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

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Terms which have been checked and included in or excluded from Appendix:Terms considered difficult or impossible to translate into English are at Appendix talk:Terms considered difficult or impossible to translate into English/Checked.

List of candidate terms

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Latest comment: 3 years ago245 comments25 people in discussion

Assorted

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  • faamiti (Samoan) - To make a squeaking sound by sucking air past the lips in order to gain the attention of a dog or child.[1]
    I haven't found this is any Samoan-specific references, but one general book defines this by saying it is to make the "kissy" (or "kissy kissy") sound, which is an attested phrase, though the noise is usually employed for a different purpose. English "suck (one's) teeth", "teeth-sucking" is also similar, as is the click "tsk tsk" or "tut tut", although those indicate disapproval (but again, that is arguably cultural). - -sche (discuss) 01:18, 25 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • bacheque (Lingala) - Although the closest English translation of this African noun would be “con artist,” bacheque has a richer meaning. C.J. Moore describes it like this: This is the man about Kinshasa who will sell your a car (especially when yours has mysteriously disappeared the day before), organize a night out on town for you or a tour of the local sights. Wearing a loud shirt and the best designer watch, bacheque serve a vital brokering purpose when the formal economy has dramatically broken down. They change currency, establish market prices and give the capital its characteristic feel (78-79).[2]
  • kaapshljmurslis (Latvian) - A person who is cramped while riding public transportation. If you’ve ever been on a bus or subway during rush hour then you know the feeling.[3]
    Does not appare to be a real word, in that spelling or as kaapšljmurslis. Perhaps it exists in some other spelling. - -sche (discuss) 01:18, 25 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • eshtaneya (Kannada) - A word used when asking “what number in a series?”, to be answered by ordinals like “First”, “Second” or “Hundredth”. You could use this word when asking a person what number they were of their parent’s children. Asking if they were the first, second, or third child in their family, etc.
  • pana po’o (Hawaiian) - To scratch your head in order to help you to remember something you’ve forgotten.[3]
  • panahiyabhadra (Hindi) - A person who has lost all the hair on his head after being beaten by shoes. (Panahi== shoes, bhadra==gentleman–bald people are considered to be gentleman.)[4]
  • Dii-KOYNA (Ndebele, South Africa) - To destroy one’s own property in anger.[4]
  • sasi (Malayalam) - ‘Sasi’ (pronounced “shashi”) is a word used among young people to refer to an unsporting, ageing father who will allow neither late outings nor frequent mobile calls from the opposite sex. (‘Mini’ is its female version).[4]
    This seems an awful lot like "old man"+contextual connotations. - -sche (discuss) 01:42, 24 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • qarrtsiluni (Iñupiaq) - “Sitting together in the darkness, waiting for something to burst.”[4]
    Various (non-specialist, non-linguistic) books give translations ranging from "stillness", "one is waiting for something to burst", "something that is about to burst", "stillness", "one waits for something to burst", "acts of creation, the creative mind at work [...] literally 'Waiting for something to burst'", "lit. waiting for something to break [...] not spontaneous communal creation, but a deliberate and personal concentration on poetic composition", "silence about to burst", "between day and night". - -sche (discuss) 02:01, 24 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • dhvani (Sanskrit) - “‘Dhvani’ is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘sound’ or ‘echo’ literally. It is also a technical term in Sanskrit literary criticism, with a very beautiful, Better-than-English-worthy meaning: It refers to ‘allusion’ or ‘implied meaning’, best defined as: Dhvani is the feature of a poem/line of having a hidden meaning that strikes you in the second or further readings, but not the first.” “Example: Herge’s Tintin comics have ample Dhvani in them – when I read them as a kid, they were just lovely stories; when I read them now, I also see a trenchant commentary on 20th century history.”[5]
    "Deeper meaning" and "suggested meaning". One book basically admits this when it says "The basic dynamics of dhvani is a shift in the meaning, or an arthantara, from a superficial perceived meaning to a deeper, richer inferential meaning." The word is also probably attested in English as a loanword. - -sche (discuss) 02:01, 24 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Former FWOTDs

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A-Z

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Entries from the FWOTD archive Category:Foreign word of the day archive that are not very obviously translatable, even if they're still probably translatable:
  • abafador : "(Portuguese folklore) a person whose job is to smother the moribund on their deathbed" - since this is just a special use of "smotherer" in Portuguese, it seems like "smotherer"+context would handle it also in English; "the biggest marble used in a marble game" - there is probably an English name for this. - -sche (discuss) 01:25, 20 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
That's all the interesting ones I spotted, A through hero hero. - -sche (discuss) 16:41, 23 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Other

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  • خندان - "Partially split/opened"? 17:52, 22 March 2018 (UTC)
That's all the interesting ones I spotted from À to the end of the special characters. - -sche (discuss) 16:41, 23 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Alemannic German

