Appendix talk:Terms considered difficult or impossible to translate into English/Checked

This is an archive of terms which have been accepted into the list, or rejected because they can be adequately translated, or because the claimed definitions cannot be shown to be attested. Terms which have not yet been checked are at Appendix talk:Terms considered difficult or impossible to translate into English/Candidates.

Assorted

• nakkele (Tulu) - A man who licks whatever the food has been served on.

  "plate licker", "pot licker", "pot scraper", "bowl licker", etc. - -sche (discuss) 21:55, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

• ondinnonk (Iroquoian) - A word from the Iroquois tribes of North America referring to the soul’s innermost desires and its angelic nature. To follow one’s ondinnonk is thought to often lead to positive and kindly acts.

dreams, kinda. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 05:50, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

The definition is almost certainly spurious, greatly exaggerated and romanticised. - -sche (discuss) 21:27, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

• խաչքար (xačʻkʻar) (Armenian) - ‘cross-stone’, a carved, memorial stele bearing a cross

khachkar — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 03:24, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• snorker (Early English) – One who gets into others people's business.

busybody? --Haplology (talk) 12:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Wow, that's a great word. I think we should revive this one -- snorker really sounds like what it means. :)

Along similar lines, I think we should revive the early-English term ugsome. If I've read correctly, it used to be that ugly was the adverb, and ugsome was the adjective. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 01:53, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• wantok (Tok Pisin) - This word refers to people who speak the same language as you do and “have some claim on you.” It translates literally as “one talk” and usually includes people of your family, village, clan or larger geographic area.

English wantok. Or whanau (from Maori) may be similar.Hyarmendacil (talk) 09:33, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• lagniappe (Louisiana Creole) - It means an unexpected extra. The word is often used in reference to an item given gratis at a store, bar, or restaurant.

lagniappe — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 01:32, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• mokita (New Guinea) - A word for something that everyone knows but no one ever talks about.

elephant in the room? --SpecMade (talk) 21:07, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

• tallabe (Zarma) - A Nigerian word for carrying something on your head without using your hands.

to headcarry. Rare, but citable. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 23:53, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• gadje (Romany) - A word used by the Roma to describe anyone who is non-Roma.

gadjo and gadje citable. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 02:24, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• koro - The belief that one’s penis is shrinking and will eventually disappear.

koro; genital retraction syndrome — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 04:56, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• jayus (Indonesian) – A joke so poorly told and so unfunny that one cannot help but laugh.

  Our entry suggests this just means any uncool joke. - -sche (discuss) 06:01, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

• yuputka (Ulwa) - A word made for walking in the woods at night, it refers to the phantom sensation of something crawling on one's skin.

formication. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:32, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

• pana poʻo (Hawaiian) - To scratch one's head in order to recover a memory.

Pukui-Elbert dictionary says it's just "tap somebody's head" (sum of parts), and that it's a rude gesture.--Makaokalani (talk) 09:18, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• denize girse kurutur (Turkish) - A person who can’t do anything right.

Perhaps klutz. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 02:58, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Ha, it's even the case that the English word is shorter. - -sche (discuss) 06:01, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

• kaval (Bulgarian) - Originally “Kaval” means a flute-like instrument, native to Bulgaria and several other Balkan countries. It is often made of wood. In the last 20 or so years the word “kaval” has gained several other meanings in addition to its original one. 1. One who performs fellatio. 2. The fellating act. 3. An extremely stupid person.

Respectively: kaval, fellator, fellatio, retard/moron/etc. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 05:30, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• Orenda (Huron) - Orenda is the invocation of the power of human will to change the world around us. It is set up to be the opposing force to fate or destiny. If powerful forces beyond your control are trying to force you one way, orenda is a kind of voiced summoning of personal strength to change fate.

Alternate version: "The power of human will to change the world. Set up as an opposing force to fate or destiny. If powerful forces beyond your control are trying to force a particular outcomes, orenda is a kind of vocalised summoning of personal strength to change this."   — C M B J   02:11, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• A flowery definition of orenda. - -sche (discuss) 07:17, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• aay'han (Mandalorian) - Aay'han is that bittersweet perfect moment of mourning and joy. It's remembering those who are lost or gone, right as you're celebrating or having the time of your life. It's about being surrounded by loved ones and enjoying the moment, then suddenly remembering those loved ones that have died. Bittersweet doesn't even come close to the intensity of aay'han.

  Not a language we include in the mainspace. - -sche (discuss) 07:17, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• mencolek (Indonesian) - To tap someone lightly on the opposite shoulder from behind as a trick.

  A. L. N. Kramer, ‎Willie Koen, ‎Katherine Davidsen, Tuttle Concise Indonesian Dictionary (→ISBN, 2013) glosses this as "dab"; Sutanto Atmosumarto, A Learner's Comprehensive Dictionary of Indonesian (→ISBN, 2004) glosses it as "to touch sb lightly with a finger tip in order to tease", "to take a bith of sth." (like, take a bit of butter, to put on bread). Alan M. Stevens, A comprehensive Indonesian-English Dictionary (→ISBN, 2004) has "colek a lick. secolek a small piece taken of s.t., an amount that is touched or taken (with the finger tips). mencolek to pick out s.t. with a pin or the tip of a finger (such as pomade with a fingertip/lime for a betel squid), touch slightly." The claimed meaning seems overspecific. - -sche (discuss) 02:21, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

• Poptjie Patu (Suriname creole): Imaginary cooking while playing house. “Poptjie” means “doll”, and “patu” means “pan”. (via Chantal)

  Pretend-cooking, play-cooking? - -sche (discuss) 23:10, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

• gigil (Filipino) – The irresistible urge to pinch or squeeze something cute.

  Our entry has a different definition. - -sche (discuss) 23:10, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

  And Jovita Ona Calixihan, Filipino-English Figures of Speech (→ISBN, 2007) glosses this as "very eager, raring to do something". Ed Lim's LIM Filipino-English English-Filipino Dictionary glosses it as a noun meaning "trembling". Tuttle Concise Tagalog Dictionary (→ISBN, 2017) glosses it as "trembling because of anger or fondness". Renato Perdon, Pocket Tagalog Dictionary: Tagalog-English English-Tagalog →ISBN, 2012) does gloss it as "gnashing of teeth", like our entry. The claimed meaning is clearly over-specific. "Trembling due to emotion" might cover it, with "emotion" being replaceable with "eagerness" or "anger" in context. - -sche (discuss) 03:10, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

• maya (Sanskrit माया (māyā)) - This word is one that could be applied to a lot of protest movements and many political speeches. It refers to belief — the often unfortunate belief — that the symbol of a thing is the same as the thing itself. It's the, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe," of the literary world.

  second stage simulacra?   — C M B J   10:52, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

  The actual definition is covered by the loanword maya. - -sche (discuss) 03:10, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

• Egyptian k3 and b3 (sense 1 for both): normally you would write 'ka' or 'ka-spirit'; but they are very difficult to actually translate. Hyarmendacil (talk) 10:12, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

  The difficulty of defining ka well would not seem to stop the word from existing in English and being a translation of this, since it's defined as meaning the Egyptian concept and thus clearly intended to include anything the Egyptian concept includes. - -sche (discuss) 03:10, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

• pisan zapra (Malay) - The amount of time required to eat a banana.

  I can't find either word in dictionaries, and a Singaporean linguist says he researched it and it's bogus. - -sche (discuss) 01:42, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

• talkin (Indonesian) - To whisper instructions to the dying.

  Amusingly, in this case the claimed definition is not specific enough. According to our entry, it is a noun meaning "shahada that is whispered to someone that about to die or recited for the recently buried". The Arabic etymon has been borrowed into English to denote the same thing: talqin. - -sche (discuss) 01:42, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

• belum (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. Due to the Indonesian people’s undying optimism, it’s 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?”

  "Not yet" can be used this way ... - -sche (discuss) 01:42, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

• papakata (Cook Islands Maori) - To have one leg shorter than the other.

  Jasper Buse, ‎Raututi Taringa, ‎Bruce Biggs, Cook Islands Maori Dictionary (→ISBN), page 314, does have this, as "v. i. Lame, cripped with one leg shorter than the other." It seems to just mean "be lame / crippled", with one leg being shorter being one way that someone or something (such as a fowl) could be made lame. - -sche (discuss) 02:01, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

• lucu (Indonesian) - Literally means funny and cute. It is customarily used to describe something like a clumsy puppy, falling over and making a fool of itself — it’s simultaneously cute and funny!

  I checked three Indonesian dictionaries: they translate it as "comical", "amusing", and "funny". I checked a fourth, and it translates it as "funny, amusing, comical". If there's any more to it than that, they don't seem to be picking up on it. A fifth, older dictionary does use "droll", which provides an English translation to cover some of the connotative ground. - -sche (discuss) 02:01, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

• karelu (Tulu Indian) - That mark left in the skin when clothes are too tight.

  When it's socks, it's "sock marks". More generally "clothing imprints" seems to be used. - -sche (discuss) 21:16, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

• vovohe tahtsenaotse (Cheyenne) - To prepare the mouth before speaking by moving or licking one’s lips.

  Well, the cdkc.edu Cheyenne dictionary does have "-vóvȯhetȧhtsenáotse" with this def (É-vóvȯhetȧhtsenáotse: he prepared his mouth before speaking). - -sche (discuss) 07:17, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

  But Cheyenne is agglutinative, so translating what is functionally a Cheyenne phrase with an English phrase ("prepare to speak, e.g. by licking the lips") seems adequate. - -sche (discuss) 19:01, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

• hanyauku (Rukwangali, Namibia) - The act of walking on tiptoes across warm sand.

  Actually a Kwangali verb meaning "to walk on tiptoes across a hot surface", verified by Metaknowledge. It's probably an edge case: does "tiptop across [a] hot surface" count as an 'un-difficult' translation, although 4-5 words long? - -sche (discuss) 05:10, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

Former FWOTDs

Entries from the FWOTD archive Category:Foreign word of the day archive that merited looking at as candidates.

• aaibaarheidsfactor - Probably adequately translatable with "degree/level of cuddliness/pettability". - -sche (discuss) 01:25, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

  cuddability, cuddleability and the hideous cuddlability: all rare but citable. — Ungoliant ^(falai) 14:02, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

• acontecer nas melhores famílias - Translatable with the semi-idiomatic "happens to the best of us" and "it happens to everyone", respectively. - -sche (discuss) 01:25, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

  Although it fails to capture the subtle “family-wide guilt” undertone of the Portuguese idiom, it happens to the best of us is an adequate translation. — Ungoliant ^(falai) 14:02, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

• aizparīt - "Three days from now/today". Neat but translatable. - -sche (discuss) 01:37, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

• albero - Borrowed into English, but possible a candidate for the "terms translatable only by themselves as loanwords" list, if a simple SOP translation wouldn't cut it. - -sche (discuss) 01:37, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

• aliēnō (“I change the nature of”) - Probably translatable with that gloss. - -sche (discuss) 01:37, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

  Transform or indeed just change seem to work. — Ungoliant ^(falai) 14:02, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

• all'amatriciana - Borrowed. - -sche (discuss) 01:37, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

• amallatar - "Rest in the shade." - -sche (discuss) 01:45, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

• amarsir - "Land on Mars." Neat but translatable. - -sche (discuss) 01:45, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

• Eisheiligen (“period in May with increased likelihood of night frost”) - I suspect English has some term for this, like blackthorn winter (Blackthorn Winter) or possibly calquingly iron nights, coordinate to Indian summer/St. Luke's summer/St. Martin's summer, squaw winter, or else "May cold spell" might be adequate. - -sche (discuss) 06:25, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

• ܪܦܦܐ (“divination involving interpretation of involuntary movements”). I suspect there is a -mancy for this. The Greeks knew of it; the Stoic philosopher Poseidonios supposedly wrote on it, as did Melampous. "Vibromancy" is too rare to meet CFI. "Palmoscopy" is apparently specific to heart palpitations. "Divination of involuntary movements" or "divination of tics" would seem to cover it in any case. - -sche (discuss) 18:21, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

  Aha, "palmomancy", which I figured out from Melampous' work being called Peri Palmon Mantike. - -sche (discuss) 18:21, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

• 専門バカ, Fachidiot. - (Narrow) specialist? Aha, fachidiot has been borrowed (just barely). - -sche (discuss) 23:00, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

Amharic

• ttonkolenyo (Amharic) - A person who spends all his time devising and setting up devious schemes from which he might benefit, usually at the expense of others.

swindler; schemer — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 06:04, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

how to write it in Amharic? 171.23.6.112 15:33, 28 July 2023 (UTC)

Arabic

• akh (Arabic) - The word means “brother,” but may refer to a brother who shares either one or both parents. The word “shaqeeq” exclusively refers to a brother who shares both parents.

brother may refer to both; brother german — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 05:16, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• baraka (Arabic) - A gift of spiritual energy that can be transferred to others.

