- L’esprit de escalier: (French) The feeling you get after leaving a conversation, when you think of all the things you should have said. Translated it means “the spirit of the staircase.”
- Waldeinsamkeit: (German) The feeling of being alone in the woods.
- Meraki: (Greek) Doing something with soul, creativity, or love.
- Forelsket: (Norwegian) The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love.
- Gheegle: (Tagalog) The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute.
- Pochemuchka: (Russian) A person who asks a lot of questions.
- Pena ajena: (Mexican Spanish) The embarrassment you feel watching someone else’s humiliation.
- Cualacino: (Italian) The mark left on a table by a cold glass.
- Ilunga: (Tshiluba, Congo) A person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time.
- Dépaysement (French: The sensation of being in another country.
- La douleur exquise (French): The heart-wrenching pain of wanting someone you can’t have. Even a Sex in the City episode was named after it!
- Chômer (French): To be unemployed, but because it’s a verb, it takes the state active.
- Profiter (French): To make the most of or take advantage of.
- Flâneur (French): As defined in the book Elegant Wits and Grand Horizontals, it’s “the deliberately aimless pedestrian, unencumbered by any obligation or sense of urgency, who, being French and therefore frugal, wastes nothing, including his time which he spends with the leisurely discrimination of a gourmet, savoring the multiple flavors of his city.”
- Retrouvailles (French): The happiness of meeting again after a long time.
- Sortable (French): An adjective for someone you can take anywhere without being embarrassed.
- Voila/voici (French): It’s so necessary that we use it all the time. “Voila” literally means “there it is” and “voici means “here it is.”
- Empêchement (French): An unexpected last-minute change of plans. A great excuse without having to be specific
- Saudade (Portuguese): a feeling of nostalgic longing for something or someone that one was fond of and which is lost.
- Gezelligheid: cozy, fun, quaint, or nice atmosphere, but can also connote belonging, time spent with loved ones, the fact of seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness
- Gemütlichkeit
sep 18 2010 ∞
sep 18 2010 +