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  • Guseler – "a needle used to clean a tabacco pipe"
  • handle – "to stroke the teats of a dairy cow until they fill with milk"
  • presch – (of the udders of a cow) "bursting with milk"
  • Schild – "a triangle-shaped snow deposition formed as a result of a small avalanche"
  • Sente – "a group of cows that live in the same barn"
  • struensle – "to milk poorly or clumsily, so that the stream splits"
  • struuse – "to sink down into snow"
  • Tunsch – "the change in atmospheric pressure created by a powder avalanche" (is this an actual thing that happens?)
  • ubermaale – "to milk (a cow) only once daily, or only occasionally"
  • winterlüem – "only feeling slightly chilly, as a result of being pampered by staying in a warm stable"
  • Ziisse – "the stream of milk produced by an udder"

References are on each word's page. Let me know if I just don't know the English term. Definitions translated from German; I'm not fluent so they could be slightly inaccurate. – Gormflaith (talk) 16:22, 20 April 2018 (UTC)Reply

Ancient Egyptian

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  • sdm (“(sedem) to put makeup on (a particular part of the body, especially the eyelids), to apply medicine or salves to (a particular part of the body, especially the eyelids)”, verb)
  • ṯb (“(cheb) to be shod in sandals, to be wearing sandals, to provide with sandals”, verb)

- CanadianRosbif 7:30, 13 January 2023 (UTC)

Arabic

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Bantu

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  • bilita mpash (Bantu) - The opposite of a nightmare. Not merely a “good” dream, but a “legendary, blissful state where all is forgiven and forgotten”.[5]
  • mbuki-mvuki (Bantu) - To shuck off one’s clothes in order to dance.[3]
  • ubuntu (Bantu languages, South Africa) - “I am what I am because of who we all are.” (from a translation offered by Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee) “A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.” (Archbishop Desmond Tutu)[4]
Propagated in 21st century by Ubuntu OS and Wikipedia. Possible case example for guideline.   — C M B J   01:50, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Our entry and Talk:ubuntu suggest the denotative meaning here is easier to translate (humanity, humanism), and the rest is cultural connotation. - -sche (discuss) 21:58, 3 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Bulgarian

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  • защотко (zaštotko) (Bulgarian) - Someone who is always asking questions, similar to почемучка.[3]
    From poking around Tumblr (of all places) and the web in general, this seems to be a real slang word, and the meaning is supported by its obvious derivation from защо (zašto, “why?”) (just like Russian почемучка (počemučka)), it just seems to be too informal to be attested in enough durably archived places to meet CFI yet. Perhaps we should have a separate section for real but not-yet-CFI-attested words. - -sche (discuss) 20:20, 2 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Chinese

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  • 搶／抢鏡頭／镜头 (jìngtóu) / 抢镜头 (qiǎng jìngtóu) - When referring to a photographer it means a fight to get in a better position to take a picture. When not referring to a photographer, but to a person in general, it means someone who steals the spotlight.[3]
  • 幸福 (xìngfú) - A sort of happiness or contentedness felt through having everything you want in life and/or not having any looming worries. It describes a long-term feeling about one’s life situation rather than a happiness achieved through a singular outcome or situation.[5]
  • 溫馨／温馨 (wēnxīn) / 温馨 (wēnxīn) - The ideal family atmosphere. Somewhat similar to "a family environment of warmth, love and care", but not completely equivalent.
  • 辛苦 (xīnkǔ) – Thanking someone while acknowledging their hard work (similar to the Turkish phrase kolay gelsin).[6]
Compare English good job. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 01:53, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
It's more like an equivalent to the Japanese phrase ご苦労様でした (go-kurō-sama deshita). The emphasis in this phrase is not on the result but on the effort. --Anatoli (обсудить/вклад) 12:38, 22 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
"Good effort!" "Thanks for your effort!" ? - -sche (discuss) 14:51, 3 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • 緣分／缘分 (yuánfèn) / 缘分 (yuánfèn) - Binding force which eventually brings two people together in love.[7]
  • 餘音／余音 (yúyīn) / 余音 (yúyīn) - The remnants of sound that stay in the ears after the sound has stopped.[8]
'ringing in the ears' is a commmon enough phrase. Or else tinnitus, which is the probably the underlying cause. Hyarmendacil (talk) 08:44, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • 意思 (yìsī) – Meaning, idea; Fun, interest, enjoyment; indication or hint; (speaking of a gift) a token of appreciation, something not to worry about
  • 拱手 (gǒngshǒu) - Cupping one hand in the other in front of one's chest to express respect.
  • 審美／审美 (shěnměi)疲勞／疲劳 (píláo) / 审美 (shěnměi)疲劳 (shěnměi píláo) - Aesthetically fatigued; seeing so much beauty that one does not appreciate it anymore, especially if that beauty happens to be one’s lover.
  • gagung (Cantonese) - Literally meaning “bare branches,” this word is used to talk about men who have little chance to get married or start families due to China’s one-child policy and its results: an excess of marriageable males as compared to females (Moore 85).[2]
    User feedback: Proper transliteration is gwong-gwan.[2]   — C M B J   11:34, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
    光棍 (guānggùn) (pinyin guānggùn, Cantonese gwong1 gwan3), sometimes left untranslated, sometimes translated as "bare branches" or "single/bare sticks", but also rendered by our entry as "bachelors" and by other works, in the specific context above, as redundant/excess men/males. - -sche (discuss) 14:32, 3 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Danish