Sounds like a fancy description for a blessing really. Better have a native or near-native speaker check. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 00:30, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Yes, means blessing. --Z 11:11, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

• gurfa (Arabic) - The amount of water that can be scooped up in one hand.

  غُرْفَة (ḡurfa)? In any case, a "handful". - -sche (discuss) 20:12, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• inshallah (Arabic) - While it can be translated literally as “if Allah wills,” the meaning of this phrase differs depending on the speaker’s tone of voice. It can be a genuine sentiment, such as when talking to an old friend and parting with “We’ll meet again, inshallah,” or it can be used as a way to tacitly imply you actually aren’t planning to do something. An example would be if someone proposes a meeting at 4 p.m., and you know you won’t be able to make it on time. You can say, “I’ll see you at 4, inshallah,” meaning that you’ll only make it on time if Allah wills it to happen.

Used by Muslims in English-speaking countries. God willing may be an acceptable translation, although it's worth noting that some Christians and some Muslims do not agree that Allah and God may be acceptably interchanged in spite of the prevailing Arabic definition.   — C M B J   01:40, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• istikhara / ostiqâra (Arabic) - A request to receive spiritual or practical assistance in the form of a dream.

استخارة istikharah? --Z 11:11, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

istikhara. Probably adequately translatable as "prayer for guidance". - -sche (discuss) 20:13, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• wa’ada (Arabic) - Verb meaning “to bury his living daughter”. A practice in Pre-Islamic culture of Arabia, since forbidden by Islam.

  A. Gil'adi's 1992 Children of Islam: Concepts of Childhood in Medieval Muslim Society mentions this but says it means "bury alive" and can also be used of male infants. - -sche (discuss) 20:12, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• [script needed] (ya’aburnee) (Arabic) - Simultaneously morbid and beautiful.

Looks to be يقبرني (yaqaburnī; Levantine and Egyptian pron.: yaʾaburnī), but it has a different meaning. --Z 15:30, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Alternate: "You bury me" - a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person because of how difficult it would be to live without them.   — C M B J   07:13, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• mo:ru:ɐ (Arabic) - the peak of manhood, a mixture of bravery and kindness

مروة muruwwa /muruw:ɐ/, borrowed into other languages as well, see مروت. --Z 11:11, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

Equivalent of chivalry. --Z 11:11, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

• خلاص xalāṣ (Arabic, etc.) - A term used to mean that something is completely and irrevocably done, finished, and over.

done and doner — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 02:58, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Seems far too jocular to have the same meaning. Khalas' description strikes me as having a connotation that would be characteristic of a very serious conclusion like that of John 19:30.   — C M B J   05:20, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Our entry has no trouble translating this. - -sche (discuss) 06:01, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

Breton

• startijenn (Breton) – A kick of energy, like putting fuel in your engine. It also denotes strength in the face of adversity. (via CT)

Is this a borrowing from English start + engine? -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 01:53, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

From start + a Breton suffix (according to some references). The word exists, and I created an entry, but we need a definition ... - -sche (discuss) 20:15, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

I've asked some Breton users for help, at User talk:Yun#startijenn (they say that start is also a Breton word). - -sche (discuss) 22:13, 6 March 2018 (UTC)

Our entry seems to translate it ("energy, dynamism"), in any case. - -sche (discuss) 19:27, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

Bulgarian

• чародей (čarodéj) (Russian, Bulgarian) - an arch-Bulgarian wizard, magician, sorcerer, necromancer, enchanter

Any different to any of the words used to descibe it? Hyarmendacil (talk) 08:45, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

No. - -sche (discuss) 21:21, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Chinese

• 失獨／失独 (shīdú) / 失独 (shīdú) - The social phenomenon of parents losing their only child yet unable to have another one due to old age or government policy.

  This seems like a candidate for inclusion in the list. - -sche (discuss) 20:25, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• 風韻／风韵 (fēngyùn) / 风韵 (fēngyùn) - Personal charm, graceful bearing.

  Is that not a sufficient translation? - -sche (discuss) 20:25, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• 關係／关系 / 关系 (guānxì) - In traditional Chinese society, you would build up good guanxi by giving gifts to people, taking them to dinner, or doing them a favour, but you can also use up your gianxi by asking for a favour to be repaid. A form of social karma.

Simplified 关系, traditional 關係／关系 (guānxi). Literally relation or relationship. With regard to social situations as described above, can be glossed in English as connections. Also used to mean relevant -- 没关系 (méi guānxi), "no relation" → "it's irrelevant, it's unrelated". -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 05:39, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

This sounds like "social capital". "Karma" seems to also be used in a similar way; see also "(pull some) strings". - -sche (discuss) 20:25, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• 老同 (lǎotóng) - Obsolete Chinese word for form of eternal friendship between “heart sisters” – two women who were closer than husband and wife.

  This seems to have been borrowed into English as laotong, but probably merits inclusion (with a claned up definition) in the list of obscure terms adopted as loan words. - -sche (discuss) 20:32, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• 麻煩／麻烦 (máfan) / 麻烦 (máfán) - Trouble, troublesome; Trouble relating to government bureaucracy.

  Our entry says this just means "trouble", but anyway trouble relating to government bureaucracy can be called "red tape", no? - -sche (discuss) 20:32, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• 解獄／解狱 / 解狱 (jiěyù) (not a word) - To break into jail in order to rescue a prisoner.

Jailbreak or is this more specific?   — C M B J   01:04, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• luo suo - Basically means someone who talks and talks your ear off about nothing, nonsense etc.

User clarification: There are words like "garrulous" or even "talkative" but none of those words really capture what that Chinese word really means. There are a few descriptive words like this where you can't really find an English equivalent.   — C M B J   10:48, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

User clarification: No, there's a connotation to it that chatterbox, blabbermouth or any of the above doesn't convey. It's hard for me to explain, but I know it when I see it I guess.   — C M B J   10:48, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

User clarification: Because the word "chatterbox" isn't always negative. You can say about a small child "oh what a little chatterbox you are" and pat them on the head because they are cute. Windbag and Gasbag don't work either because those kind of have a pushy connotation. And you can't call someone a "gab", i guess you can say they are "gabby" but that would be closer in line with "chatterbox". This is why it's so damned hard for me to convey it in English. It's not Blabbermouth either, because a blabbermouth is what you call someone who can't keep a secret. Suffice it to say, there is NO real English equivalent for "luo suo". Believe me, everyone in my family has tried to explain it to our English speaking friends and come up empty.   — C M B J   10:48, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• All of this makes it sound a lot like "chatterbox", "talker" etc enable sufficient translation after all, since the proposed differences seem connotative at best, apparently not denotative... - -sche (discuss) 07:17, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

  囉嗦／啰嗦 (luōsuo) / 囉囌／啰苏 (luōsū) don't even have this as a noun but rather an adjective and verb. - -sche (discuss) 14:14, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• 熱鬧／热闹 / 热闹 (rènào) - Lively, festive, happy, and noisy.

  Our entry (adding the additional gloss "bustling") seems to translate this sufficiently. - -sche (discuss) 20:39, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• 為／为-無為／无为 (wúwéi) / 为-无为 (wéi - wúwéi) - Wei-wu-wei is conscious nonaction. It's a deliberate, and principled, decision to do nothing whatsoever, and to do it for a particular reason.

User feedback: This is a really neat article - and I realize the whole point is that these concepts are hard to conceive of and translate into English - but your description of "wu-wei" is pretty far off (and a common misunderstanding). Wu-wei is often rightly defined as the principle of "non-action" ("Wei-wu-wei" is the same, just read as "action non-action"), but should be further clarified as "not forcing," "not striving," and "not straining." It is not inactivity, inertia, laziness, or mere passivity. Wu-wei is "the right action of letting nature take its course." Deliberation plays no part, because the idea is to have a mind of no deliberation. Meaning you aren't "stuck in doubt" (akin to Morpheus's advice for Neo: "don't think, act"). And it's not at all about "doing nothing whatsoever for a particular reason."  — C M B J   09:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

User feedback: "One thing though: Wu-Wei does mean conscious non-action. More literally it means "pregnant void", and it's typically meant to describe a still or formless state that can spontaneously become any form—-like a martial artist who stands perfectly still and then springs into motion, lays a smackdown without trying, and then returns to perfect stillness. However, this state can apply to just about anything, from martial arts, to accountancy, to artistic endeavors. The point is that whatever you're doing is emerging spontaneously from your being without the "you" of your ego having to "try". It's the "doing" of "Do or do not, there is no 'try'" and the ultimate self-expression that Bruce Lee talked about. In more comprehensible terms, it means being so focused on a situation that your internal dialogue disappears, and you're simply ready for whatever happens, responding creatively and fluidly. This state is commonly known as "Flow" or "being in the zone," but it's a kind of flow that applies whether or not you actually appear to be doing anything. Look up "Flow (psychology)" on wikipedia. I'd post a link, but I can't get this one to work properly. So, that quote from Charlie-Jane's review ("you get the sense, after a while, that Whitehead is deliberately trying to deny the reader any feeling of narrative satisfaction, through denseness and obfuscation") definitely would not be described as Wu Wei... Frustration like this (or anxiety) are quite the opposite of Wu Wei, in fact. On the other hand, it also might be said that an author on top of his game is experiencing and exercising Wu Wei in the act of writing; and a reader can certainly experience it in the act of reading. Whether Whitehead was practicing it, even though he seems to deliberately deny it to his readers, I'll leave to you to decide."   — C M B J   10:10, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• masterly inactivity? - -sche (discuss) 22:04, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

  Or "(intentional) inaction"? - -sche (discuss) 14:52, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• 心疼 (xīnténg) - A feeling somewhere between sympathy and empathy when you see the suffering of loved ones.

  Our entry defines this as a verb instead, but even the noun definition given above seems like "sympathy, empathy" would cover it, no? - -sche (discuss) 20:39, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• 山寨 (shānzhài) - Chinese imitation and pirated brands and goods, particularly electronics.

  Knockoffs, and shanzhai specifically. - -sche (discuss) 20:39, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• 下台階 (xià táijiē) / 下台阶 (xià táijiē) - "To go down the stairs"; to find a way out of an awkward situation. Giving someone "stairs" means to allow him/her an opportunity to maintain face.

  "Find an out", "give someone an out" or "...a way out"? - -sche (discuss) 14:54, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• 靠譜／靠谱 (kàopǔ) / 靠谱 (kàopǔ) - A person who is reasonable and reliable.

  Our entry says this is a verb and can also be used with negative particles to express the opposite meaning, much like English "be reliable" - "be unreliable". - -sche (discuss) 14:54, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

Chinook

potlatch - term widely adopted in American English

• potlatch (Chinook) - “An opulent ceremonial feast (among certain North American Indian peoples of the north-west coast) at which possessions are given away or destroyed to display wealth or enhance prestige."

Didn't this just get adopted wholesale into English? -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 02:19, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

And it's only spelt potlatch in English, not Chinook, lol... - -sche (discuss) 21:19, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Czech

• litost (Czech) - A state of agony and torment caused by the sudden sight of one's own misery.

lítost --Vahag (talk) 11:23, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Our entry suggests the meaning is more prosaic. - -sche (discuss) 06:01, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

• panenka (Czech) - a trick to confuse your opponent, named after Panenka’s surprising penalty in the 1976 European Championship

  cs.Wikt doesn't have this sense AFAICT, and we have [the sense that might have been intended] as English, not Czech! - -sche (discuss) 14:44, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• prozvonit (Czech) – To call a mobile phone and let it ring once so that the other person will call back, saving the first caller money.

Armenian has the exact same thing: ծնգցնել (cngcʻnel) --Vahag (talk) 11:23, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

According to user comments on one of these sites, hacer una perdida is another Spanish equivalent.   — C M B J   07:25, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

I've just removed it from the page, since we have this sense in English at flash. Equinox ◑ 17:06, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

Neat. I've moved the translations into that entry. - -sche (discuss) 21:37, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

• vybafnout (Czech) - To jump out and say boo.

  "Scare" is used this way, or "say boo" (the jumping out is a routine part of trying to startle the target). - -sche (discuss) 14:46, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

Danish

• arbejdsglaede (Danish) - Literally translated as “work happiness.” It is a feeling of joy and satisfaction with one’s work as an employee.

Workplace satisfaction?   — C M B J   22:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• hygge (Danish) - [a] Hygge is complete absence of anything annoying, irritating or emotionally overwhelming, and the presence of and pleasure from comforting, gentle and soothing things. [b] Translated as "cosy" or "comfy", but actually more evocative of a party of close friends and family in a log cabin with an open fire, lots of wine and brandy and good food and laughter, where outside is grey and cold and rainy, especially close to Christmas. (See also: w:Culture of Denmark#Hygge)

  This has been borrowed into English as hygge, to the extent "cosiness" (the Danish entry's definition) doesn't cover it. - -sche (discuss) 16:20, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• hyggelig (Danish) – A feeling of openness, warmth & friendship often between friends.

