- L’esprit d’escalier (French): "the spirit of the staircase," the feeling you get after leaving a conversation, when you think of all the things you should have said.
- Bricoleur (French): someone who starts building something with no clear plan.
- Frotteur (French): individuals who get their jollies by rubbing their crotches against the buttocks of women in crowds.
- L’appel du vide (French): translates literally as “call of the void.” The urge some people get to jump from high places when they encounter them, for example when close to the edge of cliffs.
- La douleur exquise (French): the exquisite pain of wanting someone who is ultimately unattainable.
- Dépaysment (French): the feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country.
- Backpfeifengesicht (German): a face badly in need of a fist.
- Geborgenheit (German): to feel completely safe; like nothing could ever harm you. Usually connected to a particular place or person.
- Fremdscham (German): embarrassment felt on behalf of someone else (often someone so ignorant to what they have done that they don’t know they should be embarrassed for themselves); vicarious embarrassment.
- Waldeinsamkeit (German): the feeling of being alone in the woods.
- Torschlusspanik (German): “gate-closing panic,” but its contextual meaning refers to the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages.
- Aware (Japanese): the bittersweetness of a brief and fading moment of transcendent beauty.
- Kyoikumama (Japanese): a mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement.
- Itadakimasu (Japanese): a phrase to start a meal with gratitude to all: from nature, to farmers, to cooks, and the people you share it with.
- Tsundoku (Japanese): buying books and not reading them; letting books pile up on shelves or floors or nightstands.
- Koi no yokan (Japanese): the sense one can have upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall in love. Differs from “love at first sight” as it does not imply that the feeling of love exists, only the knowledge that a future love is inevitable.
- Wei-wu-wei (Chinese): conscious nonaction. A deliberate, and principled, decision to do nothing whatsoever, and to do it for a particular reason.
- Toska (Russian): Vladmir Nabokov describes it best: “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.”
- Pretoogjes (Dutch): "fun-eyes," the eyes of a chuckling person who is up to some benign mischief.
- Voorpret (Dutch): literally “pre-fun.” The sense of enjoyment one feels before an event actually takes place.
- Cafuné (Portuguese): to tenderly run one’s fingers through someone’s hair.
- Cynefin (Welsh): a place where a being feels it ought to live. It is where nature around you feels right and welcoming.
- Sobremesa (Spanish): the time spent after lunch or dinner, talking to people you shared the meal with.
aug 20 2012 ∞
aug 20 2012 +
aug 20 2012 +