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Dutch

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  • de doofpot (Dutch) - This is a common Dutch response to any type of scandal that urges everyone to look the other way so that the whole thing is forgotten and dies without a trace. Literally translated as “the extinguisher”.[3]
  • feest der herkenning (Dutch) - An experience that is enjoyable because it evokes a feeling of recognition, such as a faithful cinematic adaptation of a beloved novel. Literally, “feast of recognition”.[4]
  • gezellig / gezelligheid (Dutch) - Depending on context, can be translated as convivial, cosy, fun, quaint, or nice atmosphere, but can also connote belonging, time spent with loved ones, the fact of seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness. The word is considered to be an example of untranslatability, and is one of the hardest words to translate to English. Some consider the word to encompass the heart of Dutch culture. (See also: Gezelligheid).[9][10]
User feedback: Stuff Dutch People Like | No. 2: Gezellig Gezelligheid[9]   — C M B J   10:12, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • pretoogjes (Dutch) - ‘fun-eyes,’ the eyes of a chuckling person who is up to some benign mischief[11]
Alternate: "Literally, ‘fun-eyes’. The eyes of a chuckling person who is up to benign mischief."[5]   — C M B J   08:54, 24 February 2014 (UTC)Reply
  • queesting (Dutch) - To allow a lover access to one’s bed for chitchat.[5]
    John Carr's old book Stranger in Ireland (and a number of other old books) compares this to an English-language practice of bundling, and adds that "the lower peole of Massachusetts Bay indulge themselves in a custom called tarrying", which however apparently can involve sex. It is not clear if either the Dutch or the English word is still used. - -sche (discuss) 19:27, 28 February 2020 (UTC)Reply
  • uitbuiken (Dutch) - Literally translated as “to expand the stomach”. It’s taking your time during a meal, relaxing in between courses.[3]
Alternate: "To take a walk and get some fresh air. Also translated as to walk in the wind for fun."[3]   — C M B J   08:54, 24 February 2014 (UTC)Reply

Estonian

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Finnish

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  • lieko (Finnish) - A trunk of tree that has submerged to the bottom of a lake / pond or a bog after absorbing water for some time until it can’t float anymore. This word comes form western dialects but in eastern dialects there is an equivalent word ‘hako’ which means the same. Both words are valid in modern written Finnish, though rarely used.[5]
    This is not how our entry defines this... - -sche (discuss) 19:20, 28 February 2020 (UTC)Reply
  • poronkusema (Finnish) - A very old Finnish unit of measurement. It is used to describe the distance a reindeer can travel before having to stop and urinate.[3]
Sounds like the modern equivalent, "the distance a driver can travel before having to stop and urinate" -- a pit stop.
"How many pit stops between here and St. Louis?" - "I dunno, maybe five." Just swap reindeer for driver and Bob's your uncle. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 05:07, 10 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

French

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  • abeille (“a writer whose style is considered pure like honey”) (former FWOTD) - I wonder if there's an English term for this, if the definition is accurate. A pure character is a cinnamon roll. - -sche (discuss) 01:25, 20 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
    Incidentally, the citations the TLFi has are from 1799 (which only mentions that the Greeks used this sense: "la pureté du style de celui que les Grecs appelaient l'abeille"), 1842 (also mention-y: "en peut être dit le Rollin et enchante comme lui : c'est l'abeille des déserts"), and 1848, respectively, so I don't know if the sense is still found, in use and in French. - -sche (discuss) 21:00, 23 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • dépaysement (French) – The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country.[12]
Does this go beyond or more specific than the concept of homesickness?   — C M B J   07:20, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
User feedback: "Depaysement is not limited to being out of one’s home country. It can also apply to moving house, moving jobs etc and is akin to the German Verfremdungseffekt"[6]   — C M B J   07:36, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • fond de l'air (French) - As in, it’s sunny and you could be tricked into thinking it is summertime, but in fact the air is quite cool (not in a refreshing and welcome way). It suggests that the weather is waiting for you to drop your guard so it can give you a nasty cold. Literally, "the bottom of the air".[13][14]
  • l'appel du vide (French) – “The call of the void” or an urge to leap from high places.[12]
It's a phrase. Mglovesfun (talk) 08:19, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