  Every time I run into this term, I just think we need to coin a pseudo-cognate English term, hugly or huggily (not to be confused with the near-opposite, fugly). -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 01:45, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

  hygge (adj)? Cosy, friendly, warm, or (resorting to another loan) gemutlich? - -sche (discuss) 16:20, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

  I suspect we should collect these "cosy" words, like gemütlich and geborgen, somewhere. - -sche (discuss) 22:23, 6 March 2018 (UTC)

• janteloven (Danish) - It is a way of thinking that looks down upon individual achievement and promotes the belief of a collective effort in regards to success. It is a mindset that someone may be good at what they do, but they are no better than the rest of us. In short, don’t think you are special or better than anyone else.

tall poppy syndrome? I admit this one is a bit far. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 00:13, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Alternate version: A set of rules (“The Law of Jante”) which discourage individualism within communities.   — C M B J   11:39, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

"Law of Jante" (see Wikipedia). - -sche (discuss) 16:20, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• kæk (Danish) - Cocky, adventurous, with a gung-ho spirit. Unlike the English word “cocky,” it usually has a positive connotation.

adventurous has negative connotations? — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 02:58, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Not even "cocky" is always negative, AFAICT. Our entry suggests this is just "bold" anyway. - -sche (discuss) 06:01, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

• kaelling (Danish) - A woman who stands on her doorstep yelling obscenities at her kids.

  The real word is kælling, with a simpler meaning. - -sche (discuss) 22:20, 6 March 2018 (UTC)

Dutch

• lekker (Dutch) - An adjective that means everything from “tasty” to “sexy” to “feeling good, comfortable, relaxed, happy, and healthy.”

Translatability of meanings should be judged individually. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 05:11, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

I agree; and all of this term's senses seem to be translatable. - -sche (discuss) 01:03, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

• uitwaaien (Dutch) – Literally ‘to walk in the wind’: to take a brief break outside to clear one’s head.

to get some air — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 03:51, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Also possibly get some fresh air or take a breather or get a breath of fresh air.   — C M B J   07:44, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

Alternate: "To take a brief break outside to clear one's head, literally 'to walk in the wind'."   — C M B J   08:54, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

• plaatsvervangende schaamte (Dutch) - Literally “place-replacing shame”. Feeling a sense of shame on behalf of someone else, usually for someone who seems oblivious to his failure or act of stupidity.

  Compare Fremdscham. - -sche (discuss) 01:03, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

  And like that German word, this can apparently be adequately translated by "vicarious embarrassment". - -sche (discuss) 16:22, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• plimpplampplettere (Dutch) - The activity of skimming stones across the water.

stone skipping — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 05:42, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Or skimming! Mglovesfun (talk) 12:56, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• struisvogelpolitiek (Dutch) - The literal translation is ostrich politics. It basically means acting like you don’t notice it when something bad occurs and continuing as you normally would.

ostrichism? --SpecMade (talk) 21:28, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

ostrich politics. - -sche (discuss) 19:22, 28 February 2020 (UTC)

Estonian

• viitsima (Estonian) - A mild feeling of laziness and disinclination towards being “bothered” by anything. One doesn’t want to work, go anywhere, or do anything specific.

  The entry doesn't support that claimed definition. - -sche (discuss) 08:19, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

Finnish

• hankikanto (Finnish) - A frozen layer on top of snow that is hard enough to walk on.

crust (if WP is to be trusted, it’s the actual terminology) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 01:32, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• löyly (Finnish) - The heat wave you get when you throw water on the hot stones in a sauna.

  Our entry suggests that "heat /steam / hot part of the sauna" covers this. - -sche (discuss) 20:48, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

• pälvi (Finnish) - A snowless patch of ground in otherwise snow-covered terrain.

  As in Finnish, this is just called a bald spot. - -sche (discuss) 08:28, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• pilkunnussija (Finnish) - A pedant; a person who corrects trivial or meaningless things. Literally, a comma fucker.

The definition itself gives a translation... — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 02:11, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Grammar Nazi would be more like it. Further input from a native speaker might be helpful to ensure that's a straight up translation.   — C M B J   04:01, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

• sisu (Finnish) - “Determination regardless of cost”: determination, perseverance, or... sisu#English. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 13:08, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

w:Sisu seems to make a pretty compelling case for the original Finnish sense.   — C M B J   13:13, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

I’m not contesting its existence, I’m contesting that it doesn’t have an English translation. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 13:19, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

But is the English translation equivalent? The #English section doesn't capture it's original Finnish meaning, whereas schadenfreude completely does, for example.   — C M B J   13:26, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

According to the definition, it refers specifically to it as a part of Finnish culture, so I guess it was loaned specifically to capture the Finnish meaning. But in any case, I oppose adding words whose translation don’t “capture” its meaning. If it is accurate to use an English word to translate another, then it has a translation, even if the translation doesn’t capture 100% every implication or shades of meaning that the other has. Otherwise we might as well add half the world’s words with an abstract meaning. For example, the English word to love doesn’t capture the exact shades of meaning that Portuguese amar does, but to claim to love does not translate amar is completely incorrect. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 14:33, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

That's not quite what I was trying to get at here. It's fine that love and amar may differ slightly, but is the English sense of Sisu a translation or a derivative of the Finnish sense? Sometimes new variants of foreign words will be adopted in another language.   — C M B J   14:49, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Looks like it’s both. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 14:56, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Although it seems we can't keep the word in this appendix since the English sisu does count as a translation(?), however I think it's a good idea to keep these terms -- which are produced in a certain culture and don't have equivalent in other ones or between English-speakers at least -- somewhere. Maybe we should change the title and/or the purpose of the appendix a bit. --Z 16:20, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

• tokka (Finnish) - A grazing, large herd of reindeer.

  How about "A grazing, large herd of reindeer." Mglovesfun (talk) 22:37, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

  Yes, per our entry, "reindeer herd" covers this. - -sche (discuss) 20:48, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

French

• agent provocateur (French) - Traditionally, an agent provocateur is a person employed by the police or other entity to act undercover to entice or provoke another person to commit an illegal act. More generally, the term may refer to a person or group that seeks to discredit or harm another by provoking them to commit a wrong or rash action.

agent provocateur; instigator — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 02:24, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• amerrissage (French) - The event of landing an aircraft on water.

Why hard to translate? We say ‘landing on water’ or ‘water landing’ in English. Ƿidsiþ 07:20, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

It's described, not translated. Russian has a similar term приводне́ние (privodnénije) --Anatoli T. ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 21:34, 31 October 2016 (UTC)

• aplaventrisme (French) - In French, “aplaventrisme” is the tendency of someone (or a nation) to bow before authority without a fight. It is derived from “être à plat ventre”, which means “to lie on one’s belly”.

kowtowing? Ƿidsiþ 07:20, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

surrenderism — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 12:18, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• arriviste (French) - A person who uses any means available to realize his or her desires. One who attains sudden success through shady means. A person who quickly achieved success but still lacks respect.

We use the same word in English. Ƿidsiþ 07:20, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• attendre (French) - Wait for.

No single word translation: [[wait]] [[for]]. Goes to the intent of this appendix. Mglovesfun (talk) 08:27, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

The title of the appendix isn't "Terms without a single-word translation in English", it's "Terms considered difficult or impossible to translate into English". —Angr 08:58, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

How difficult? Mglovesfun (talk) 11:20, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Translation requires at least 500 kilojoules of mental energy. —Angr 11:35, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Where did you get that number? Keφr 11:41, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• avoir le mal de quelqu’un (French) - Missing someone so much it literally makes you sick. “Someonesickness” on the model of “seasickness”.

"I miss her so much it hurts"; or more loosely, "miss someone like crazy". Ƿidsiþ 07:20, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Lovesickness might be the single term English equivalent if this refers to someone beloved, esp. a romantic partner. The terms longing, yearning, heartache, lovelorn, languishing, pining, and heartbroken could also work, depending on exactly what connotation of someonesickness the french version gives.   — C M B J   21:33, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• baise-en-ville (French) - A “baise-en-ville” literally “shag-in-town” is a small case containing the few items necessary to spend the night out of one’s home.

  An overnight bag (as it says in the entry. Ƿidsiþ 05:02, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

• beau geste (French) - A noble gesture, but one that is often futile or meaningless.

beau geste — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 23:53, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• bêtise (French) - A small or silly act of naughtiness by a child. These are minor annoyances that do not generally warrant punishment by themselves. Several bêtises will probably warrant disciplinarian action.

Again, easy to translate. J'ai fait une bêtise = I've done something stupid. Ƿidsiþ 07:20, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• bon vivant (French) - A bon vivant is a person who is living the good life. Someone who lives luxuriously and enjoys good food and drink.

bon vivant... this one is very common. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 01:32, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• bricoleur (French) - A bricoleur is someone who starts building something with no clear plan, adding bits here and there, cobbling together a whole while flying by the seat of their pants.

User feedback: "A bricoleur sounds a lot like a kluge to me"   — C M B J   08:55, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

This has been borrowed into English, but might (or might not) be a candidate for the list of loanwords. - -sche (discuss) 19:48, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

OTOH, "jury-rigger", "jerry-rigger" may cover this, if our entry's more prosaic translations of "tinkerer" and "handyman" don't. - -sche (discuss) 19:50, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• chantepleurer (French) - Singing and crying at the same time.

  chantepleure - -sche (discuss) 22:01, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• cruiser (Quebec French) - A bit more intense than just flirting, but basically it's trying to get someone to sleep with you, and maybe more.

  Flirt with/at, woo, court (which is the translation fr.Wikt uses). - -sche (discuss) 23:17, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• dérive (French)- An aimless walk through the city streets.

stroll? — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 23:53, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

fr.Wikt has a lot of definitions for this word, but none matching this. It seems to more generally mean "drift". - -sche (discuss) 19:47, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• espirit d'escalier (French) - To think of the perfect verbal comeback much too late.

Doesn’t look like it’s a verb. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:32, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Misspelling of esprit d'escalier (altform of esprit de l'escalier). Borrowed as is in English, so no. --Per utramque cavernam (talk) 23:57, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

• frileux - Sensitive to the cold.

It's one of those that I can never think of a translation of, other than just explaining the word. Not necessarily relevant but I'd consider this word a noun too, but many French adjectives can be used substantively .Mglovesfun (talk) 17:55, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

nesh? — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 19:14, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

An excellent example of how this can be subjective. There's a definite overlap the way they are worded (wording can change at any time, remember, this is a wiki). Is there enough of an overlap for this to be considered translatable? I'd say yes, but I can't really back that up with any evidence. Mglovesfun (talk) 19:18, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Psychrosensitive/psychrosensitivity/etc. Rare but citable.   — C M B J   09:54, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, that or cryosensitive would seem to cover this, as would simply "sensitive to cold" / "cold-sensitive". I don't think that taking 2-3 words to translate makes it untranslatable. - -sche (discuss) 20:50, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

• gâchis (French) - This one means 'a wasted opportunity.' Specifically it means an opportunity that was wasted by ineptness being hurled at it from all directions.

User feedback: "Gâchis" is written with a circumflex and it doesn't specifically concern a wasted "opportunity"; it's more like a messed up situation or thing.   — C M B J   09:20, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Both we and the French Wiktionary reckon that this can be translated by a single word. Mglovesfun (talk) 09:27, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Alternate version: "A good opportunity wasted by staggering levels of incompetence (from multiple sources) evidenced in its implementation."   — C M B J   02:10, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• je l’ai câlissée là (Québecois French) - To break up with a romantic partner in French is casser avec quelqu’un. Calisse is a strong Québecois swearword which literally means “chalice,” specifically a chalice in which to hold the wine that represents / is the blood of Christ. (For reasons that took me about three years to understand, Québecois swears all have something to do with religious artifacts used by the Catholic church.) Replacing casser with calisse gives Je l’ai câlissée là, “I broke up with the person in a painful or abrupt way” (or, literally, “I chalice holding the blood of Christ with that person”). This, along with about 50 other Québecois swears of escalating severity, was explained to me one summer by my dear friend Guillaume. He enjoyed swearing, smoking, telling stories, and complaining about Albertans, all of which somewhat characterize Quebec.

  Our entry and fr.Wikt's think câlisser is broader than this, and on the whole it sounds like the application of it to ending a relationship, it the extent the proposed definition is accurate, would be expressed by "I brutally dumped them" or "they brutally dumped me" or "we had a nasty/painful/brutal breakup". - -sche (discuss) 14:27, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• mise en abyme (French) - “Mise en abyme” is the process of making an image that contains itself with infinite recursion (for example, as observed while standing between two mirrors). It can be used metaphorically to describe infinite nesting (a dream within a dream, a story within a story) or self-referential discourse (a book or a movie whose content refers to itself).

Do we not use the word "inception" for that purpose in English now, because of the film? Also for the last example, we generally tend to use the word "meta" I think — This unsigned comment was added by 2.26.112.237 (talk).

