Wiktionary:Foreign Word of the Day/Nominations

This project handles the daily foreign language word posted on the main page. It mimics the English Word of the Day. Nominations may be in any language other than English.

Here's a checklist for nominations:

1. Is it foreign? For nomination of English words, see Word of the Day.
2. Is it non-offensive? Don't nominate if it would be embarrassing to have someone's boss or grandmother overhear.
3. It hasn't been lauded elsewhere recently, right? We want Wiktionary to be original, not a copycat.
4. Do we have an entry for it? An entry needs to be created first, or you could request it.

With rare exceptions at the discretion of the volunteers on charge, entries must also have a pronunciation section with IPA or audio (.ogg), a complete etymology where that is known, and at least one citation. Terms currently in RFC, RFV, or RFD whose problems have not been resolved by those discussions will not be accepted. Entries must be in their proper scripts and in transliteration when not in the Latin script. Entries may be required to have images of their headword on Commons available if the script they are in is not widely supported (e.g., Kannada or Phoenician).

Ideal candidates include entries that are fairly complete, having a considerable amount of information, or words with unusual translations, for instance:

• A word for an item or idea with which most English speakers are unfamiliar.
• A false friend, a word that an English speaker would assume to have a different meaning.
• A word with a couple of well-known definitions that have very different English translations.
• A word whose primary definition incorporates a range of somewhat varied concepts in English.
• An idiom or unusual expression, or anything else you think might be interesting.

Nominate a new word!

Focus weeks

Every so often, focus weeks are held in the Foreign Word of the Day. During focus weeks, we choose words or phrases with a certain theme, highlight languages with some special features, or show words that have particularly interesting or unusual properties. Proposals for focus weeks can be found at Wiktionary:Foreign Word of the Day/Focus weeks.

Nominations

General nominations

Add your word to the top of the list using {{fwotd-nom}}! Sign each new nomination by typing four tildes (~~~~)

• Hebrew: נורא (no citations, pronunciation) --Z 09:24, 18 May 2013 (UTC)
• Serbo-Croatian: швракопис (citations, pronunciation) - cacography. Etym is "magpielike, magpie's handwriting". --biblbroks_{дискашн} 13:03, 12 May 2013 (UTC)
• German: Kleiderschrank (citations, pronunciation) Recently greatly expanded thanks to a comment left at WT:Feedback. —Angr 21:21, 6 May 2013 (UTC)
• Vietnamese: giặt gỵa (citations, pronunciation) Oddball spelling. – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 07:15, 6 May 2013 (UTC)
• Finnish: villakoiran ydin (citations, pronunciation) The "core of a poodle" signifying "essence" - a figure of speech non-existent in English. --Hekaheka (talk) 09:37, 5 May 2013 (UTC)
• Egyptian: bddw k3 (no citations, pronunciation) The coolest word in Egyptian. I'll see if I can get a citation, but I can only find mentions so far... Hyarmendacil (talk) 09:39, 3 May 2013 (UTC)
• Russian: кремлядь (no citations, pronunciation) Political term, blend of Russian words for "Kremlin" (Кремль) and "whore" (блядь). --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 05:34, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
  • Sorry, no vulgarities. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 09:08, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
• French: ramoner (citations, pronunciation) – b_jonas 07:45, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

  Is “to fuck” the primary meaning of this word? — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 19:55, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

  No. To sweep chimneys is the primary meaning. – b_jonas 07:50, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

• French: angoisser (no citations, pronunciation) – b_jonas 07:45, 8 April 2013 (UTC)
• Old English: sinniht (no citations, pronunciation) --Hyarmendacil (talk) 09:05, 4 April 2013 (UTC)
• Old Portuguese: infançon (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:58, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
• Galician: cachotaría (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 03:01, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

(UTC)

• Aragonese: pas (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 22:51, 23 March 2013 (UTC)
• Asturian: probitú (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 14:34, 19 March 2013 (UTC)
• German: Ausschlusskategorie (citations, pronunciation) - -sche (discuss) 22:39, 13 March 2013 (UTC)
• Kaingang: pãgfénh (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:16, 13 March 2013 (UTC)
• Russian: нары (no citations, no pronunciation) . Anatoli had added this to the March 12 FWOTD, so I’m nominating it here instead. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 11:50, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

  If anything, I'd prefer the singular Russian: нар (no citations, no pronunciation) . I love the fact that Russian has a monomorphemic, monosyllabic word meaning "hybrid camel". —Angr 18:21, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