Georgian

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German

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  • ewiggestrig (adj), Ewiggestriger (n for a person who is the adj), Ewiggestrigkeit (-ness) [from /r/DoesNotTranslate] - Our entry translates this as "reactionary", and other references have "diehard" (which isn't actually right AFAICT from reading about the English word, unless you specify "diehard conservative" or "diehard traditionalist"), and most accurately, "stuck/living in the past". I suppose that's an adequate translation. - -sche (discuss) 20:55, 25 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • Fägnäscht (Swiss German) - Describes someone who always moves or jerks while sleeping or while they try to fall asleep.[3]
Similar English concept exists in medicine, esp. associated with benzodiazapines.   — C M B J   22:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • Feierabend (German) - The period of time after the day's work is done.
Germans are always wishing each other a nice one at the end of the workday, but I've never figured out an English equivalent. Our entry translates it "quitting time, hometime", but those are more the point in time when the Feierabend begins rather than the Feierabend itself. —Angr 09:03, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
The Russian equivalent: шабаш (šábaš, šabáš) (its original meaning is Sabbath). --Anatoli (обсудить/вклад) 09:21, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • Fingerspitzengefühl (German)- Literally, “finger tip feeling”. It is the ability to think clearly about many individual complex events and treat them as a whole. It was used as a term for military commanders who could maintain extremely accurate mental maps of troop movements and changes in the battlefield. To have a intuitive understanding of something on multiple levels.[3]
See also fingertoppskänsla (Swedish).   — C M B J   03:55, 10 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • fisselig (German) - Flustered to the point of incompetence – a temporary state of inexactitude and sloppiness elicited by another person’s nagging.[4]
overnagged — Ungoliant (Falai) 02:58, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Overnagged covers the cause, but does it really express the psychological effect? "I've been overnagged" = "I am agitated from being nagged and cannot think clearly right now"?   — C M B J   03:23, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Doesn’t the prefix over- imply some sort of negative effect in these sorts of word (i.e. overworked, overloaded, overcaffeinated, etc.)? — Ungoliant (Falai) 12:27, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • Geborgenheit (German) - To feel completely safe; like nothing could ever harm you. Usually connected to a particular place or person.[5]
These people can’t even figure out the correct part of speech of half the words, why should we trust their definitions? — Ungoliant (Falai) 05:42, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Dutch geborgenheid. —CodeCat 11:47, 10 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Trivia for you: this was voted the second most beautiful word in the German language in 2004, behind Habseligkeiten and ahead of lieben. In addition to the Dutch cognate CodeCat mentions, it has the Afrikaans cognate geborgenheid. I'm a little bit hesitant to call it untranslatable, because numerous books translate it as "security"; OTOH, that's not really a complete translation. It's the state of having a sense of security and well-being, with overtones of things like emotional/physical warmth. - -sche (discuss) 18:44, 17 August 2014 (UTC)Reply
  • Hitzefrei (German) - Literally, “free of heat”. To be given the day off due to excessive temperatures.[4]
  • Kabelsalat (German) – Too many crossed wires. Literally, “a salad of cables.”[6]
This is a particular composition of a rat's nest. [3]. 75.210.194.65 20:18, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Cable spaghetti is a direct translation. The English term is undoubtedly new, which may warrant consideration in many cases, but the German term here is presumed similarly new because of its subject matter. See also w:cable management.   — C M B J   03:25, 10 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • Kehrwoche (German) - Literally translated as “sweep week”. It is the week when it is your turn to clean the communal areas. Also used to describe the week when it is your turn to sweep the street in front of your building.[3]
ablutomania — Ungoliant (Falai) 05:30, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
I'm uncertain of Putzfimmel's exact meaning, but as far as I can tell, it should translate as Putz[cleaning]fimmel[mania] as opposed to abluto[washing]mania. Putzfimmel's colloquial meaning isn't something that I'm familiar with, but I'm inclined to think that it could positively or sillily refer to ambitious cleaning behavior. Ablutomania, on the other hand, specifically refers to a compulsive behavior (i.e., ritualistic hand washing) that would be best described as inflicting significant mental and/or physical anguish upon an actor. I could be entirely wrong, but I don't tend to think that it would be appropriate to interchange the two in a description of behavior.   — C M B J   08:22, 15 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • Schlimmbesserung (German) - An intended improvement that has the opposite effect (the adjective schlimm can mean anything from "bad" to "malicious"; the noun Besserung means "improvement"--literally "betterment")--a useful word indeed, given how often we have seen so-called "reforms" that make a situation worse.[9][16]
User feedback: Verschlimmbesserung.[9] (see also: de:Verschlimmbesserung) - related term or alternate variant?   — C M B J   08:59, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Any different to backfire? Hyarmendacil (talk) 09:38, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Verschlimmbesserung is the normal form. Yes, it's quite different from "backfire", which, I think, means that something has an unforeseen negative outcome. Verschlimmbesserung isn't used in this sense, it rather describes a kind of tampering, something that doesn't really solve the problem, or just half of it, but at the same time confuses everybody, etc. It's particularly typical of bureaucratic contexts. The SEPA reform is an example: It's supposed to make banking easier, and maybe it does for some people, but for most people it just means having to enter twice as many digits for a transfer than before.
  • Spannungsbogen (German) - [a] The self-imposed delay between when one begins to desire something and when one attempts to achieve or acquire it, [b] a sequence of events which serve to allow tension or suspense to rise.[9]
  • Spesenritter (German) - At a dinner or other social situation, it is a person who shows off by paying the bill with their firm’s money. Literally translated as an “expense knight”.[3]
Bigshot can have this meaning, but does not specify the origin of funds.   — C M B J   22:28, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • Verschlimmbesserung (German) - A verschlimmbesserung is a supposed improvement that makes things worse. There are actually a lot of words for this in a lot of languages, and that makes me think that English needs to get on the ball and coin a native word for this concept. Everyone needs it.[17]