The term has also been loaned into English. - -sche (discuss) 19:47, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• n'importe quoi (French) - [a] Anything. [b] Something (either an object or a concept or an idea or a situation) has no purpose, a hodge-podge of stuff that doesn't really fit together and doesn't make much sense. If a journal article is n'importe quoi, it means it's garbage without rhymes or reasons, with no logic in it, no sense. If I'm telling you to stop doing "n'importe quoi", I'm telling you to stop doing senseless, impulsive action and that it is clear you have no idea what you are doing.

How is it different from tosh, garbage, nonsense? Hyarmendacil (talk) 10:12, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• la petite mort (French) - 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”.

Has at least some contemporary English use.   — C M B J   01:04, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

fr.Wikt more prosaically just defines this as orgasm, in which sense it's been borrowed into English alongside the existing word "orgasm". - -sche (discuss) 19:47, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• les postillons (French) - The droplets of spittle that come out of people’s mouths as they talk to you.

Spittle?   — C M B J   00:45, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

It's just postillons (hence the red link), les is the article. Mglovesfun (talk) 13:24, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• le mot juste (French) - The right word at exactly the right time.

  Actually mot juste, and I think it can have a plural too. Mglovesfun (talk) 19:27, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

  This word is also used in English. - -sche (discuss) 06:07, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

• poudrerie (Quebecois French) - A word that refers to the wind blowing freshly fallen, powdery snow across streets and highways.

Blowing snow, Ground blizzard. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 02:58, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• seigneur-terraces (French) - Café customers who spend a lot of time at a table but little money.
  • I've never seen/heard this, it's misspelled (terrasse, not terrace), and it's apparently a hoax: see this. It simply doesn't exist. --Per utramque cavernam (talk) 00:13, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

• rire dans sa barbe (French) - To laugh to oneself quietly while thinking about something that happened in the past. Literally, “to laugh in your beard”.

  E.g. "laughing to himself" would seem to work (context or an added word would normally make clear whether he was doing so quietly or loudly). There is also laugh up one's sleeve. - -sche (discuss) 19:47, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• savoir-être (French) - knowing-how-to-be, soft skills, the relational equivalent of savoir-vivre

  You've sort of answered this yourself. Know-how, soft skills, etc. Renard Migrant (talk) 15:12, 19 October 2014 (UTC)

  fr.Wikt calls this a neologism, btw, but from their definition, it does seem like soft skills / people skills / social skills. - -sche (discuss) 19:47, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

German

• Backpfeifengesicht (German) - A face badly in need of a fist.

  Some versions say slapping.   — C M B J   06:22, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

  I think this can be translated as "(stupid/dumb/damn) punchable face". Pulling examples from Google Books: "was für ein Backpfeifengesicht du hast", "what a punchable face you have"; "Heinz hebt sein Backpfeifengesicht vom Bildschirm", etc. - -sche (discuss) 21:59, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

• brav (German) - An adjective most commonly used to commend children. It describes several positive qualities in a child: they listen to their parents, know how to behave themselves, are well brought up overall, are pleasant and easy to take care of, do not cause trouble at home or at school, and study for school by themselves without needing further encouragement.

  pretty easily translated with good, well-behaved, etc.; not applied only to children. —Angr 18:42, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

  Compare also Dutch braaf. —CodeCat 11:47, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

• Drachenfutter (German) - While this word literally means “dragon fodder,” it refers to a type of gift German husbands bestow on their wives “when they’ve stayed out late or they have otherwise engaged in some kind of inappropriate behavior” – gifts like chocolates or flowers or a nice bottle of perfume (Moore 27).

peace offering is used like this. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 16:12, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

This has ostensibly been borrowed as drachenfutter (in which case it would still be a good candidate for the "obscure loanwords" list), but I can't find any other lowercase citations, so that (English) loanword may not actually been CFI. - -sche (discuss) 19:34, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

Borrowed as Drachenfutter. But, as Ungoliant says, probably translatable as peace offering. - -sche (discuss) 19:39, 28 February 2020 (UTC)

• fensterln (German) - Climbing through a window to avoid someone’s parents in order to have sex with the someone without the parents knowing.

  Added. - -sche (discuss) 22:57, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• Fernweh (German) - The opposite of being homesick, it's the longing to leave and break free, the longing to be somewhere else.

  Alternate version: A strong longing to be away, to go somewhere.   — C M B J   03:55, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

  wanderlust; itchy feet — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 03:28, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

  Excluded at this time.   — C M B J   03:44, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

  I've seen farsick and farsickness used to translate/calque this, but checking Google Books, I find they're rarer than I had thought. - -sche (discuss) 08:31, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

• fremdschämen (German) - Vicarious embarrassment; historically experienced by anxious, awkward, oversensitive types; may be associated with "cringe comedy" and live performances that aren't going well.

  Whoever wrote that has a poor grasp of parts of speech. The noun they're defining is Fremdscham, and English speakers do seem to speak of "vicarious embarrassment" often enough that I would consider Fremdscham translatable. The verb fremdschämen, on the other hand, is something I would consider untranslatable, since "to feel vicariously embarrassed" seems both too rare a collocation and too much of a step-by-step explanation of things to count as a simple translation. - -sche (discuss) 03:21, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

• Geisterfahrer (German) - Literally “ghost driver”. One who drives the wrong way up a motorway.

Included.   — C M B J   02:27, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Calqued into English as ghost-driver, ghost driver or Ghost driver. Uncommon but citable. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 14:36, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

In English we do not consider the driver to be a ghost, perhaps confused, lost, disoriented, or even intoxicated, but still a wrong-way driver ([2]). Such drivers are common and we do have a simple term. [3]. [4]. 75.210.194.65 18:44, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Fair enough; wrong-way driver gets over 3000 b.g.c hits. Can it be added in English, or is it too SOP? —Angr 09:54, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

If this can be added, which seems likely, then I'll suggest removing Geisterfahrer as translatable.   — C M B J   07:37, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

Dutch spookrijder. —CodeCat 11:47, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

• Kummerspeck (German) – “Grief Bacon”, or the weight you put on from comfort eating.

  It's hard to find durably-archived examples because the two words appear together so often in other contexts, but "stress weight" might be used this way. Still, the term (was added to the list long ago and) probably merits inclusion. - -sche (discuss) 15:59, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• Neidbau (German) – A building constructed with the sole purpose of inconveniencing a neighbor in some way.

Fairly confident this exists in English.   — C M B J   07:44, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

spite building — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 14:36, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Directly translatable as spite building.   — C M B J   03:31, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

You use spite house in English?? Cool. - -sche (discuss) 08:31, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

• Sehnsucht (German) – A sense of longing. A nostalgia for something that can still happen – (a concept loved by German Idealist philosophers).

Different from longing? These philosophical terms often have exaggerated qualities attributed to them, to make them seem untranslatable. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 14:36, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

I agree; it's just longing or yearning. (Likewise saudade and hiraeth — not nearly as untranslatable as sentimental language mavens would like to believe.) — This comment was unsigned.

Amen. - -sche (discuss) 08:31, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

• Sehnsucht - a yearning after... elf-land, essentially. From wiki: "It is sometimes felt as a longing for a far-off country, but not a particular earthly land which we can identify. Furthermore there is something in the experience which suggests this far-off country is very familiar and indicative of what we might otherwise call "home". In this sense it is a type of nostalgia, in the original sense of that word. At other times it may seem as a longing for a someone or even a something. But the majority of people who experience it are not conscious of what or who the longed for object may be, and the longing is of such profundity and intensity that the subject may immediately be only aware of the emotion itself and not cognizant that there is a something longed for. The experience is one of such significance that ordinary reality may pale in comparison, as in Walt Whitman's closing lines to "Song of the Universal": Is it a dream? Nay but the lack of it the dream, and failing it life's lore and wealth a dream, and all the world a dream."

  The proposed definition is over-poetic. The entry gives the much simpler meaning. - -sche (discuss) 07:17, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• Ohrwurm (German) - Literally “ear worm”. Whenever you get a song or tune stuck in your head, it is an Ohrwurm.

earworm — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 04:10, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• Pechvogel (German) - A German word for a chronically unlucky person. AKA Bad Luck Brian?

Shlimazel?   — C M B J   23:10, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

The same in Dutch. —CodeCat 11:47, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

But lowercase pechvogel in Dutch. —Angr 10:32, 22 June 2013 (UTC)

• Schnappszahl (German) - Literally: “liquor number”. A number with all identical digits, e.g. 111, 99, 7777. Origin of this may have come from a German card game where scores are written down after every round and if a player has a score of 111, 222, 333, etc. then they have to buy liquor or beer for the group. It is sometimes used ironically as a lucky number since the “lucky” person would have to buy a round of drinks.

repdigit. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 00:30, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• Schwarzfahrer (German) - Fare dodger, stowaway, deadhead.

If these are not acceptable translations, then Russian заяц (zajac) should be added too, as it means the same thing. --Vahag (talk) 21:41, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Nah, I guess you're right. Fare dodger especially is a good translation. I've added both Schwarzfahrer and заяц to the translation table at fare dodger. —Angr 22:15, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Nearly synonymous would be キセル/煙管, cheat(ing) on one's train fare. The original meaning is tobacco pipe, and strangely the word for smokestack, 煙突, can also mean "carrying a taxi passenger without turning on the meter" Would either of those count? Maybe the first one is covered by "fare dodging." --Haplology (talk) 14:57, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

Fare dodging sounds like a good translation for キセル/煙管, so I'd say it doesn't count. I can't think of an English translation for 煙突 but I'm not really familiar with taxi drivers' jargon. German also has a verb schwarzfahren "to dodge one's fare, to 'fare-dodge', to travel as a fare dodger". —Angr 15:39, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

I've added ただ乗り tadanori (or perhaps it should be 只乗り) as a Japanese translation for "fare dodger". --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 22:20, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

The kanji 只 isn't used much these days, so my sense is that the lemma should be at ただ乗り, with 只乗り given as an alt spelling. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 22:31, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

I found 只乗り first but changed to ただ乗り when I saw what you just said, it isn't actually used. The former exists in the EDICT dictionary though but the latter doesn't. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 22:43, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

Dutch zwartrijder. —CodeCat 11:47, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

• Schweinhund (German) - literally 'pig-dog', offensive.

  IMO this is hardly untranslatable; plenty of epithets get the same point across (bastard, ratfink, etc), despite differences in literal meaning. - -sche (discuss) 22:38, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• Stammtisch (German) - A social gathering of friends, specifically at a bar, to talk about life.

• Torschlusspanik (German) – The fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages – literal translation “gate-closing panic”

User feedback: "Can have a slightly chauvinist undertone, i.e. it’s usually applied to women in their mid-thirties anxious to “bag” a husband before it’s too late to have children."   — C M B J   07:36, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Torschlusspanik — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 14:38, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

English definition appears to be a derivative.   — C M B J   07:50, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

• Trennungsagentur (German) - Someone hired by a woman to tell her boyfriend he has been dumped.

  The Agentur is rather the agency; the agent is a Trennungsagent. Chinese also has a word for this, 分手代理, according to Modernisation of Chinese Culture: Continuity and Change (2013). English has "break-up agent" with this sense as well as, apparently, some other business sense. All three constructions seem SOP as "breakup" + "agent, one who acts on another's behalf". - -sche (discuss) 20:03, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• Treppenwitz (German) - In German, this is literally “the wit of the staircase,” or the witty remark that occurs to you after you’ve left an argument you’ve lost. It’s a feeling everyone knows rather well. There is also a phrase for this phenomenon in French: l’esprit d’escalier, or “the spirit of the staircase.” The French writer Denis Diderot came up with it during the Enlightenment, and it’s still used today — I think the pain of coming up with a comeback too late is a universal human burden that survives the ages.

staircase wit — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 14:38, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• Überrest (w:de:Überrest) --Z 12:10, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

  Überreste are distinguished in historiography from traditional Quellen (sources [of information]), and regarded as being unlikely to give an intentionally misrepresentative picture. But the word is not specific to, say, peripheral documents: one subtype of Überreste is menschliche Überreste, "human remains", meaning the same thing as in English. Hence, I think "remains", the word most historiographic references gloss this with, covers it (or sometimes "remnants" or "vestiges" would sound more natural). - -sche (discuss) 22:29, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• vorgestern and übermorgen (German) - “The day before yesterday” and “the day after tomorrow,” respectively.

Possible case example for guideline.   — C M B J   02:27, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

overmorrow and ereyesterday — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 05:50, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Again, this page isn't "Terms without a one-word translation in English". These are easily translated into English as "the day before yesterday" and "the day after tomorrow", even without Ungoliant's archaic finds. —Angr 18:42, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

"Day after tomorrow" isn't thought of as an independent term, at least not according to our current entry, which is a criterion of consideration.   — C M B J   03:37, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

Dutch eergisteren and overmorgen.

• Waldeinsamkeit (German) – The feeling of being peacefully alone in the woods.

Waldeinsamkeit — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 14:36, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• Wanderjahr (German) - A year or period of travel, especially following one’s schooling.

wanderjahr — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 01:32, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Or even gap year. —Angr 18:42, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

sabbatical year. 75.210.194.65 19:37, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• Weltschmerz (German) - It could be termed world-weariness or ennui, but this particular has the quirk of almost only being applied to privileged young people.

