Untranslatable Words http://www.global-lingo.com/untranslatable-words-ultimate-list/
G e r m a n: •
Backpfeifengesicht – A face badly in need of a fist.
•
Erklärungsnot – The state of having to quickly explain yourself.
•
Fachidiot – Someone who knows a great deal about a very narrow subject.
•
Fahrvergnügen – The love of simply driving.
•
Fernweh – Feeling homesick for a place you have never been to.
•
Fisselig – Being flustered to the point of incompetence, it conveys a temporary state of inexactitude and sloppiness that is elicited by another person’s nagging.
•
Handschuhschneeballwerfer – A coward willing to criticize and abuse from a safe distance.
•
Kummerspeck – Literally grief bacon, the binge eating that follows an emotional blow.
•
Lebensmüde – Weary of life.
•
Schadenfreude – Enjoyment obtained from the misery of others.
•
Schilderwald – A street crowded with so many road signs that you become lost.
•
Schlimmbesserung – A so-called improvement that makes things worse.
•
Sitzfleisch – Those who possess a lot of seat meat are able to sit through and weather something incredibly hard or boring.
•
Torschlusspanik – Literally fear of a closed door, fear of losing opportunities because of ageing, especially concerning women who want children.
•
Waldeinsamkeit – The feeling of being alone in the woods.Weichei – Literally soft egg; someone who is weak and cowardly.
•
Weltschmerz – Literally world grief, it means a gloomy, romanticized world-weary sadness, experienced most often by privileged youth.
J a p a n e s e: •
Age-otori – To look worse after a haircut.
•
Arigata-meiwaku – 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 favour, and then things went wrong and caused you a lot of trouble, yet in the end social conventions required you to express gratitude.
•
Aware – The bittersweetness of a brief and fading moment of transcendent beauty.
•
Boketto – Gazing vacantly into the distance.
•
Chindogu – A solution to a common problem that’s pretty useless otherwise.
•
Ikigai – A reason to get up in the morning, a reason to live.
•
Koi no yokan – The feeling of knowing that you will soon fall in love with the person you have just met.
•
Komorebi – Sunlight that filters through the leaves of trees.
•
Kyoikumama – Mother who pushes her children into academic achievements.
•
Nekama – A man who pretends to be a woman on the internet.
•
Shouganai – Connected to the idea of fate, this word means that something can’t be helped, so why worry about it? Worrying won’t stop the bad things from happening; it will only stop you from enjoying the good ones.
•
Tsundoku – The act of leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piling it up together with other such unread books.
•
Wabi – A flawed detail that creates an elegant whole.
•
Yoko meshi – Literally a meal eaten sideways, refers to the peculiar stress induced by speaking a foreign language.
•
Yūgen – A profound, mysterious sense of the beauty of the universe – and the sad beauty of human suffering.
S p a n i s h: •
Anteayer – A one-word way of saying the day before yesterday or a shorter version of ‘antes de ayer’.
•
Chingada – [Mexico] A hellish, imaginary, faraway place where you send all those who annoy you.
•
Desvelado – Being unable to sleep or to be sleep deprived.
•
Duende – The mysterious power that a work of art can have over a person, deeply affecting him/her.
•
Encandilar – To see spots/to be blinded by a flash of bright light.
•
Estrenar – To wear or use something for the first time.
•
Friolero – A person who is especially sensitive to cold water and temperatures.
•
Madrugada – The time of day occurring between past midnight and early morning.
•
Pena ajena – [Mexico] The embarrassment you feel watching someone else’s humiliation.
•
Sobremesa – The moment after eating a meal when the food is gone but the conversation is still flowing at the table.
•
Tuerto – A man with only one eye.
•
Tutear – To treat someone informally by addressing them as tú instead of the more formal usted.
S w e d i s h: •
Badkruka – Somebody reluctant to go into a body of water while swimming outdoors.
•
Gökotta – To wake up early in the morning with the purpose of going outside to hear the first birds sing.
•
Lagom – Not too much and not too little, but just the right amount of anything.
•
Mångata – The road-like reflection of the Moon on the water.
•
Tretår – A second refill of a cup of coffee; a ‘threefill’.
•
Uffda – A sympathetic word to be used when someone else is in pain. It combines ‘Ouch for you’ and ‘Oh, I’m sorry you hurt yourself’.
F r e n c h: •
Bérézina – More than a serious failure, a defeat.
•
Dépaysement – The unsteady feeling you get when you are away from your home country or away from your origin in general.
•
L’esprit de l’escalier – Literally stairwell wit, the feeling one gets when thinking of the perfect thing to say just a moment too late.
•
Rire dans sa barbe – To laugh in your beard quietly while thinking about something that happened in the past.
•
S’encoubler – [Switzerland] Losing balance or falling because you got entangled in something, like a cable.
F i l i p i n o: •
Gigil – The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute.
•
Tampo – Withdrawing affection from a person when one’s feelings have been hurt.
R u s s i a n: •
Listopad – The falling of the leaves.
•
Odnoliub – Someone who has only one love in his or her life, or someone who is capable of loving only one at a time.
•
Pochemuchka – A person who asks too many questions.
•
Toska – Misery, boredom, yearning, and anguish.