Maybe pseudoimprovement. — Ungoliant (Falai) 04:32, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • zumutbar; zumuten Fay Freak (talk) 17:15, 18 November 2020 (UTC)Reply
    "Reasonable to expect", "reasonably expectable" translates zumutbar sufficiently (and I see this translation is used, in various Google Books), and zumuten is then "expect something unreasonable of" (or "expect something unreasonably of"). Four words is not so long that I'd consider zumuten untranslatable into English, although I know that e.g. cafuné's translation might be condensed to "hair/scalp-fondling" and Kummerspeck to "emotional/stress-eating weight gain", and whether it'd be better to trim one or both of those kinds of entries or to add many words like this is debatable (probably ballooning the list is the worse option). - -sche (discuss) 21:33, 26 November 2020 (UTC)Reply
    @-sche: Good try, but you seem to have not understood it wholly here. zumuten is then of course expecting something that is considered reasonable (e.g. if the lawmaker or judge zumutet something the latter deems it reasonable, right), so rather “to reasonably expect” (split-infinitive only in the citation form), and not only expecting but also emburdening someone with something, actually regardless of what one expects. This translation is quite off by referring to reason while it is all about a normative element particularly regarding proportionateness in passing responsibility to someone else. Reasonability may be reasonability for any reason other than proportionateness. Fay Freak (talk) 22:00, 26 November 2020 (UTC)Reply
    That it is not the same is also shown by its not being reversible, and I give here examples from legal translation for how lacking distinction costs hard cash, @-sche.
    Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 says “‘food’ (or ‘foodstuff’) means any substance or product, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, intended to be, or reasonably expected to be ingested by humans.” which is in the German edition es “sind „Lebensmittel“ alle Stoffe oder Erzeugnisse, die dazu bestimmt sind oder von denen nach vernünftigem Ermessen erwartet werden kann, dass sie in verarbeitetem, teilweise verarbeitetem oder unverarbeitetem Zustand von Menschen aufgenommen werden.” One cannot say zumuten, zumuten, towards things. Precisely this term is about somebody else’s calculations or how much they are (zumuten) or may be (zumutbar) impinged on.
    In Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 “reasonable expects” is used bare times. Most are translated with “vernünftigem Ermessen” – Ermessen is something different, and “vernünftiges Ermessen” is not a known form of Ermessen.
    And there reasonable expectation is the expectation of certain circumstances again, merely a probability calculation: “When an operating air carrier reasonably expects to deny boarding on a flight,” ”reasonably expected time of departure”, “reasonably expects a flight to be delayed beyond its scheduled time of departure”. In Art. 9 (1.) (a) we are more in the possible application area of Zumutbarkeit: “passengers shall be offered free of charge meals and refreshments in a reasonable relation to the waiting time”, but this offering is “Mahlzeiten und Erfrischungen in angemessenem Verhältnis zur Wartezeit”, and “angemessen” is a yardstick very different from “zumutbar” (much more things are zumutbar than angemessen; the latter means a balanced proportion, the former a tolerable proportion; “tolerable” is however also an insufficient translation of course if you think the possibilities through; it is just in this context employed by me for contradistinction).
    The word “zumutbar” occurs excluding some recitals once in infamous Article 5 (3.) of this regulation: “An operating air carrier shall not be obliged to pay compensation in accordance with Article 7, if it can prove that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.” Which translates “zumutbaren Maßnahmen”. Now what such extraordinary circumstances are and what reasonable measures should be (expected to be) taken (to avoid cancellation; not the circumstances have to be avoided, they cannot be as they are extraordinary, this is generally agreed upon) is one of the greatest points of legal disputes within the scope of this regulation. You see very much how it makes a difference whether zumutbare or just angemessene measures are to be taken. (EU legislative acts are to be applied in a uniform manner, with an understanding abstracted from the wordings in different languages, there is no precedence of one language over the other.) Fay Freak (talk) 11:21, 2 December 2020 (UTC)Reply
  • nachvollziehen Fay Freak (talk) 13:01, 24 November 2020 (UTC)Reply
  • pauschal, pauschalisieren. We may translate the former in the adjective sense of blanket, but it may not be understood the same, and in any case an adverb sense of the English and a verb are missing. The term pauschalisieren is obviously not “to generalize”, which is verallgemeinern, as it is not about making things more general but about comprising things in a more complete fashion mit Bausch und Bogen, über einen Kamm scheren, tarring with the same brush. Furthermore we have to add Blankett as a false friend to the English word blanket, compare compounds like Blankettnorm, blankettartig, blankettmäßig. Fay Freak (talk) 15:14, 26 November 2020 (UTC)Reply
  • etwaig, allfällig, eventuell – usually translated with possible, although if it meant just that one would use möglich. Not really synonyms of it but hyponyms, that is special cases of possibilities. It occurs as eventual in English but this is deemed non-native speakers’ English so is of limited usability, it does not count. Strangely eventuality is normal English and works as German Eventualität (although some talk about “possible eventualities”, unthinkable in German, so maybe not?). It may be synonymous to contingent and incidental in certain senses, but these also have other meanings and are not used to such an extent (little one can automatically replace all occurrences of the mentioned German words with these). The use of potential (adjective) requires that something is possibly caused by a potential (noun) (one does not use it the same way as possible but in special cases, right), in such a fashion that one already existing thing changes its nature, so it is a third meaning that is represented by this word family in English and other languages. Fay Freak (talk) 18:41, 26 November 2020 (UTC)Reply
  • I have now learned that English cannot even translate Vertrauen (“trust, faith”) in many combinations, as in “schutzwürdiges Vertrauen”, “berechtigtes Vertrauen”, e.g. “in den Fortbestand”, were we find that “reasonable expectation” again – not at all expressing what is imagined to be felt in people having Vertrauen. Fay Freak (talk) 20:29, 14 December 2020 (UTC)Reply
  • If we are at it, no way is Treue always easy to translate. It has been mythologized in sentences like “Meine Ehre heißt Treue”. Fay Freak (talk) 20:29, 14 December 2020 (UTC)Reply
  • Schlafittchen – Jberkel 16:12, 13 January 2021 (UTC)Reply