Another Schadenfreude example: we say weltschmerz in English. —Angr 09:06, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Also world-weariness. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 04:32, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• Zechpreller (German) - A person who leaves a restaurant or bar without paying the bill.

Dine and dasher?   — C M B J   22:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC) (edited)

dine-and-dasher/dine and dasher citable with two valid Google Book cites and two valid Google Groups cites. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 14:51, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Come to think of it, where does that leave us on the bar sense?   — C M B J   21:39, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Greek

• κάτι τρέχει στα γύφτικα (káti tréchei sta gýftika) (Greek) - It communicates the meaning ‘who cares?,’ but the literal translation of the phrase is ‘there is trouble in the gypsy village’.

like I give a fuck — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 05:42, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

"so what?" "who cares?" - -sche (discuss) 23:03, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• βόλτα (vólta) (Greek) - At sundown, the leisurely walk or stroll along the main street or seaside, to meet friends or neighbours.

Our definition just says walk/stroll. Mglovesfun (talk) 19:40, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• Αἰδώς WP Except if you count 'Aidos' as a translation, which is kinda cheating. Hyarmendacil (talk) 09:24, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

  This is a personal name, right? I'm not aware of those ever being untranslatable. In this case the translation is, as you note, Aidos. - -sche (discuss) 00:51, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

• Suprised no-one's mentioned λοπαδοτεμαχοσελαχογαλεοκρανιολειψανοδριμυποτριμματοσιλφιοκαραβομελιτοκατακεχυμενο­κιχλεπι­κοσσυφοφαττοπεριστεραλεκτρυονοπτοκεφαλλιοκιγκλοπελειολαγῳοσιραιοβαφητραγανοπτερύγων. Hyarmendacil (talk) 10:12, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

  Firstly, I don't think a nonce term shoul be included...but secondly, this has been translated (by the translators who translated the play it's in). - -sche (discuss) 00:55, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

• εἴδωλον (eídōlon) (Ancient Greek) - Phantom look-alike taking the form of a living or dead person.

Unclear. More than one similar English term.   — C M B J   08:04, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

eidolon. Mglovesfun (talk) 08:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Yes, this seems translatable by that term if not by the simpler glosses our Ancient Greek entry on it uses. - -sche (discuss) 22:05, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• ιστορίες με αρκούδες (istoríes me arkoúdes) (Greek) - Narrated events which are too far fetched to be true. Literally, 'stories with bears'.

Fairytale, tall tale?   — C M B J   08:04, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Phrase. Mglovesfun (talk) 08:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Tall tales covers this AFAICT. - -sche (discuss) 22:05, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• κρεβατομουρμούρα (krevatomourmoúra) (Greek) - Compound κρεβάτι (bed) + μουρμούρα (murmur). When one (especially woman) keeps complaining about something or everything late at night in bed while the other (usually husband) is trying to sleep. “I haven’t slept at all; her krevatomourmoura lasted all night long…”

  According to the entry, "curtain lecture" translates this. I had never heard that phrase before, but it has citations. - -sche (discuss) 22:05, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

Hawaiian Pidgin

• da kine (Hawaiian Pidgin) - Hawaiian Pidgin (deprecated template usage) da kine is often considered difficult to translate. --EncycloPetey (talk) 04:31, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

  Our entry seems to have no trouble translating this. - -sche (discuss) 17:45, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

Hebrew

• ashrag (Hebrew) - Noun used to refer to a male animal that has one testicle larger than the other.

  Presumably spelled אשרג...? I haven't been able to find any evidence of it, in that spelling or the transliterated spelling. - -sche (discuss) 20:25, 25 March 2018 (UTC)

  Still can't find any evidence of this, so moving it here. - -sche (discuss) 19:52, 28 February 2020 (UTC)

• firgun (Hebrew) - An act of saying nice things or doing nice things to another person without any other purpose, but to make the other feel good about what he is or what he does.

• koev halev (Hebrew) - Identifying with the suffering of another so closely that one hurts oneself, that one’s heart aches.

commiseration — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 05:30, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• le’hashmia (Hebrew) - “To show” someone something is to present him or her with a visual experience; this word is the auditory equivalent. e.g. I would like to ___ you a song. In some cases you “play” a song for someone, but this term is more specific.

Hopi

• koyaanisqatsi (Hopi) - This Native American word means “nature out of balance” or a “way of life that is so crazy it calls for a new way of living” (Rheingold 243).

  A Concise Hopi and English Lexicon (→ISBN, 1985), page 30, defines koyaanis- as "corrupted (re social life of a group)" and koyaanisqatsi as "corrupted life (re group)". Ekkehart Malotki, ‎Michael Lomatuway'ma, ‎Lorena Lomatuway'ma, Hopi Tales of Destruction (→ISBN, 2002), page 36, provides more detail, describing a village whose inhabitants supposedly became obsessed with playing a game (which in turn led to promiscuous sex and kwangwa'ewqatsi, "life of pleasure"), and neglected all their duties. "This chaotic state of affairs, marked by the total disintegration of all socially accepted standards and values, is referred to as koyaanisqatsi (corrupt life) in Hopi. Composed of the elements koyaanis-, which cannot occur in isolation, and qatsi (life/way of life), it represents the polar opposite of suyanisqatsi, which designates a 'life of harmony and balance.'" The village was annihilated. However, especially given the tendency of Westerners to romanticize or poeticize Native concepts, I am wary (especially given the two mentioned coordinate terms, which seem like SOPpy descriptions of the lifestyles they refer to) of attaching any more elaborate meaning to this than "corrupted (communal) lifestyle" or the "moral decay" that some people always think society is undergoing. In particular, the bit about it being "so crazy it calls for a new way of living" is not lexical but a cultural belief that in such situations it was best to totally destroy the old system and start over. - -sche (discuss) 22:45, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

Hungarian

• Donaldkacsázás (Hungarian) - This is a neologism that can be literally translated as “donald ducking.” or wandering around one’s house wearing a shirt and no trousers. The idea that a quirk of an old Disney cartoon character has entered the Hungarian collective subconscious enough to merit its own word makes me smile, as does my own mental image of an older man with a mustache puttering around the house in house slippers and white-collared shirt.

  Walking around pantless? Various news stories about Jonah Hill and some books attest to this being used in English, too, anyway:

  • Leandra Medine, Man Repeller: Seeking Love. Finding Overalls. (→ISBN, 2013):

    When I knew I might be taking off my shirt, I would tweeze them, but I certainly had not expected that the evening before would lead to bare-chesting. I wondered if he had felt the hairs and grew mortified. When I looked down, I noticed Mark was Donald Ducking with a white T-shirt on his top half, but nothing at all covering his bottom. Had I just had sex? But I was a virgin! I couldn't have given it to someone who looked like a turtle. No way. In a half-naked sweat, I poked at his shoulder.

  - -sche (discuss) 01:18, 25 March 2018 (UTC)

• házisárkány (Hungarian) - Literally translated as “home-dragon”. A derogatory term for an impatient or ill-natured spouse.

  Shrew? - -sche (discuss) 07:17, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

  This wording is common, btw, e.g. German sometimes uses Hausdrache, but "shrew" does seem to cover both the German and the Hungarian word. - -sche (discuss) 01:42, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

Indonesian

• latah (Indonesian) - Uncontrollable habit of saying embarrassing things.

  Foot-in-mouth disease?   — C M B J   03:33, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• mencomot (Indonesian) - People who steal objects of little value purely for pleasure.

kleptomaniac? — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 05:42, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

I was tempted to call that one a direct translation, but kleptomania is kleptomania in Indonesian. Klepto-mania also denotes a compulsive behavior (i.e., one that often causes immense internal conflict) whereas those who go around stealing objects of little value often do so for pleasure and without any remorse whatsoever. In any event, the dictionary entry for this term isn't very remarkable, so there's probably a dozen or two Urban Dictionary-esque English terms that are equivalent.   — C M B J   07:34, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Kleptomania isn’t just a psychological mania. Outside medical usage it’s also used for stealing for pleasure. Also: pinching. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 11:03, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Irish

• craic (Irish) - Fun, amusement; entertaining company or conversation.

User feedback: "As an avid student of Irish, it grieves me to say that "craic" is not in fact Irish in origin at all. The Gaelicized spelling is a recent development of the past few decades. The OED defines "crack" as "chat, talk of news" and dates the word to 1450. It probably entered Irish popular usage through the Northern Irish dialect of English."   — C M B J   08:11, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

crack (noun def. 10) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 03:51, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• shamozzle (Irish) - A disagreement between a group of men that can involve shoving but not as serious as one that involves punching or kicking.

  Surely this is Irish English and not Irish Gaelic. - -sche (discuss) 00:32, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

  Yes, it's English. Citations:shamozzle. - -sche (discuss) 22:04, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

  Isn't this English by way of Yiddish? C.f. English shemozzle. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 22:34, 6 March 2018 (UTC)

  Yes. (I created shamozzle as an alt form of that entry.) It does seem true that it is used in Ireland, though (in addition to other places). - -sche (discuss) 23:18, 6 March 2018 (UTC)

Inuit

• ayurnamat (Inuktitut) - In Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit people, ayurnamat roughly translates as the philosophy that there is no point in worrying about events that cannot be changed. Another translation I found was along the lines of: “That’s the way of it, can’t be helped, better luck next time.” I’ve never visited Nunavut, but the tales I hear of long nights, inhospitable landscapes, and the stoic cold make sense in this context.

So it's Inuktitut for 仕方が無い (shikata ga nai)/c'est la vie/che sarà, sarà? —Angr 13:09, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

hakuna matata; win some, lose some — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 04:56, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• iktsuarpok (Inuit) - The feeling of anticipation while waiting for someone to arrive at one's house and meanwhile intermittently going outside to check for them.

Italian

• attaccabottoni (Italian) - A boring person who corners people and tells long, sad tales.

buttonholer — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 02:58, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• cavoli riscaldati (Italian) - An attempt to revive a dead love affair. Literally translated, it means “reheated cabbage.”

  We've lemmatized the singular, cavolo riscaldato, which also gets some support in Italian and English books at Google Books. If there's no translation, this seems like a good candidate to move into the list. - -sche (discuss) 08:43, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

  (As an update, this failed RFV.) - -sche (discuss) 03:53, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

• che palle (Italian) - Literally “what balls”. Used to express frustration, annoyance, and a general “ugh”. Its English meaning is close to “this sucks“. “Joe, go take out the trash!” “che PALLE…” *mutters under breath*.

bollocks — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 05:16, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

gattara - translatable as cat lady

• gattara (Italian) - A woman, often old and lonely, who devotes herself to stray cats.

Translatable as cat lady.   — C M B J   04:07, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

qualunquismo - presumed translatable as apoliticism

• qualunquismo (Italian) – Apathy and indifference towards politics.

Apolitical or is this something more?   — C M B J   07:44, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

It’s a noun, so apoliticism. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 03:51, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

One of the sources also talked about an element of corporate distrust. If someone wants to make a case from that angle then I'm willing to hear it, but otherwise this is excluded as translatable.   — C M B J   03:56, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• fattapposta (Italian) - ‘made-on-purpose’: passkey of Italian conversation, can mean any object, especially when clarified by a gesture

  Most languages have dozens of words for this. English has thingamajig, thingamabob, etc, etc, etc. - -sche (discuss) 21:04, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

• ponte (Italian) - While it literally means “bridge,” this word also refers to an extra day off taken to make a national holiday falling on a Tuesday or Thursday into a four-day vacation.

de:Brückentag red-links this to bridge day, bridging day. --SpecMade (talk) 21:07, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

Besides those terms, English also uses "bridge holiday" and plain "bridge" in this way. - -sche (discuss) 21:45, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

• sprezzatura (Italian) - An Italian word originating from Baldassare Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier, where it is defined by the author as “a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it”. The word has entered the English language; the Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “studied carelessness”. Example: elegantly disheveled hairstyles.

Possible case example where term is still extremely uncommon but has nevertheless been adopted by the OED and a small subculture.   — C M B J   02:27, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• Uovo di Colombo (Italian) - A simple, obvious, idea that doesn’t occur to the person whom it would most benefit. Literally “Egg of Colombus”. After his return from America in 1493, Columbus was invited to a dinner in his honor by Cardinal Mendoza. Here are some people tried to downplay his achievements, saying that the discovery of the New World was not so difficult, and that anyone could have succeeded in doing it. Hearing this, Columbus challenged the diners to solve a simple problem: make an egg stand upright on the table without using any kind of help or aid. Several attempts were made, but none were successful. Finally convinced that it was an insoluble problem, the diners returned the egg to Columbus. He put a slight dent at the end of the egg by tapping it against the table, and the egg stood upright. When bystanders protested, saying that they could have done the same, Columbus said: “The difference, my friends, is that you would have done it, but I have.”

  egg of Columbus - -sche (discuss) 21:05, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

• culaccino (Italian) - The mark left on a surface by a wet glass.

  water ring - -sche (discuss) 21:04, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

• lampadato (Italian) – An addiction to the UV glow of tanning salons.

