Arabic

  • Khalas: A term used to mean that something is completely and irrevocably done, finished, and over
  • Ya’aburnee: A declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person, because of how difficult it would be to live without them

Cheyenne

  • Vovohe Tahtsenaotse: To prepare the mouth before speaking by moving or licking one’s lips

Chinese

  • Méibànfǎ: Literally “no solution”; it’s a sense of disappointment and acknowledging that life has its limits
  • Qìzhì: An intangible quality one carries as the result of a good upbringing and education; if a woman, it means she is not necessarily beautiful, but has a lot of substance and elegance.

Czech

  • Litost: A state of agony and torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery. "As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I find it difficult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it." -- Milan Kundera
  • Modré Pondeli: When you skip coming in to work to give yourself a three-day weekend (a blue Monday)

Danish

  • Hygge: Complete absence of anything annoying, irritating or emotionally overwhelming, and the presence of and pleasure from comforting, gentle and soothing things
  • Morgenfrisk: Feeling rested after a good night’s sleep

Dutch

  • Plimpplamppletteren: Skimming stones
  • Uitwaaien: To take a brief break in the country side to clear one’s head
  • Voorpret: The sense of enjoyment we feel before an event actually takes places

Filipino

  • Abubot: Things you collect or bring with you that you don't necessarily need; decorative stuff
  • Asa: A form of expression that means 'you can try but don't think you'll get anywhere'; commonly used as a form of provocation to a person the speaker particularly dislikes
  • Ate: Eldest sister
  • Gigil: The irresistible urge to pinch someone because the object/person is well liked/loved
  • Kuya: Eldest brother
  • Merienda: A light meal eaten in the late afternoon, halfway between lunch and dinner
  • Nakakahinayang: A feeling of regret for not having used something or not having taken advantage of a situation. Can be translated as “what a waste,” but it addresses more directly the feeling of encountering something you ought to preserve or keep but are afraid to take the risk of doing so, in fear of the regret you may experience later
  • Opo: Yes, but said to elderly with full respect
  • Pakikisama: Going along with things/other people (in the same vein as camaraderie but not quite); the effort to build good social/interpersonal relationship with others for whichever reason primarily because of some fear, insecurity, or hope that with doing so, things will be smoother
  • Sigurista: A person who is particularly concerned that everything goes as planned; the kind of person who will not initiate a particular action unless he feels 100% sure that the desired result would be obtained.
  • Tampo: Usually translated as 'to sulk', but it does not quite mean that; it is a way of withdrawing, of expressing hurt feelings in a culture where outright expression of anger is discouraged. For example, if a child who feels hurt or neglected may show 'tampo' by withdrawing from the group, refusing to eat, and resisting expressions of affection such as touching or kissing
  • Wisik: The act of sprinkling with water by hand

Finnish

  • Myötähäpeä: A shared sense of shame

French

  • Dépaysement: The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country; disorientation due to experience of unfamiliar surroundings; a sense in which one is “a fish out of water”
  • Esprit de l’escalier: The feeling you get after leaving a conversation, when you think of all the things you should have said
  • L’appel du vide: "The call of the void" is the literal translation, but more significantly it's used to describe the instinctive urge to jump from high places
  • La petite mort: Literally “the little death”; a metaphor for orgasm. More widely, it can refer to the spiritual release that comes with orgasm, or a short period of melancholy or transcendence, as a result of the expenditure of the “life force”
  • Le Mot Juste: The right word at exactly the right time
  • Tartine: A slice of bread

German

  • Backpfeifengesicht: A face that’s just begging for somebody to put their fist in it
  • Fisselig: Flustered to the point of incompetence – a temporary state of inexactitude and sloppiness elicited by another person’s nagging
  • Kummerspeck: The weight that you gain by overeating when you’re worried about something
  • Papierkrieg: Bureaucratic paperwork whose only purpose is to block you from getting the refund, insurance payment, or other benefit that you have coming
  • Putzfimmel: A mania for cleaning
  • Schadenfreude: The feeling of pleasure derived by seeing another’s misfortune
  • Scheissenbedauern: The disappointment one feels when something turns out not nearly as badly as one had expected
  • Torschlusspanik: The fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages
  • Waldeinsamkeit: The feeling of being alone in the woods

Greek

  • Meraki: Doing something with soul, creativity, or love
  • Volta: At sundown, the leisurely walk or stroll along the main street or seaside, to meet friends or neighbours

Hawaiian

  • Pana po’o: To scratch your head in an attempt to remember something you’ve forgotten

Hungarian

  • Szimpatikus: The feeling you get when you meet a person for the first time and your intuition tells you he is a good person