Greek

[edit]
  • φιλότιμο (filótimo) (Greek) - ‘friend-honour,’ to respect and honour your friends, the quintessence of Greeks[11]
  • κέφι (kéfi) (Greek) - The spirit of joy, passion, enthusiasm, high spirits, or frenzy. The custom of smashing plates is considered an expression of kefi, when the soul and body are overwhelmed with an exuberance that must find an outlet.[4]
  • μεράκι (meráki) (Greek) - The word may be quite close to “ardor,” but is exclusively used when referring to one’s own creations. For example, when making a piece of furniture or cooking a dish, and really loving what you do, putting all your effort and creativity into it, you can be said to be doing it with “meraki”.[4]
  • με γεια (me geia) (Greek) - Said to someone when they buy something new, usually applied to large purchases such as jewelry or a car or new home, Me Yia means “with joy.” You are essentially wishing that their new purchase brings them joy and that they enjoy it.[5]

Hebrew

[edit]
  • titchadesh (Hebrew) - Literally translated as “Be new”. The word is used to comment on something new someone has just acquired such as clothes, or even a new haircut. It is more effectively translated as “enjoy your new thing”. In Bulgarian we have the same thing - “честитa” - and we add e.g. “прическа” - haircut - if it the person has a new haircut. :)[3]
    One website says "The Rama mentions in Orach Chaim 223:6 that there is a custom to say to someone wearing new clothes תבלה ותתחדש - tibale v'titchadesh. Other sources (quoted here and here) have תבלה ותחדש (this seems to me to be the more logical, perhaps the original.)" So, the spelling appears to be תתחדש, and this is what is on reddit.com/r/DoesNotTranslate/ (a source of more candidates to look into), with the mention that Arabic has Mabrouk for the same thing. - -sche (discuss) 20:25, 25 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • יורה "first rain of the year", which is perhaps too many words to "count" as a translation, what do you think? Also, it may have been borrowed into English (yoreh)... - -sche (discuss) 22:35, 25 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
    I can only find yorah in italics in English, so it does not appear to have been borrowed into English. Is "first rain of the year" an adequate translation? In some works it seems to be mentioned as simply an "early" rain, with another word used for a late (but still first?) rain. - -sche (discuss) 19:51, 28 February 2020 (UTC)Reply