Our entry suggests that is not a correct translation; we only have the word as an adjective. The concept could be translated as "tanning addiction", "compulsory tanning", or (per WP) "tanning dependence" or "tanorexia". - -sche (discuss) 21:58, 26 November 2020 (UTC)

Jahai

plʔεŋ (contrast plʔeŋ) - Jahai has a variety of basic words to describe smells, many of which are translatable into English as e.g. "smell tasty" (like cooked food or sweets), "smell roasted" (like roasted foods), etc. But this one is perhaps a bit more interesting, referring to a blood-like smell that attracts tigers (used of old water that collects in bamboo, crushed head lice, squirrel blood, etc). Both the blood-like-ness and the tiger-attraction are definitional; it is contrasted with a number of terms for blood-like smells that do not attract tigers. See Olfaction in Aslian (PDFs can be found via Google). - -sche (discuss) 23:31, 25 March 2018 (UTC)

I'm gonna put this one into the appendix soon. - -sche (discuss) 03:31, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

Japanese

• いただきます (itadakimasu) (Japanese) - a phrase to start a meal with gratitude to all: from cooks and farmers to lives to be eaten

It's a phrase. Mglovesfun (talk) 08:19, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

It's the formal plain form of いただく (itadaku), which is the humble form of "receive." It's just "I/We humbly receive this," which I don't think is unusual. --Haplology (talk) 12:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

スキンシップ (sukinshippu) - translatable as skinship

• スキンシップ (sukinshippu) (Japanese) - Close bonding through physical contact; skinship.

Skinship. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:33, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

• 猫舌 literally "cat tongue," someone who can't drink hot drinks (until they cool down a bit.) --Haplology (talk) 13:56, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

  I'm going to add this to the appendix. - -sche (discuss) 04:02, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

• amagami (Japanese) - To pretend-bite someone.

The entry in my JA-JA dictionary is 雨紙 (amagami, “oiled paper used to fend off the rain”). The intended term would presumably be something like 甘噛み (amagami, literally “sweet bite”). I haven't checked to see if this is for real, though. English glosses could be nibble or nom.

It seems to be cromulent. Example entry at Weblio, hits at Google Books. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 23:19, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for finding that. Of course, the meaning given would seem to be translatable, by "play-bite" and/or "pretend-bite". - -sche (discuss) 23:52, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

• aware (Japanese) - Aware is a word, quite well-known, for the bittersweetness of a brief and fading moment of transcendent beauty. It's that "last burst of summer" feel, or the transience of early spring.

Which is 哀(あわ)れ (aware). It has a few senses and the description above sounds like a long-winded description of one of them often translated as pathos. --Haplology (talk) 12:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• betsubara (Japanese) - Loosely translates to “extra stomach”. It is generally used to describe a female who always has room for dessert.

English hollow leg fits this, only without the gender distinction. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 02:22, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

JA entry at 別(べつ)腹(ばら) (betsubara). The term also refers to a half-sibling on one's father's side: literally meaning "separate belly" in reference to having different mothers. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 23:19, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

• ぼけっと (boketto) (Japanese) - To gaze vacantly into the distance without thinking.

This is an adverb, not a verb. Compare English vapidly or vacantly. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 22:42, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

daydreamingly — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:55, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• hikikomori (Japanese) - A teenager or 20-something who has withdrawn from social life, often obsessed with TV and video games.

  A shut-in; someone who is withdrawn. Some of the meaning of this term is specific to Japanese culture -- in many (most?) other cultures, people of adult working age don't have the opportunity to be complete moochers and withdraw from life so completely. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 04:31, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

  引きこもり. Borrowed into English. - -sche (discuss) 22:29, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

• ikigai (Japanese) - Ikigai is a Japanese word meaning “reason for being.” On the island of Okinawa, it is thought of as “a reason to get up in the morning,” a philosophy which has been linked to the longevity of the people there.

"Philosophy"? Where does this crap come from? I'm sorry, my frustration is showing. (Not with CMBJ, rather with folks who can't be bothered to find a decent bilingual dictionary before trotting out these ridiculosities.)

生き甲斐, 生甲斐 (ikigai, “reason for living, raison d'être”). Nothing philosophical about the term itself. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 04:31, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

I’m also frustrated by these people’s incompetence. They don’t care about linguistic accuracy, as long as people think it’s cool. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:55, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• jinji[script needed] (Japanese) - A special form of honor.

So it's special, but what is it? I can only find a few "jinji"s, and none of them are any kind of honor. I call bogus term. --Haplology (talk) 12:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

User feedback: "First thing that came to mind for me was the Japanese word "jingi", as described by Tarantino on the director's commentary for Reservoir Dogs: (from IMDB) On the commentary track for the 2002 10th Anniversary Edition DVD of Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino insists that viewers who don't understand why Mr. Orange tells Mr. White that he is an undercover cop (knowing full well that Mr. White is likely to kill him upon finding out) have not understood the film. Mr. Orange tells Mr. White, who has acted as his protector throughout the film, the truth because he feels that he owes it to him as a matter of honor. Tarantino actually described it as something beyond honor, best summed up by the Japanese word "jingi" that has no English equivalent. Having witnessed White sacrifice everything for him; White kills two very good friends of his to protect Orange, taking a bullet and willing to stay behind and lose out on the diamonds and go to prison rather than leave Orange for dead...Orange feels compelled to do likewise. Orange does not reveal the truth until the final moment because it is only then that he is free to do so without forsaking his duty as a police officer. Now that Joe Cabot - the man he was sent in to get - is dead, Orange's mission is over."   — C M B J   00:35, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

The intended term then would probably be 仁義 (jingi). That said, there's not too much about it that's terribly "special" other than that it's just not English -- I find that a lot of people ascribe some sort of mystical quality to Japanese terms when in actuality the meanings can be quite prosaic. Roughly paraphrasing my JA-JA dictionary, it basically means "love for people and things + doing right for the greater good", or "honor or duty among a specific group, such as merchants, tradesmen, or gamblers". The JA-EN entry glosses this as humanity and justice for one sense, and duty for the other. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 02:04, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• kaizen (Japanese) - Small incremental changes that add up to large improvements over time.

baby steps — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 23:53, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

kaizen isn't English? --Haplology (talk) 14:23, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Source JA term at 改善 (kaizen). ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 23:19, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

• karoshi (Japanese) - Death from overwork.

karoshi — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 23:53, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

The attestation listed is just a quote about someone speaking Japanese, so I'm not sure that's indicative of it being equivalent outside our project.   — C M B J   00:09, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

RFV it if you think it’s fake. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 00:11, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

It will likely pass muster on that front, but I think it might still fall into the category of difficult to translate since its introduction was so recent. This may be another good case example like schadenfreude for working out a guideline.   — C M B J   00:16, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Again, though, I have to ask -- what are the criteria for "impossible to translate"? Saying "he worked himself to death" would translate this word quite sufficiently, I think. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 02:38, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

The Japanese Wikipedia article notes that the word "karoshi" is included in English dictionaries and in dictionaries of other languages. --Haplology (talk) 14:23, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Source JA term at 過労死 (karōshi). ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 23:19, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

• kokusaijin (Japanese) - This nouns has a literal translation as “an international person,” but according to C.J. Moore it refers only to: Japanese citizens who are able to get along with foreigners. ‘Cosmopolitan’ is the closest English equivalent, but this word connotes someone who speaks foreign languages and knows a lot about foreign countries and cultures. A Japanese kokusaijin may be an ordinary person with a flexible and open personality (89).

The Daijisen dictionary defines this (国際人) as "国際的に活躍している人。世界的に有名な人。また、世界に通用する人。" which translates to "A person active internationally. A person famous internationally. Or, a world-class person." It's 国際 "international" plus the suffix 人 "person," and I think it has every meaning that "international person" has. --Haplology (talk) 12:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Ya, Shogakukan defines this as "someone famous internationally; someone who knows a lot about the world / who has been around". The word cosmopolite comes to mind as one single-word translation. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 02:19, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

教育ママ (​kyōiku mama) - translatable as tiger mom or helicopter parent

• kyoikumama (Japanese) – A mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement.

Also a compound, and actually a phrase, not a single word. See 教育ママ (​kyōiku mama) (also at w:ja:教育ママ and w:Kyoiku mama, since we're missing it here at the moment). Mirrored in English by the recent buzzword tiger mom, or somewhat by the term helicopter parent that I've heard bandied about by teachers (though admittedly the meaning of that one is a bit further off). -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 22:42, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

helicopter parent. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:32, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Excluded as adequately translatable unless a native speaker makes a reasonable distinction between kyoikumama and tiger mom.   — C M B J   03:51, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• nito-onna (Japanese) - A woman so dedicated to her career that she has no time to iron blouses and so dresses only in knitted tops.

Not sure if this is valid; not in resources to hand. Would be ニット女 (​nitto onna) if real. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 04:20, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Bing returns under 1000 results for this, and a glance shows no matches. --Haplology (talk) 14:23, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

I bet the meaning is actually just “a woman dedicated to her career”, a careerwoman. Compare the mistake in describing the meaning of Portuguese grilagem (here.) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:55, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• meinichi (Japanese) - Literally “Day of Honor.” Word used to describe the anniversary of someone’s death.

I've had friends refer to this in English using the borrowed German term Jahreszeit (with various interesting phonetic spellings). -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 03:58, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Were they Jewish friends? Then they were almost certainly using not German Jahreszeit, which means "season" and wouldn't make sense anyway, but Yiddish יאָרצײַט (yortsayt), anglicized as yahrzeit with a wide variety of alternative spellings, which means exactly "anniversary of someone's death". —Angr 10:00, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

deathiversary, rare but citable. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 05:11, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

There's also deathday. - -sche (discuss) 19:16, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Source JA term at 命日 (meinichi). Also, it doesn't mean “Day of Honor”: yet more claptrap from the linguistically lazy. It literally means “life day”, presumably as one thinks back on when the person was alive. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 23:19, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

• mokusatsu (Japanese) - Mokusatsu is when you bargain and you feel the buyer’s offer is very low. Thus, you keep silent. This makes the buyer understand that his offer is not good enough, while enabling him not to lose face. This word was used by the Japanese emperor in response to Roosevelt’s ultimatum.

Horrible, horrible "definition". Just means to ignore, pointedly, without even acknowledging the object's existence. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 04:00, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, the top definition ("...when you bargain...") is bogus. It's just "ignore," "disregard,"　etc. --Haplology (talk) 14:23, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Source JA term at 黙殺 (mokusatsu). ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 23:19, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

• たてまえ (tatemae) and ほんね (honne) (Japanese) - What one pretends to believe and what one actually believes, respectively.

Tatemae is basically a compound, not so far removed semantically from window dressing. Meanwhile, honne is also a compound, and not so far removed from true feelings. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 22:42, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

• tsundoku (Japanese) - The act of leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piling it up together with other such unread books.

Sedgman wants to say 積ん読. It's slang that comes from 積んでおく (tsunde oku, literally “pile up and leave something”) which is a two-word phrase but de oku sounds like doku which means "reading." --Haplology (talk) 12:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Verified by a native speaker; added to the list. - -sche (discuss) 01:25, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

• yoko meshi (Japanese) - Literally, “horizontal rice” or “a meal eaten sideways.” This is how the Japanese define the peculiar stress induced by speaking a foreign language: yoko is a humorous reference to the fact that Japanese is normally written vertically, whereas most foreign languages are written horizontally.

Not finding in my resources. Likely slang. If it's slang and showing up in English texts but not Japanese dictionaries, it's probably also dated. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 02:57, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Not in my resources either. --Haplology (talk) 14:23, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Digital Daijisen has an entry at Kotobank, giving the definition as "western-style cuisine". ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 23:19, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

• yuugen (Japanese) - An awareness of the universe that triggers feelings too deep and mysterious for words.

Probably 幽玄 (yūgen). Glossable as profundity; profound. There's really nothing intrinsic to this word about "universe". — This comment was unsigned.

• wabi-sabi (Japanese) – A way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay.

Wikipedia has an article on this: w:Wabi-sabi The first line of the Japanese Wikipedia page goes like this:

わび・さび（侘・寂）は、日本の美意識の1つ。一般的に、質素で静かなものを指す。本来侘（わび）と寂（さび）は別の概念であるが、現代ではひとまとめにされて語られることが多い。

Rough translation courtesy of moi:

Wabi and Sabi (wabi and sabi) is a Japanese concept of beauty. It indicates a quality of calmness. Originally wabi (wabi) and sabi (sabi) were separate concepts, but nowadays they are often used in combination.

So I think think wabi-sabi is really two words. Note the ・ character in the title which signifies a space. --Haplology (talk) 12:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• zanshin (Japanese) - A state of relaxed mental alertness in the face of danger.

