It is common knowledge to readers of this blog that I am absolutely, legitimately word-crazy. I admit my knowledge of words is mainly superficial, I am often unaware of their origin. So I'd best classify myself as a word-scavenger owing to my never-ending fascination with all words beautiful. With a word being added to the English language every 98 minutes, English remains a personal favorite for its resilience and flexibility. What interests me are words from languages around the world that are seemingly untranslatable into English. Here are a few I loved :
Pana Po'o- To scratch your head in order to remember something.
(from the land of hula dances)
Tartle (Scottish)- The act of hesitating when introducing someone because you've forgotten their name.
(Reminds me of my absent-minded dad)
Gummuservi (Turkish)- Moonlight shining on water.
(This made me smile :) )
Esprit d' Escalier- The witty comeback that you think of moments after leaving the situation in which you might have been able to use it.
(We've all been there, haven't we?)
Katahara Itai (Japanese)- Laughing so much your stomach hurts. :D
Zhaghzhagh (Persian)- The chattering of teeth from cold or rage.
Kyoikumama - A mother who relentlessly pushes her children towards academic achievement.
The word originates from Japan. Befitting, I say. :P
Meraki (Greek)- Doing something with soul, creativity and love.
Luftmench- An impractical dreamer with no business sense.
Plimpplamppletteren (Dutch)- The skimming of a flat stone as many times as possible across the surface of the water.
(There is a word for this. Yes. :O)
Mencolek- You know that trick where you tap someone lightly on the opposite shoulder from behind to fool them? The Indonesians have a word for it. :D
A similar word is Vybafnout of Czech origin, which is to jump out from behind and say boo!
And the most offensive but the one that cracked me up the most IS:
Bakku-Shan (Japanese)- A girl who looks pretty from behind but ugly from the front.
Hahahahahahahahahaha!
Share your favourites with me :)
(from the land of hula dances)
Tartle (Scottish)- The act of hesitating when introducing someone because you've forgotten their name.
(Reminds me of my absent-minded dad)
Gummuservi (Turkish)- Moonlight shining on water.
(This made me smile :) )
Esprit d' Escalier- The witty comeback that you think of moments after leaving the situation in which you might have been able to use it.
(We've all been there, haven't we?)
Katahara Itai (Japanese)- Laughing so much your stomach hurts. :D
Zhaghzhagh (Persian)- The chattering of teeth from cold or rage.
The word originates from Japan. Befitting, I say. :P
Meraki (Greek)- Doing something with soul, creativity and love.
Luftmench- An impractical dreamer with no business sense.
Plimpplamppletteren (Dutch)- The skimming of a flat stone as many times as possible across the surface of the water.
(There is a word for this. Yes. :O)
Mencolek- You know that trick where you tap someone lightly on the opposite shoulder from behind to fool them? The Indonesians have a word for it. :D
A similar word is Vybafnout of Czech origin, which is to jump out from behind and say boo!
And the most offensive but the one that cracked me up the most IS:
Bakku-Shan (Japanese)- A girl who looks pretty from behind but ugly from the front.
Hahahahahahahahahaha!
Share your favourites with me :)
8 comments:
Enjoyed every bit! lovely blog!
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U somehow find words that somehow are related or we think of in real life, but never tend to use...like these foreign words... you fascinate me girl :) ...thanks for sharing :)
Lol.
Jislaaik! (That's a South African expression of pleased astonishment.) This is a wonderful list! My personal favourite here is Esprit d'Escalier..that happens to me waaaayyyy too many times man!
Oh, and another lovely French phrase for you which I picked up from this book called Cheri by Collette. It's 'reculer pour mieux sauter' which means to make use of a withdrawal or a setback so as to advance or succeed all the more..literally, it is 'to draw back in order to leap better'.
The French are a very quirky people I think. Also, they call an orgasm 'le petit mort' or 'the little death'. So I suppose caution must be exercised around them. :D
Hahahahhahahahaha, Orgasm is the little death? That's hilarious. Jislaaik!:D
Esprit d' Escalier my fav!! Never knew it has happened to that many people!
Maybe you will want to put a facebook button to your site. I just bookmarked the site, although I must do this manually. Just my $.02 :)
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