Words with friends.
There are many situations in life where the English language lets you down.
Like when you experience the urge to pinch a cute baby animal, the despair of looking worse after a new haircut, or the frustration of coming up with a razor-sharp comeback… several hours after you needed it.
While languages like Japanese, German and Mandarin have come up with convenient verbal expressions for all of these situations, our inadequate language leaves us fumbling for the RIGHT term.
Click through this sensational gallery for more words to drop into your dinner party conversations. Some of the words are smart, some of them silly and some of them are simply, beautiful.
(Yagan indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego) – The wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start.
This post was originally published in two parts by Alex Wain on sobadsogood.com.
You can see the original posts here and here.
What situation do you wish there was a word for in English?
Comments
35 Comments so far
A Spanish word that I love and use with my kids is ‘vamos’ which means let’s go now!
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“Fatfest’ – gathering with friends and eating fatty, sugary goodness en masse.
“Sloppy mood” – so tired that your limbs are all weak and you can’t stop laughing.
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Two more Japanese words that I love -
genki – in Japanese instead of asking “how are you?” and getting an answer of “I am well” they say “o genki desu ka?” “hai genki desu!” – are you genki? Yes, I am genki. It is much more than just physical wellness but refers to physical, emotional, energy levels, pscychological wellness. You can also use it as an adjective for “energetic” – she is very genki.
And…
Natsukashi, which is a strong wistful feeling of nostalgia.
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but… nostalgia is in itself a strong wistful feeling.
It comes from Greek: “nostos–to return home” and “algia–a painful condition.” Literally, it is “a painful yearning to return home.”
The term was coined by Swiss physician Johannes Hofer in the late 17th century to describe a condition he was seeing among Swiss mercenaries who were working far from their homelands. Until the 1880′s, it was classified as a disease and its “symptoms” included despondency, melancholia, bouts of weeping, anorexia, and suicide attempts.
Generally speaking, it is a bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past.
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NUmber eight ringing someone’s phone and hanging up to get the other person to ring you does exist in English slang here in Australia – we call it “pranking”. As in “just prank me and I’ll call you back.”
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I just want Words With Friends to accept the word ‘fag’. Not as in offensive term for gay, just as in cigarette. Why can’t I use it?!?!?! Silly American game (that I’m kind of addicted to).
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Oh my goodness, I love these!! I wish I would stop feeling saudade for my ex
Like someone said below, “pranking” is the word for calling your friend for one ring so they’ll call you back and use their credit rather than yours. A very handy word for many povvo teens to know!
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There is a very important word missing here.. “Fika” which is Swedish and means to have coffee and cake and a good long chat.
Best. Verb. Ever.
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Love having a good fika in the afternoon.
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Oh I love this post!!!!
I speak german and there are sooo many words I wish I could use in english!
Schadenfreude is definitely something missing, though I think I’ve heard english-speaking people using it.
This post made me laugh, as I also haven’t heard Torschlusspanik in a very long time.
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the foreign word we don’t have on English that I use most is German, the word ‘doch’ (like loch but with a d). It is the ‘yes’ answer to a negative question, kind of like ‘It is so!’. If someone says something like “You don’t like sushi do you?” doch would mean “I do so!” I find it useful a lot.
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I so agree!
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Thye have the word ” doch” in French too, it is ” si. ” I think English get this idea over with the pantomime tone of voice as in ” oh yes you do”. I think English uses tone much more than other languages. I find that saying ooh la la in different tones can convey a lot of meaning that is missing in our vocabulary and everone of every nationality seems to get the drift. I live in Australia and I miss that no one else can understand our word “rort” which means to take advantage of something in an abusive way, e.g ” those dole bludgers are totally rorting the system!”
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i have always needed a word that means – when you’re at a concert of a band you really love and they play a song that you really love but never knew was them.
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I commented earlier today but for some reason my post didn’t appear. This seems to be a popular topic for some reason as Sam De Brito has blogged about “untranslatable” words today:
http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/culture/blogs/all-men-are-liars/untranslatable-20121106-28vea.html
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I’m a fan of the English soapies shown on Fox. Favourite word….mithering.
It’s one of those words that is very difficult to advise the meaning of. However, when used in the context of dialogue from an episode of “Coronation Street”, you just immediately know what the speaker intends.
I just like the sound of the word. It is used often in this house and no matter how we use the word, it always sounds right. Think of fussing over someone because they are ill. It can even be used in the context of giving someone a hard time.
“You’ve been mithering him all morning and no good has come of it”.
“It was him what done it. You been mithering me all morning about summit I haven’t done”.
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If there isn’t a word….just use the wrong word in your sentence. Those nice people at Macquarie will change the meaning of an existing word to suit your purposes.
Win, win !
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Actually, most people I know have been using the term “pranking” for number 8 since high school (8 or more years ago).
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Procrasti-baking: the act of baking something instead of attending to an important task such as studying.
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YES!
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The English language has a word for Prozvonit (number 8). It’s called a Humphrey (named after Humphrey B Bear) because he can’t talk, so he is likely to call once and hang up.
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My favourite word at the moment is rendezbooze. You know, as in, I’ll grab a bottle of chardy, rendezbooze at your place at 7, then we’ll decide where to go.
Reckon that will be accepted at my next Scrabble game?!
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I have just stolen that word !
It is too brilliant for words and I intend using it for the first time in about five minutes when I ask my wife if tonight she would prefer Pinot Grigio or Riesling.
Petal, you are my new linguistic guru !
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would that be Ramona’s Pinot Grigio from Desperate Housewives of New York?
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*blushes* thanks Bradley!
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I love the word Hyggelig!
I met two Danish girls on a trip a few months ago and now I can’t stop saying it. It’s one of those words that sounds just like it’s meaning. They pronounced it like ‘who-ge-lee’ and explained it as meaning something similar to ‘cozy’.
Love it!
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It is a wonderful word! I live in Denmark and “hygge” is such an important concept here. It can be used to describe many different things than just a feeling between friends, such as a place or a situation. In fact, my boyfriend and I won’t go to a cafe that isn’t hyggeligt. Cosy is the simplest way to translate it but it encompasses so much more than that.. Comfortable, warm, lovely, friendly, nice, cute, enjoyable etc etc
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What about schaudenfreud (spelling?)
I LOVE that word!
And while we’re at the English language failing…how about some more words for ‘love’? I love ice-cream, I love my sons – hardly the same kind of love.
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That’s why the greeks have 2 words for love. Eros for sexual love and agapi for innocent love. neither word is used to refer to your liking of ice cream or any other inanimate object.
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Actually, the greeks have more than two – it’s 4 or 5, as I recollect from something I read recently but can’t remember where or I would tell you :[ there should be a word for that!
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I’d love a few new words – one for when the person you have been chatting to online looks NOTHING like their profile picture, another for classless biatches who slag people sitting at the same table but just out of their hearing, and another for the shock you encounter when you realise that is indeed your own arse in that shop window.
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I love the German word gemutlich. It kind of means cozy but it describes that feeling if you walked into someone’s house and immediately felt comfortable and at ease, then you would describe their house as gemutlich.
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German is full of amazing words like that.
And it seems to come with the ability to create new ones as needed. Brilliant!
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German is the best!
I love how practical some of their words are, like the word for gloves translates to ‘hand-shoes’ in English and lift/elevator translates to ‘up-train’!
So cute.
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I just posted to FB that I had learned a new appropriate word: Torschlusspanik. And the depaysement that is largely responsible for that. Sigh.
On the positive side…I love new words!
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