• Italian: curiosare (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 04:17, 10 March 2013 (UTC)
• Quechua: llik'iq (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 16:41, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
• Russian: слонопотам (no citations, pronunciation) --Vahag (talk) 15:47, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
• Catalan: zing-zing (no citations, no pronunciation) 2.138.120.121 22:14, 5 March 2013 (UTC)
• Emilian: prît (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 03:10, 4 March 2013 (UTC)
• Portuguese: babau (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 01:31, 4 March 2013 (UTC)
• Latvian: vai (no citations, pronunciation) , Latvian: lai (no citations, pronunciation) — I don't know if conjunctions and similarly grammatical words are good nominations -- they have many meanings that are hard to explain succinctly in a little box -- but I quite like the collections of meanings that these two little Latvian words (two of my favorite) display. --Pereru (talk) 08:52, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
• Mandarin: 生词 (no citations, pronunciation) —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 03:49, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
• French: douceâtre (no citations, pronunciation) Conveys a meaning not found in English. 2WR1 (talk) 21:34, 30 January 2013 (PST)

  Thanks! I always needed a word for that. --WikiTiki89 05:50, 31 January 2013 (UTC)‎

• Russian: лыжня (no citations, pronunciation) I'd be interested to know if any other languages have a dedicated word for this. --WikiTiki89 01:40, 26 January 2013 (UTC)
• Taos: cìlixòy’ȕ’úna (no citations, no pronunciation) —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 00:40, 26 January 2013 (UTC)
• Vietnamese: mất mặt (no citations, pronunciation) 129.78.32.22 04:52, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

  Sorry, usage examples don't count as citations. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 05:46, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

  Sorry: [1]. 129.78.32.22 05:55, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

  That's because it has a 'References' section. I apologise for the confusion. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 05:57, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

• Latvian: gaume (no citations, pronunciation) (I like that Latvian distinguishes "taste" as in "good taste", "tasteful", from "taste" as in "tasty, delicious" -- the latter is garša. Apparently in English it is not possible to talk about "good taste", "tastefulness" without a gustatory metaphor, whereas in Latvian this distinction is obligatory. The two words aren't even etymologically related.)
• Latvian: daiļš (no citations, pronunciation) (I just find this word pretty in itself; with its final ļš, it seems to exemplify its own meaning, at least to me...) --Pereru (talk) 10:47, 19 January 2013 (UTC)
• Latvian: liels (no citations, pronunciation) (I mean the adjective, meaning "big, large"; I like the fact that it completely changed meaning, since it is cognate with English "little". Note that also Latvian mazs "small" is ultimately cognate with Latin magnus "big". Apparently Latvian simply swapped "big" and "small".) --Pereru (talk) 10:49, 19 January 2013 (UTC)
• Latin: ablaqueatio (no citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 06:36, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
• Greek: ηφαίστειο (no citations, pronunciation) (someone nominated this at WT:FB) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 18:43, 14 January 2013 (UTC)
• Estonian: jääaeg (no citations, pronunciation) unlike jäääär which is mentioned much more, this is actually in common use. —CodeCat 23:23, 9 January 2013 (UTC)
• French: ailler (no citations, pronunciation) —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 22:07, 5 January 2013 (UTC)
• Kurdish: pêrar (no citations, no pronunciation) --Ferhengvan (talk) 15:16, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

Nominated for a particular moment

Nominate a word here if you think it is fitting for a particular moment, such as a celebration, a recent news event and so on. It may be featured on another day instead, however.

January

• Dutch: vrieskou (citations, pronunciation) —CodeCat 19:27, 14 January 2013 (UTC)
  • Do you want it for the current January? It’s full and already has two Dutch FWOTDs. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 19:50, 14 January 2013 (UTC)
    • It could be, or maybe February. But January is the coldest month in the Netherlands so it fits. —CodeCat 19:52, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

February

• 9: Italian: lupo di mare (no citations, pronunciation) of personal significance. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 08:25, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
• 10: Cantonese: 恭喜发财 (no citations, no pronunciation) for Chinese New Year. Astral (talk) 03:55, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
  • It will need pronunciation and citations soon if it's going to make it in time... —CodeCat 04:01, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
    • Alas, that's not within my capacity. I nom'd it in the hope of having a matching WOTD and FWOTD (the scheduled WOTD for Chinese New Year is ophidian, since it's the Year of the Snake). Astral (talk) 05:31, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
  • 恭喜發財 done. Wyang (talk) 13:28, 8 February 2013 (UTC)
• 14: French: amouracher (no citations, pronunciation) unless someone can think of something better. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 08:25, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

March

April

May

June

July

• 14 Maori: Wīwī (citations, pronunciation) Probably the funniest name for a country I have ever seen. —CodeCat 19:28, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

  I have cited. Hyarmendacil (talk) 06:17, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

  Nominating for July 14 (Bastille Day). —Angr 10:45, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

• 27 (2013 only: 60th anniversary of the signing of the armistice in Korean War) Korean: 평화 (no citations, pronunciation)

August

• 6 (Hiroshima bombing) Japanese: 被爆者 (no citations, no pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 06:34, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

September

• 22: Swedish: höstdagjämning (no citations, pronunciation) (for 22 September) —CodeCat 19:04, 9 September 2012 (UTC)

October

• 4: Esperanto: sputniko (citations, pronunciation) ~ Röbin Liönheart (talk) 18:30, 5 November 2012 (UTC)
  • Might be a good one for October 4, Sputnik 1's launch date.