Indonesian

  • Belum: Translates to "not yet," but with positive, optimistic connotations; it is used for tasks/events not yet undertaken or experienced, yet that are hoped to be; used in response to questions where the answer in English would be “No, I haven’t”, or “No, I will never” just so the chance of that event happening isn’t ruled out. e.g. “Have you eaten dinner?” right through to “Have you climbed Mount Everest?”
  • Latah: Uncontrollable habit of saying embarrassing things
  • Mencolek: Old trick where you tap someone lightly on the opposite shoulder from behind to fool them
  • Neko-neko: One who has a creative idea that only makes things worse
  • Rujuk: To remarry your ex-wife

Inuit (grouped under Eskimo–Aleut languages)

  • Iktsuarpok: A feeling of anticipation when you’re waiting for someone to show up at your house and you keep going outside to see if they’re there yet

Iran

  • Shitta: Leftover dinner that’s eaten for breakfast

Irish

  • Suaimhneas croi: A bursting happiness and peace encountered after a task has been finished and there is nothing left to be done

Italian

  • Attaccabottoni: Someone who corners casual acquaintances or even complete strangers for the purpose of telling them their miserable life stories
  • Culacino: The mark left on a table by a moist glass

Japanese

  • Bakku-shan: The experience of seeing a woman who appears pretty from behind but not from the front
  • Boketto: The act of gazing vacantly into the distance without thinking
  • Doki doki: The heart pounding quickly from excitement
  • Ganbaru: To try as hard as you possibly can; to persist and persevere until you succeed; to hang in there
  • Jibaku: The act of unintentionally or inadvertently demolishing your own argument in the process of defending your view
  • Kaizen: Small incremental changes that add up to large improvements over time
  • Karoshi: Death from overwork
  • Koi No Yokan: The sense upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall into love
  • Komorebi: The sort of scattered, dappled light effect that happens when sunlight shines in through tree leaves
  • Mono no aware: Literally “the pathos of things”, also sometimes translated as “an empathy toward things”, or “a sensitivity to ephemera”. It is a term used to describe a state of awareness of the impermanence or transience of things, and the associated feeling of gentle sadness or wistfulness at their passing
  • Wabi-Sabi: A way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay
  • Yuugen: An awareness of the universe that triggers feelings too deep and mysterious for words

Korean

  • Jung: A special feeling that is stronger than mere ‘love’ and can only often be proved by having survived a huge argument with someone
  • Won: Reluctance to let go of an illusion

Malay

  • Gigi rongak: The space between the teeth

Papua New Guinea

  • Mokita: The truth that everyone knows, but no one will speak about

Pascuense (language of Easter Island, an island in the south Pacific, belonging to Chile)

  • Ngaobera: A sore throat caused by too much screaming
  • Tingo: The act of taking objects one desires from the house of a friend by gradually borrowing all of them

Persian

  • Zhaghzhagh: The chattering of teeth from the cold or from rage

Polish

  • Fucha: Using your employer’s time and resources for your own purposes

Portuguese

  • Cafuné: The act of tenderly running one’s fingers through someone’s hair
  • Saudade: The feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost

Russian

  • Beloruchka: A person who tends to avoid doing any dirty work
  • Pochemuchka: A person who asks a lot of questions
  • Razbliuto: The feeling you have for a person you used to love, but don’t anymore
  • Toska: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.” -- Vladimir Nabokov

Scottish

  • Dreich: A miserably wet day
  • Moit: Pretended indifference/shyness while speaking about a thing one is very keen for
  • Tartle: To momentarily forget the name of the person you’re talking to; the act of hestitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name

Spanish

  • Ataoso: One who sees problems with everything
  • Estrenar: To wear or use something for the first time
  • Gorrero: Someone who never picks up the check
  • Pena ajena: Shame experienced on behalf of another person, even though that person may not experience shame

Swedish

  • Gökotta: To wake up early in the morning with the purpose of going outside to hear the first birds sing
  • Orka: To not have the ability/energy to be able to do
    any longer

Thai

  • Greng-jai: That feeling you get when you don’t want someone to do something for you because it would be a pain for them
  • Sabsung: When you’re bored or have had a long day, it’s the thing that brings you back to life or livens up your day; whatever it is that makes you happy to be alive

Turkish

  • Gumusservi: Moonlight shining on water

Ulwa (a Misumalpan language from Nicaragua)

  • Yuputka: A word made for walking in the woods at night; it’s the phantom sensation of something crawling on your skin

Welsh

  • Glas wen: A smile that is insincere or mocking
  • Hiraeth: A feeling of longing associated with displacement, but not necessarily displacement from one’s original home; an intense yearning to be somewhere you are not

Yagan (indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego)

  • Mamihlapinatapei: The wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start

Yiddish (a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin)

  • Luftmensch: An impractical dreamer with no business sense; literally, air person.

Sources

nov 14 2011 ∞
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