untranslatable words

[NoJo]

Aint words great!

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Lost in translation
Monday October 09 2006
The Guardian


English may be a flexible, expressive language, but it doesn't have a single word that captures the sense of: "so angry one feels like throwing up." Japanese does: mukamuka. Adam Jacot de Boinod trawled the world's dictionaries for other vivid examples. The following are some of the indispensable terms collected in his book The Meaning of Tingo (Penguin, £6.99).

Altjiranga mitjina (Aranda, Australia): the timeless dimensions of dreams

Areodjarekput (Inuit): to exchange wives for a few days only

Cigerci (Turkish): a seller of liver and lungs

Cooperar (Spanish, Central America): to go along willingly with someone else to one's own disadvantage

Gagrom (Boro, India): to search for a thing below water by trampling

Giomlaireachd (Scottish Gaelic): the habit of dropping in at mealtimes

Gumusservi (Turkish): moonlight shining on water

Guree (Somali): to make room for a person to sit on a loaded camel

Ichigo-ichie (Japan): the practice of treasuring each moment and trying to make it perfect

Ilunga (Tshiluba, Congo): someone who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time

Jeruhuk (Malay): the act of stumbling into a hole that is concealed by long grass

Marilopotes (Ancient Greek): a gulper of coal dust

Nakhur (Persian): a camel that won't give milk until her nostrils are tickled

Pagezuar (Albanian): the state of dying before enjoying the happiness that comes with being married or seeing one's children married

Pana po'o (Hawaiian): to scratch your head in order to remember something

Pu'ukaula (Hawaiian): to set up one's wife as a stake in gambling

Razblyuto (Russian): the feeling for someone once but no longer loved

Seigneur-terrasse (French): a person who spends much time but little money in a cafe (literally: a terrace lord)

Torschlusspanik (German): the fear of diminishing opportunities as one gets older (literally: gate-closing panic; often applied to women worried about being too old to have children

Waterponie (Afrikaans): jet ski

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited

 

[cantdog]

These are marvelous!

 

[Trinique_Fire]

any Slovenian?

 

[elsol]

You can stop right at...

The split in spanish for making a word male or female.

Amigo --> male friend
Amiga --> female friend

Hijo --> Son
Hija --> Daughter

 

[McKenna]

I wonder what the correct usage is for some of these words. For instance:

I had an uncle who was giomlaireachd.

Is giomlaireachd a noun? Adjective?

(I think I sprung my tongue trying to prounounce the word.)

 

[Recidiva]

I love those. I'm going to make up new words today.

 

[elsol]

Pu'ukaula (Hawaiian): to set up one's wife as a stake in gambling

Poker... the hawaiian divorce court.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

I think I sprung my tongue trying to prounounce the word.

Want me to kiss it and make feel better?