Hindi

[edit]

I've added two: इंतज़ार and गुज़ारा. Aryamanarora (talk) 22:56, 9 November 2015 (UTC)Reply

Our entry suggests इंतज़ार is just "wait"; is it not? - -sche (discuss) 19:53, 28 February 2020 (UTC)Reply

Irish

[edit]
  • ládramhaíola (Irish) - An Irish language term roughly translated as “wasted day”.
Wasted day? Mglovesfun (talk) 19:27, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • suaimhneas croí (Irish) - A bursting happiness and peace encountered after a task has been finished and there is nothing left to be done.[18]

Jahai

[edit]
  • (I added plʔεŋ, but am leaving this section for now as there are probably other Jahai words to add.)

Japanese

[edit]
Often glossed as dear, but that really doesn't cover it. My wife and I often wind up just saying things like “wow, that's so natsukashii” because no EN term covers the bases. This word can be explained, and there might be appropriate glosses in specific contexts (dear can sometimes be made to fit), but there isn't any one- or two-word rendering that I can find for this in English.
Our entry here could use some expansion, and definitely some quotes and/or usexes. For reference in this discussion, also see Weblio's JA→EN entry. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 15:43, 5 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
I agree. good old comes close but doesn't cover it. I've thought about it again and agin but aa, natsutashii can only be translated as a whole phrase like "yeah, I remember that" or "Those were the days." For some reason that makes me think of one more:
Which by itself is a greeting but can be used adverbially--that sense is currently missing incidentally--to mean "again after not doing it for a long time" --Haplology (talk) 04:50, 6 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Merged description: "Natsukashii can be used to express a longing for the past. It connotes both happiness for the fondness of that memory and goodness of that time, as well as sadness that it is no longer. It can also refer to nostalgia for a life or event that one has not experience."[4]   — C M B J   08:46, 24 February 2014 (UTC)Reply
A gleeful nuisance? ;) -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 06:58, 7 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
crime junkie (not really idiomatic though, is it?) — Ungoliant (Falai) 15:55, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

A, B, C, D, E, F, G

[edit]
  • age-tori (Japanese) - To look worse after a haircut.[5]
Not sure if valid; not in any resources to hand. Not even sure how this would be spelled. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 04:31, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • amakudari (Japanese) - Refers to a person employed by a firm in an industry he previously, as a government bureaucrat, was involved in regulating. Literally means “descent from heaven”.[5]
天下り, 天降り, 天降 (​amakudari). Not necessarily exactly regulatory capture. The original (maybe main?) sense is a government official forcibly ordering private industry to do something. By extension, refers to a government official taking up a high-level post in the private sector by means of their influence in government. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 04:20, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • bakku-shan (Japanese) - An ugly woman who is beautiful from behind.[19]
See バックシャン (​bakkushan). I dimly recall hearing of an English slang word that fit this meaning to a T, but I can't remember what it was. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 22:42, 3 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Butterface? —Angr 12:28, 5 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
I want to say that I've heard some obscure English slang for this in the past, but I don't think butterface captures the directionality or sense of ambush in the same exact way.   — C M B J   13:03, 5 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

H, I, J, K, L, M, N

[edit]
  • ikibari (Japanese) - Literally, a “lively needle”. Used to describe a man who is willing but under-endowed.[5]
Looks like slang, if valid; not listed in the resources I have to hand. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 04:13, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • jibaku (Japanese) - The act of unintentionally or inadvertently demolishing your own argument in the process of defending your view.[3]
Could be either 自爆 (jibaku, “blowing oneself up”) or 自縛 (jibaku, “tying oneself up”). The English terms hoist on one's own petard or enough rope to hang oneself both come to mind. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 02:46, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
There is to shoot oneself in the foot, but like Eiríkr’s suggestions it’s not specific to arguments. — Ungoliant (Falai) 15:55, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
To hang oneself with one's own words would be specific to arguments, though six words is getting into phrase territory.   — C M B J   21:55, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • 壁ドン (kabedon) - When a man puts his hand against a near wall (romantically or hostilely), creating a barrier with his arm and preventing a woman from moving.
  • komorebi (Japanese) - Dappled sunlight through trees.[7]
Or 木漏れ日 in Japanese. There is actually a Wikipedia page for this
Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia ja
--Haplology (talk) 12:26, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
crepuscular rays. Not specific to trees though. — Ungoliant (Falai) 15:55, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