    But October 4th already happened and this December is the end of the world... --WikiTiki89 18:43, 5 November 2012 (UTC)

• 31: Portuguese: abafador (citations, pronunciation) (definition 4, for Halloween) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 21:30, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

November

• Hebrew: הודו (no citations, pronunciation) (etyms 2 and 3, for Thanksgiving) JulieKahan (talk) 15:04, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

  Cite for etym 3, still needed for etym 2. Pron added for all three etyms. —Angr 11:03, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

December

• Hebrew: חנוכייה \ חֲנֻכִּיָּה (no citations, pronunciation) (for Hanukkah) --WikiTiki89 13:04, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
• Proto-Germanic: *jehwlą (no citations, pronunciation) (for yuletide) Chuck Entz (talk) 21:30, 8 September 2012 (UTC)
  • Eligibility of reconstructed languages didn’t pass the vote. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 21:39, 8 September 2012 (UTC)
    • Erm, I thought it was a non-binding opinion poll. I guess we didn't make it clear either way, but normally if it were a binding part of the vote, there would be separate sections for each possibility. --Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 22:00, 8 September 2012 (UTC)
      • Maybe instead, we could use Old English: ġeōl (no citations, pronunciation) . --Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 00:39, 10 September 2012 (UTC)
        • Yeah, just go ahead and use an attested term, like ġeōl. - -sche (discuss) 02:41, 10 September 2012 (UTC)
• 31: Dutch: oliebol (citations, pronunciation) (for 31 December or 1 January) —CodeCat 18:56, 9 September 2012 (UTC)
• (before Christmas) Spanish: belenista (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 14:29, 8 March 2013 (UTC)

Selected words

• Italian: pinzimonio (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 04:17, 10 March 2013 (UTC)
• Ancient Greek: ἔαρ (citations, pronunciation) Etymologies 1 and 2 both cited. —Angr 21:54, 27 April 2013 (UTC)
• Hebrew: נָטַל (citations, pronunciation) (the first verb ("to load", "to take", "to pour water") section)​—msh210℠ (talk) 15:33, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
• Old Portuguese: moleira (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:58, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
• French: àquoibonisme (citations, pronunciation) : Great word, if anyone's kind enough to do the necessary additions. Equinox ◑ 16:20, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

  Meh, why bother... you really think anyone will like the word? </àquoibonisme> - -sche (discuss) 00:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

  I've added the pronun, but it still needs a translation of the cite. I started to try, but the sentence is way too obscure for my intermediate French. I don't understand it at all. —Angr 08:56, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

• German: Sättigungsbeilage (citations, pronunciation) Another case of "They have a word for it..."—something we don't have a snappy term for in English, or even in the German of West Germany. —Angr 23:02, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
• Emilian: arbòt (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 03:10, 4 March 2013 (UTC)
• Spanish: red (citations, pronunciation) Carturo222 (talk) 17:39, 21 February 2013 (UTC)
• Portuguese: box (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 01:31, 4 March 2013 (UTC)
• Romagnol: zil (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 00:37, 9 March 2013 (UTC)
• Quechua: usnu (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 16:41, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
• Kaingang: sun (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:16, 13 March 2013 (UTC)
• Aragonese: garra (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 22:51, 23 March 2013 (UTC)
• Asturian: torga (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 14:34, 19 March 2013 (UTC)
• Galician: irmandiño (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 03:01, 25 March 2013
• Navajo: kǫʼ (citations, pronunciation) —Angr 17:46, 27 April 2013 (UTC)
• Italian: struggere (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 04:17, 10 March 2013 (UTC)
• Old Portuguese: loução (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:58, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
• Quechua: sisiy (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 16:41, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
• Emilian: pâgn (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 03:10, 4 March 2013 (UTC)
• Spanish: herraj (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 14:29, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
• Kaingang: ẽvã (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 15:16, 13 March 2013 (UTC)
• German: fremdschämen (citations, pronunciation) - -sche (discuss) 22:39, 13 March 2013 (UTC)
• Portuguese: alfarrábio (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 22:03, 12 January 2013 (UTC)
• Romagnol: camsãnt (citations, pronunciation) — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 00:37, 9 March 2013 (UTC)
• Egyptian: pḏt psḏt (citations, pronunciation) Idiosyncratic. Hyarmendacil (talk) 10:13, 3 May 2013 (UTC)