残心, which in one sense is readiness or being on guard and is used in the context of martial arts. --Haplology (talk) 14:23, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

dauntlessness — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 23:53, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Probably intended to be 残心 (zanshin, literally “remaining mind(fulness)”), but the meaning is more like "continued mindfulness, particularly just after striking an opponent or a target". -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 22:29, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Korean

• 아이고 (aigo, “aigo”) - Word said while sighing, or wanting to sigh. Expresses frustration, pain and resignation. Roughly equivalent to “FML,” or “jeez”. Molly: Did you bring the sprockets? Anna: I thought you wanted rockets! Molly: Aigoo…

So FML or jeez. Mglovesfun (talk) 19:41, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• 눈치 (nunchi, “nunchi”) - The innate ability to sense what would be the wrong thing to say in a given situation. Chinese: 眼力勁兒.

  Tact? - -sche (discuss) 03:05, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• 애교살 (愛嬌—, aegyosal) - Interest in the bags under the eyes as a beauty symbol. Chinese: 臥蠶眼 (Wikipedia).

  Our entry says this means the bags themselves, considered attractive. It sounds like "bags (under the eyes)" covers this, and the attractiveness or unattractiveness of them is either cultural or conveyable by saying "attractive bags (under the eyes)". - -sche (discuss) 03:06, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

Latin

• aemulatio (Latin) - A Roman notion of showing respect to one’s literary predecessors by delivering an improved version of their work. The noun for such a work.

Alternate text: "Roman alternative to plagiarism: to show respect for literary predecessors by delivering an improved version of their work."   — C M B J   09:43, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

emulation (def. 1), assuming this is an overspecific meaning. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 03:24, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• casus belli (Latin) - An act justifying war.

casus belli; very common. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 05:11, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• vomitorium (Latin) - A room for vomiting, use popularized by Aldous Huxley. Actually a passageway in a theater.

vomitorium. Mglovesfun (talk) 08:17, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Maltese

• bewwiel (Maltese) - A bed-wetter, most oftenly as a gruff term of affection.

  Even the definition admits that the term is translatable, lol. - -sche (discuss) 21:06, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Norwegian

• dugnad (Norwegian) - A social activity where a group of friends or neighbors get together to perform a large task. Similar to the old practice of barn raising in North America except it can be any task, not just building a barn.

Alternate: "A planned (semi-)volunteer work session in/for a community or local interest group."   — C M B J   08:28, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

Portuguese has the same: mutirão. Maybe task force. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 23:53, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

dugnad — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 13:36, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• forelsket (Norwegian) - It’s the word for the euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love. Literally translated as ‘pre-love’, or ‘over-love’.

Alternate: "It is the euphoric feeling of falling in love at the start of the relationship".   — C M B J   08:28, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

The heady/giddy feeling of "infatuation" or "heady love" would seem to cover this, no? - -sche (discuss) 02:59, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

We don't have it as a noun, anyway, just a verb "fall(en) in love". - -sche (discuss) 17:37, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

• janteloven (Danish, Norwegian) - 'The Law of Jante', rules which discourage individual thought within communities.
  • Jante law / law of Jante, tall poppy syndrome. Note that this definition is different from what Law of Jante says. — Ungoliant ^(falai) 04:31, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
    • I suspect the translation above is wrong and the Wikipedia article is correct. - -sche (discuss) 02:58, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

Persian

• تعارف (Persian) - The intricate Persian system of etiquette and good manners, emphasizing extreme deference, humility, and respect.

taarof. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:58, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Is it really an English word? Seems to be just a transliteration, and I think this actually proves that it doesn't have any equivalent in the language... --Z 16:13, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Sounds like another example like Schadenfreude, shlimazel, and sisu already being discussed above. The fact that a lot of these words with no obvious English analogues get picked up and used in English means we have to start working on boundaries. I really don't want to see déjà vu or chutzpah here on the grounds that we don't have a word for it in English. I say, if the English loanword meets CFI by being used (and not merely mentioned) 3 times in durably archived sources over at least a year, the foreign word can no longer be said to have no English translation, because it has become its own English translation. —Angr 16:53, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

I agree. --Z 17:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

This calls to my gulliver just a skosh about something in one of Bill Bryson's books, that English is a language that waits in dark alleys to hit other languages over the head, and then goes through their pockets for loose vocabulary. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 17:54, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Haha. --Z 17:58, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

The original quote, which is from James Nicoll and not Bill Bryson, can be found on my Wikipedia userpage. —Angr 19:29, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

I don’t think it’s just a transliteration. Enough Google Books results show this word used in English text as if it were any other. One can’t reasonably expect English to have a native word describing a concept unique to Persian society. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 18:49, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Yes, it seems it meets the CFI. --Z 19:07, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Say, what is the rule on commonly transliterated words from non-English alphabets, like konichiwa? bd2412 T 00:07, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

konnichi wa, Template:ja-romaji/documentation. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 00:12, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

Portuguese

cafuné - no known English equivalent

• cafuné (Brazilian Portuguese) – The act of tenderly running one’s fingers through someone’s hair.

Included.   — C M B J   22:40, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

chulé - translatable as footstink

— Ungoliant ^(Falai) 04:34, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

I think footstink, though missing from our dictionary, can be attested. bd2412 T 02:08, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Rare but citable. I’m closing this one. — Ungoliant ^(falai) 02:13, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

• chuva de molhar bobo (see entry) — Ungoliant ^(falai) 16:48, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

  This site suggests translating it as "light rain"/"drizzle", which would get the denotative meaning (that there was rain) across (that site also suggests you could get caught out in such a rain, not just that you could foolishly choose to venture out into it; is that so?), but the specific connotations might still make this inclusion-worthy. I'm really not sure. - -sche (discuss) 15:44, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

  “Drizzle/light rain” is not wrong per se, but the term is never used with the goal of bringing the lightness of the rain to mind, but in reference to its power to make fools wet. Indeed, you can get caught out in such a rain; in this case, the fool is a fool because the weather was overcast but they thought it wouldn’t rain before they finished walking. I shall update the definition; note that this kind of chuva de molhar bobo is not necessarily a light rain, further discrediting “drizzle” as an contextlessly appropriate translation. — Ungoliant ^(falai) 16:17, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

  This looks like a good candidate for inclusion, then. - -sche (discuss) 19:51, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

• cor de burro quando foge (see entry) — Ungoliant ^(falai) 22:14, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

  On the one hand, technically "nameless/indistinct colour" would seem to cover this in three words or less; on the other hand, I appreciate that Portuguese has an idiomatic expression for it where English just SOPly describes it. - -sche (discuss) 15:44, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

  You’re right. I retract my candidate. — Ungoliant ^(falai) 16:17, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

  Wait, thinking about this one some more, I think it depends on whether "nameless colour" is able to function as a gloss definition (it seems to work as one in the one citation given), or whether it's a non-gloss definition. Like, if someone asks you to describe a person they're on the lookout for and you don't actually want to help them so you say "his hair is dark and his shirt is cor de burro quando foge", as if you just named a specific color (even though you didn't), the way "eleventeen" can be used as if it were a specific number even though it's not, then this arguably merits inclusion iff English doesn't actually have such a word itself. But I wonder if "grue" or some other word can be used this way. - -sche (discuss) 19:46, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

  Yeah, it’s used as if it were the name of a colour; hence the possibility of using it as an adjective as well as a noun. It’s usually used when you are unable to identify an observed colour precisely (perhaps the object is moving fast) or the Portuguese language doesn’t have a name for it. — Ungoliant ^(falai) 20:09, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

  According to various sources, Italian has color(e) (di) can(e) che fugge / corre / scappa (Neapolitan is similar; one old dictionary gives, in possibly dated orthography, culore de cane che fuje) and Catalan has color de gos com fuig, color de catxumbo, color d'ala de corb (really? that doesn't mean "black"?), and color d'ala de mosca. I've asked if English has a word for this at Wiktionary:Tea room/2018/March#Nonsense_color. - -sche (discuss) 23:30, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

   Added the Portuguese and Italian (the latter of which I comprehensively cited). - -sche (discuss) 21:19, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

• desbundar (Brazilian Portuguese) - To shed your inhibitions and self-restraint and have fun like there’s no tomorrow, causing wonder and surprise with your atypical behaviour.

Yet another example of an overspecific meaning. It means “to lose self-control, composure” (due to being drunk, for example), “to embarrass” or “to shock” — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 02:58, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• desenrascanco (Portuguese) - To pull a MacGyver.

desenrascanço, which is not a verb and has translations. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:32, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Alternate version: Literally “to disentangle oneself” from a bad situation, this is the art of slapping together a solution to a problem at the last minute, with no advanced planning, and no resources. Think “MacGyver”. An ability highly prized in Portuguese culture.   — C M B J   02:58, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• pesamenteiro (Portuguese) - It is someone who goes to a funeral, or the house of the mourning family, for the food and drink that is expected to be served instead of to offer their condolences.

Uncitable. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 23:53, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

"pesamenteiro -ra (m., f.) one who habitually joins groups of mourners at the home of a deceased person, ostensibly to offer condolences but in reality to partake of the refreshments which he expects will be served." A Portuguese-English Dictionary: Revised. James Lumpkin Taylor, Priscilla Clark Martin. Stanford University Press. 1970. ISBN: 978-0804704809.   — C M B J   04:18, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Dictionary references aren’t valid for citing Portuguese though. BTW, see Placebo (at funeral). — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 04:24, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• saudade (Portuguese) – The feeling of longing for something or someone who you love and which is lost. (See also w:Saudade).

User feedback: "Portuguese - saudade: sometimes translated as ‘nostalgia’ but thats not quute correct. Saudade refers to the intense feeling of missing someone who is absent, be it a loved one (deceased or absent) a pet, whatever. It can refer to a place, activity, time period…"   — C M B J   07:49, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

User feedback: "I support Luisa’s suggestion. This is such a key Portuguese word. Any Portuguese will tell you that this is what defines us: the ability to understand what “saudade” means. A sense of something missing; missing someone, missing an experience, a feeling, a place. Attached to very melancholic tones; very often associated to the traditional music of Fado."   — C M B J   07:49, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Rapa Nui

• ngaobera (Pascuense) - A slight inflammation of the throat caused by screaming too much.

The definition is probably spurious; compare tingo... - -sche (discuss) 21:08, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Not present in my resources, but there’s ngao (“neck”) and vera (“burn”). It probably means any inflammation of the throat. — Ungoliant ^(falai) 01:02, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

• tingo (Pascuense) - To borrow from a friend until he has nothing left.

Probably false meaning (see Talk:tingo), but I can’t think of a translation of the real meaning. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:32, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

The definition provided is spurious. - -sche (discuss) 21:08, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Russian

• почемучка (počemučka) - A person, often a child, who asks a lot of questions.

пошлость (póšlostʹ) - translatable as vulgarity or banality

• пошлость (póšlostʹ) (Russian) - Self-satisfied vulgarity masquerading as high morality.

Native speaker's feedback: Strike, it's translatable - vulgarity; banality. The description is exaggerated. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 06:05, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

• разлюбить (razljubítʹ) (Russian) - To fall out of love.

disamorarsi (Italian)   — C M B J   09:08, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

User feedback: The Bulgarian word is разлюбвам and the act is разлюбване.   — C M B J   23:23, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

disenamour — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 04:35, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Or indeed 'fall out of love'. Mglovesfun (talk) 19:24, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, I think this is translatable as "fall out of love". - -sche (discuss) 02:46, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

See also desenamorar, disamorare. I have created fall out of love. It seems as idiomatic as fall in love and is a good translation hub in any case. - -sche (discuss) 22:54, 6 March 2018 (UTC)

• тоска (toská) (Russian) - A great spiritual anguish, usually without any cause or condition. 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.”

тоска (toská) --Vahag (talk) 11:23, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Native speaker's feedback: Strike, it's translatable - anguish; yearning; sadness. The description is exaggerated. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 06:05, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

I'm a little surprised on this one since it was translated by Vladimir Nabokov in what is/was said to be the best English version of Russian literature's most seminal work, Eugene Onegin. Let's hold out for two concurring opinions just to be sure that nothing is being overlooked.   — C M B J   09:29, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

I confirm, the description is exaggerated. --Vahag (talk) 10:15, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

тьмутаракань (tʹmutarakánʹ) - translatable as boondocks, middle of nowhere

• тьмутаракань (tʹmutarakánʹ) (Russian) - the back of beyond, the middle of nowhere, the underdeveloped depths of the country

middle of nowhere, boondocks; WS:remote place. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 03:10, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

разблюто (razbljúto) - no demonstrated use in source language

• разблюто (razbljúto) (Russian) - This word, pronounced ros-blee-OO-toe, describes the feeling that a person (generally meant to be a man) has for the person who he once loved, but now no longer loves.

Editor's note: "I got the words for this entry, including razbliuto, from They Have a Word for It, a book about words by Howard Rheingold. It seems his information came from a book called HodgePodge, by J Bryan in 1986. Before that, it looks like it came from a mistaken translation and conglomeration of two words, one of which means 'a lost love' and the other meaning 'whore'. However, it seems since it's only English linguists who use the word"   — C M B J   08:29, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

User feedback: RAZBLIUTO? NYET!   — C M B J   09:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

The term was deleted as a made up word. It's a Russian sounding word made in Hollywood.