•
Zapoi – Two or more days of drunkenness usually involving a journey or waking up in an unexpected place.
I t a l i a n: •
Cavoli Riscaldati – Literally reheated cabbage, an attempt to revive an old romantic relationship.
•
Culaccino – The mark left on a table by a cold glass.
•
Fare la scarpetta – to mop the sauce or whatever’s left on your plate with a piece of bread.
•
Gattara – A woman, often old and lonely, who devotes herself to stray cats.
F i n n i s h: •
Jaksaa – A lack of enthusiasm to do something.
•
Lieko – A trunk of tree that has submerged to the bottom of a lake.
•
Tokka – A large herd of reindeer.
G r e e k: •
Filotimo – A friend of honour, but it also implies dignity, pride, sacrifice and respect.
•
Parea – A group of friends that get together to enjoy nothing else but sharing their life experiences, philosophies, values, and ideas.
•
Psithurism – The sound of leaves rustling in the wind.
N o r w e g i a n: •
Forelsket – The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love.
•
Pålegg – Anything and everything you can put on a slice of bread.
•
Utepils – To sit outside on a sunny day enjoying a beer.
P o l i s h: •
Dozywocie – Parental contract with children guaranteeing lifelong support.
•
Formacja – A state of mind and its own culture of a generation.
•
Radioukacz – Telegraphist for the resistance movements on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain.
I n d o n e s i a n: •
Jayus – A joke so poor and unfunny that one cannot help but laugh.
•
Mencolek – The trick when you tap someone lightly on the opposite shoulder from behind to fool them.
M a l a y: •
Manja – Gooey, childlike, and coquettish behaviour by women designed to elicit sympathy or pampering by men.
•
Pisan Zapra – The time needed to eat a banana.
P o r t u g u e s e: •
Saudade – Melancholic longing or nostalgia for a person, place or thing that is far away from you.
•
Cafuné – [Brazil] The act of running your fingers through someone’s hair in a loving way.
S c o t t i s h: •
Suilk – To swallow, gulp, suck with a slobbering noise.
•
Tartle – To hesitate in recognizing a person or thing.
Y i d d i s h: •
Fargin – To wholeheartedly appreciate the success of others.
•
Shlimazl – An inept, bungling person who is chronically unlucky.
•
Trepverter – Literally, staircase words, a witty riposte or comeback you think of only when it is too late to use.
C z e c h: •
Litost – A state of anxiety and torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.
•
Prozvonit – To call a mobile phone only to have it ring once so that the other person would call back allowing the caller not to spend money on minutes.
D a n i s h: •
Arbejdsglæde – Literally work happiness, the feeling of happiness provoked by a satisfying job.
•
Hygge – Relaxing with a few friends and loved ones while having a meal or some drinks.
D u t c h: •
Uitwaaien – Going out for a walk or to the countryside in order to clear one’s mind.
•
Voorpret – Literally pre-fun, the pleasure feeling one might have before a pleasant event, like a vacation.
O t h e r L a n g u a g e s: •
Estonian: Leiliviskaja – The person who makes steam in a sauna by throwing water on the hot rocks.
•
Gaelic: Sgriob – The itchiness that overcomes the upper lip just before taking a sip of whisky.
•
Hawaiian: Pana Po’o – The act of scratching your head in order to help you remember something.
•
Hindi: Chai-Pani – Money given to someone, often a bureaucratic worker, to get things done.
•
Hungarian: Házisárkány – Literally indoor dragon, a nagging restless spouse.
•
Icelandic: Tima – Not being ready to spend time or money on a specific thing, despite being able to afford it.
•
Inuit: Iktsuarpok – The feeling of anticipation that leads you to keep looking outside to see if someone is coming.
•
Irish: Cúbóg – A collective noun for Easter eggs.
•
Korean: Won – The reluctance on a person’s part to let go of an illusion.
•
Lithuanian: Kaapshljmurslis – Being cramped in public transportation during rush hour.
•
Maori (Cook Islands): Papakata – To have one leg shorter than the other.
•
Pascuense (Easter Island): Tingo – To gradually steal all the possessions out of a neighbour’s house by borrowing and not returning.
•
Persian: Zhaghzhagh – The chattering of teeth from the cold or from rage.
O t h e r L a n g u a g e s: •
Romanian: Dor – The feeling of longing/craving/yearning for someone or something, combined with sadness.
•
Rukwangali (Namibia): Hanyauku – The act of walking on tiptoes across warm sand.
•
Samoan: Faamiti – To make a squeaking sound by sucking air past the lips in order to gain the attention of a dog or child
•
Slovenian: Vedriti – To shelter from the rain.
•
Tagalog: Kilig – The weak in the knees, spontaneous blushing and quickening pulse, butterfly in the stomach sensation.
•
Tamil: Oodal – The overly exaggerated, fake anger that follows a lovers’ quarrel.
•
Tshiluba (Congo): Ilunga – A person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time.
•
Tulu Indian: Karelu – The mark left on the skin by wearing something tight.
•
Turkish: Aşermek – The experience of craving certain foods while pregnant.
•
Urdu: Goya – The transporting suspension of disbelief that can occur i.e. in good storytelling.
•
Yagan: Mamihlapinatapei – A wordless yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start.