• застой (zastój) (Russian) - Intellectual stagnation.

User feedback: Same in Bulgarian.   — C M B J   01:04, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Maybe block, if also found outside writer's block. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 02:58, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Native speaker's feedback: Strike, it's translatable - stagnation; block. The description is exaggerated. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 06:05, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

гласность (glásnostʹ) - term adopted in English as glasnost

• гласность (glásnostʹ) - (Russian) - An open and frank discussion. Any process of justice of governance that is conducted transparently, in the open.

Apparently that's glasnost. Mglovesfun (talk) 19:33, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Native speaker's feedback: Strike, it's translatable - glasnost; publicity; openness The description is exaggerated. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 06:05, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

привезти (priveztí) - translatable as bring, transport

• привезти (priveztí) (Russian) - To bring something somewhere using some kind of transportational device (not on foot).

Native speaker's feedback: Strike, it's translatable - bring (by transport); transport. The description is exaggerated. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 06:05, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

• похмеляться (poxmeljátʹsja) (prefective forms: похмелиться (poxmelítʹsja) Template:pf., опохмелиться (opoxmelítʹsja) Template:pf.) (Russian) - Taking a shot in the morning to help make your hangover go away.

English may not have a verb for this, but we do have hair of the dog, which communicates the idea as a noun. --EncycloPetey (talk) 04:38, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• достопримечательность (dostoprimečátelʹnostʹ) (Russian) - A place you can take notice of a hundred times. It is generally translated as a “point of interest”, but it means much more.

landmark? — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 00:03, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Native speaker's feedback: Strike, it's translatable - landmark; attraction; a remarkable place. The description is exaggerated. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 06:05, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

• про́рубь (prórubʹ) - ice-hole, hole in the ice (usually artificial). --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 00:40, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

  Judging by a Google Video search, such holes are often called "ice holes" in English. That collocation isn't idiomatic, but it occurs so regularly as the term for the holes that, by the standard we seem to be using for determining whether or not things are translatable, I'd say про́рубь is translatable. - -sche (discuss) 02:46, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

лыжня́ (lyžnjá) - translatable as skitrack

• лыжня́ (lyžnjá) - ski track, trail left by a pair of skis, or one artificially created for the purpose of skiing on. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 00:42, 13 November 2013 (UTC)
  • skitrack. Rare but citable. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 00:57, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

Sanskrit

• (deprecated template usage) कल्प (kálpa) (Sanskrit) - Time passing on a cosmic scale.

The above definition is ambiguous. Scientifically, you would say 'cosmological/cosmic time(/scale/frame)' or 'geological time(/scale/frame)'. You could also merely say [Cosmic time]. And we have plenty of large time units: aeon, superaeon, etc. Either way I don't think it qualifies. Hyarmendacil (talk) 08:52, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• ahimsa (Sanskrit) - A belief in the avoidance of violence or the killing of living creatures. Literally, the avoidance of violence.

pacifism, nonviolence — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 02:24, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Directly adopted into English, too. - -sche (discuss) 21:46, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

• lingam (Sanskrit) - “The symbol of the erect penis as an object of veneration” (Rheingold 87). A lingam is an object of worship, often connected to the Hindu god Shiva, and you can find lingam statues draped with flower garlands in many Indian villages.

phallus or herm/herma probably covers that. — This unsigned comment was added by Hyarmendacil (talk • contribs).

Phallus was mentioned by the source as not being sufficient -- may need double checking.   — C M B J   22:40, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

lingam — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 04:56, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Just means "peace/tranquility of heart". —Angr 13:09, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Scots

• scunner (Scots) - Expresses annoyance or disappointment, e.g. “My motorcycle has a flat back tyre, what a scunner.” “What a scunnersome wee boy that is, always misbehaving.”

bother — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 05:16, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Seems to be English anyway! But what a pain (if we're looking for a non-vulgar word) Mglovesfun (talk) 13:14, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• suilk (Scots) - The act of swallowing food with an abnormal amount of noise. A noisy eater.

I always felt gulp implied some abnormal amount of noise, but I’m not native speaker, so... :-| — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 00:03, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Gulping would presumably cover noisy consumption of liquids, but the om nom nom noises someone (like Cookie Monster) makes while eating noisily would be a little different. Maybe just noisy eater even?   — C M B J   00:21, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

[[noisy]] [[eater]] (not [[noisy eater]], since the collocation isn't idiomatic). I'd view non-English words like this, which correspond to short English sequences which are not idiomatic but which are common, as "translatable". - -sche (discuss) 02:51, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Sinhala

ayubowan - translatable as aloha, ciao

• ayubowan (Sinhala) - Used as both a greeting and farewell in Sri Lanka. Saying it to someone is the equivalent of saying “May you live a long life”.

Aloha?   — C M B J   22:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Even just be well. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 02:19, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

ciao too. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 04:09, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Spanish

• rábula - A third-rate, ambulance-chasing, unscrupulous AND incompetent lawyer.

  Our entry seems to have no trouble translating this. - -sche (discuss) 07:17, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

Swahili

• nubie yom (Swahili) - Literally translated as “finger farm”. The home, business, or especially the farm of a person who never finishes projects but rather points out (hence, finger) where he or she intends to start new projects and where things will go in the future.

  This is not Swahili. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 19:56, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• pole (Swahili) - Means ‘I am sorry for your misfortune.’ It is pronounced ‘po-lay.’ It can be used for small or big things, and ‘pole sana’ also exists, where ‘sana’ is an intensifier.

  This is really the same as English sorry, with some cultural differences overlaid on it. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 19:56, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

• tuko pamoja (Swahili) - “We are together.” Denotes a shared sense of purpose and motivation in a group. It transcends mere agreement, and implies empathetic understanding among the members of the group.

  This is not a word, just an unidiomatic phrase with the exact same meaning as the translation given. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 19:56, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

Swedish

drulle - translatable as butterfingers or klutz

• drulle (Swedish) - Clumsy fool.

butterfingers, klutz. Hyarmendacil (talk) 08:35, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Excluded as adequately translatable.   — C M B J   02:44, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

dygn - translatable as nycthemeron

• dygn (Swedish) - A 24-hour cycle of day and night.

day. I must be missing something. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 03:51, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

According to sv:dygn it either means a period of 24 hours (a day) or specifically the period of 24 hours from one midnight to the next (a day). Perhaps more precise that its synonym dag, but so what? Mglovesfun (talk) 22:50, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

farbror - translatable as paternal uncle

• farbror (Swedish) - Father’s brother.

Translatable as paternal uncle.   — C M B J   06:17, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

fingertoppskänsla - translatable as gut feeling

• fingertoppskänsla (Swedish) - Intuitive flair or instinct, great situational awareness, the ability to respond most appropriately and tactfully. May be applied to diplomats, bearers of bad news, or to describe a superior ability to respond to an escalated situation. Literally "finger tips feeling".

See also Fingerspitzengefühl (German).   — C M B J   03:55, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

halt - translatable as an older sense of halt

• halt (Swedish) - With a limp.

Um... didn't anyone actually read English halt? Hyarmendacil (talk) 08:35, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Excluded as archaic English term.   — C M B J   02:43, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• jo (Swedish) - Yes, after a negative question.

Like French si and German doch. Not difficult to translate, though: "yes" will work in most contexts. —Angr 13:15, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Indeed in three letters; yes. Or ye if you want only two. Mglovesfun (talk) 22:50, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

Early modern English had specific answering forms 'yea' and 'nay' for negative questions. But they are no more used or recognized in their original meaning by modern speakers. Both 'yea' and 'nay' are nowadays understood more like dialect variants of yes and no.

• knullrufs - the unordered hairdo after having sex

Do we not use "bedhead" or "sex hair" for this?

• lagom (Swedish) - Not too much or too little. Just the right amount of something being weight, volume, amount, feelings and so on.

  "Just right."

morbror - translatable as maternal uncle

• morbror (Swedish) - Mother’s brother.

Maternal uncle.   — C M B J   08:13, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

User feedback: Eno is maternal uncle in Finnish.   — C M B J   02:01, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Excluded as adequately translatable.   — C M B J   02:41, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• nja (Swedish) - Neither yes nor no; both yes and no.

Would one not say 'meh'? Hyarmendacil (talk) 09:28, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Maybe. Mglovesfun (talk) 22:50, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

• orka (Swedish) - To not have the ability/energy to be able to do [something] any longer.

User feedback: Orka is actually “to have the ability” etc. However, it is often used as a sarcastic reply when one is not in the mood to follow an order or suggestion: Go clean your room! Orka! (I don’t want to!)   — C M B J   01:04, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

collapse — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 02:11, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

succumb?   — C M B J   03:31, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

skadeglädje - translatable as schadenfreude

• skadeglädje (Swedish) - The joy or happiness you feel because someone else is unhappy.

schadenfreude — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 01:32, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Translatable as schadenfreude.   — C M B J   04:05, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Tamil

• mazhalai (Tamil) - The way that toddlers and very young children speak – with an inability both to create clear sentences and to pronounce certain words (either because of difficult pronunciation/unfamiliarity with the word/wrong intention/etc…). It is used and referred to as something pleasing and not derogatory. It is not the same as babble because that implies an inability to speak coherently.

prattle? — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 00:03, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

babytalk#Verb? No, that's how adults talk to kids, not the other way round. Still, this just sounds like "babble", which is sometimes endearing, or "prattle". And the only dictionary I spotted this Latin-script spelling in, English and Tamil Dictionary for the Use of Students and Colleges, does gloss it as "prattle". - -sche (discuss) 02:32, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

Ukrainian

• незабаром (nezabárom) (Ukrainian) - Communicates the meaning “not a very long time ago,” but means literally, “not far away from the pub”.

recently — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 05:50, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

It means soon, not "recently". I find the explanation “not far away from the pub” amateurish. It's funny but not true. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 11:00, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

• тушка (túška) (Russian, Ukrainian) – Literally, “the body of a dead animal”. Used of an elected official who has changed his political affiliation.

Pretty sure this has an English equivalent.   — C M B J   07:34, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

floor-crosser — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:17, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

turncoat - -sche (discuss) 21:33, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Yámana

• mamihlapinatapai (Yaghan) - A look between two people that suggests an unspoken, shared desire.

Sometimes mamihlapinatapei.   — C M B J   07:05, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Ironically, this word is apparently spurious and nonexistent in Yámana/Yaghan, but exists in English. - -sche (discuss) 21:34, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Yiddish

• קוועטש (kvetsh) (Yiddish) - A person who complains all the time.

kvetch — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 23:53, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Complainer, moaner, groaner (and so on). Mglovesfun (talk) 19:27, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• נחת (naches) (Yiddish) - The pleasure and satisfaction a parent gets from their child’s accomplishments.

naches — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 23:53, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• nu (Yiddish) - Word expressing indifference or confusion about learning irrelevant information. Often translated as “so what?”

so what; who cares; meh; and — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 02:11, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• שלימזל (shlimazl) (Yiddish) - Someone who has nothing but bad luck.

A bit like schadenfreude, as we do say shlimazel in English. —Angr 12:28, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

dreamer? — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:32, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

No, just someone with bad luck. There's a saying that Yiddish has two words for perpetually unlucky people: shlemiel and shlimazel. The shlemiel is the man who spills his soup, and the shlimazel is the man he spills it on. —Angr 16:17, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Ooops. I actually meant this for luftmensch. Sorry. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 18:39, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

• trepverter (Yiddish) - A witty reposte you only think of when it's too late to use.

  staircase wit - -sche (discuss) 21:36, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

• kibbitzer (Yiddish) - A person who gives unwanted advice. Also used to describe a person who keeps trying to talk to you while you are working.

  kibitzer - -sche (discuss) 21:36, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

• farpotshket (Yiddish) - Something that is all fouled up, especially as the result of attempts to fix it–repeatedly making something worse while trying to fix it.

  פֿאַרפּאַטשקעט (farpatshket), which really is the past participle of פֿאַרפּאַטשקען (farpatshken, “to mess up, to wreck”). —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 00:16, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

• k’velen (Yiddish) - To beam with joy, burst with pride, glow with pride and happiness. Particularly when boasting about the achievements of a family member.

  קוועלן (kveln), borrowed into English as kvell. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 00:16, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

• לופֿטמענטש (luftmentsh) (Yiddish) - An impractical dreamer with no business sense. Literally, air person.

dreamer? — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:32, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Alternate entry: A luftmensch is “one who lives on air”. From The Joys of Yiddish: “The prototype of the luftmensh was one Leone da Modena, who listed his skills and cited no fewer than twenty-six professions. Why would so accomplished a man be classified as a luftmensh? Because out of all twenty-six professions, he barely made a living.”

Borrowed into English as luftmensch. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 00:16, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

References

references