O, P, Q, R, S, T, U

[edit]
  • okuri-okami (Japanese) - A man who feigns thoughtfulness by offering to see a girl home only to try to molest her once he gets in the door – literally, a “see-you-home wolf”.[5]
送り狼 (​okuri ōkami). By extension from the older sense, that of wolves that would follow travelers in the mountains, awaiting an opportunity to pounce. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 04:20, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Up north in the Tōhoku where I did a half-year homestay, folks there would say しばらくでしたね, but down in the Kantō I never heard that, and folks would instead say 久しぶりでした.
Curiously, I note a similar shift in ... how to say, stated intensity? ... between folks up north in the US versus further south. Minnesotans, at least, are famous for their understatedness, so しばらくでしたね (“so it's been a while, eh?”) would be very fitting there, whereas further south, there's more exaggeration, so 久しぶりでした (“it's been forever [since...]”) fits that as well. Anyway, :) -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 05:17, 6 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
I haven't noticed people using anything but hisashiburi in Tōkai, but maybe I just wasn't listening carefully. I consulted my native speaker source, and she insists that people all over the country use both hisashiburi and shibarakudeshita, as well as ご無沙汰. I thought gobusata was only used in writing but this person says it is used in speech as well, although usually in more formal situations such as during a telephone conversation.
I was considering adding yojijukugo to this list, but I had a feeling they don't qualify because they are compounds or something like that. What do you think? --Haplology (talk) 14:29, 6 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • sunao (Japanese) - A word that is often translated as “meek,” “docile,” “obedient,” or even “submissive.” But all those words have a slightly negative connotation, and sunao is regarded as a positive characteristic.[4]
obedient has a slightly negative connotation? — Ungoliant (Falai) 02:58, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
素直 (sunao). Refers to being humble and open to the wisdom of others. Overtones of being honest and un-presupposing, also straightforward. Translation is certainly possible, but would depend very much on the context. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 03:03, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

V, W, X, Y, Z

[edit]
  • wabi (Japanese) - A flawed detail that creates an elegant whole. The word rhymes with “Bobby.”[4]

Korean

[edit]
  • 아쉬움 (aswium, “aswium”) - It’s the feeling you get when you fail an exam by 1%. Or what you experience when you’ve probably eaten enough, but feel like there’s a little something missing. When you say ‘That’s a shame’, “If only this had(n’t) happened!” or ‘Oh well, I guess there’s nothing to be done…’, you are feeling 아쉬움. It’s a mingling of unsatisfaction, wistfulness, disappointment, regret, higher hopes, frustration and sadness.[5]
    The word almost comes to mind for English, which could be an awfully good match depending on context and tone of voice. Incidentally, this seems very close to Japanese 惜しい (oshii), both in terms of meanings and pronuciations (I gather the -um in the Korean is an inflectional ending, as is the -i in Japanese, leaving us stems of aswi- and oshi-). ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 17:56, 25 February 2014 (UTC)Reply
    It is from aswip-. I have created the entry. Wyang (talk) 04:02, 26 February 2014 (UTC)Reply
    Or "so close!" But I see our entry has a less specific/poetic idea of the nature of the short-coming... - -sche (discuss) 03:03, 3 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • 정 (情, jeong) - A special feeling…that is stronger than mere love and can only often be proved by having survived a huge argument with someone.[8]
  • 원 (願, won) - The reluctance on a person’s part to let go of an illusion.[4]
  • 고소하다 (gosohada) - "Savoury and aromatic; associated with the smell and taste of sesame oil, roasted grain, nuts, and tofu."
    Added to the list in diff, but the claimed sense isn't in our entry, so I'm moving it here temporarily until it can be checked (and added to the entry and/or list as appropriate, once provisioned with cites / references). Various online dictionaries give definitions with a variety of parts of speech, from "Having the smell or taste of roasted sesame or newly-baked bread" to "literally translated means 'to smell or taste sesame oil', (a pleasant after taste) because in Korea the smell of sesame oil is regarded as very pleasant, this phrase also is used when one is pleased about a particular event." Seong-Chui Shin, Gene Baik, Mini Korean Dictionary: Korean-English English-Korean (2018) has it as "v. to accuse, file a lawsuit", "v. to gloat over (somebody's misfortune)", "phr. that serves you right!", "adj. savory aroma, tasty flavour". As an aside, a number of other languages have specific smell terms. - -sche (discuss) 18:41, 1 February 2020 (UTC)Reply

Mundari (Munda)

[edit]
  • rawa dawa (Mundari/Indian) : "The sensation of suddenly realising you can do something reprehensible, and no one is there to witness it."[9]
    To my surprise (as a sceptic made only more jaded by seeing so many bogus candidates), this is real. Linguist Toshiki Osada, in a section on Mundari in Gregory D. S. Anderson's The Munda Languages, page 141, lists this: rawa dawa 'opportunity to do something reprehensible, because there is nobody to interfere'.
    Moreover, he (Toshiki Osada), Madhu Purti, Nishaant Choksi, and Nathan Badenoch have written A Course in Mundari, where they document how fond Mundari speakers are of using reduplication to create expressive terms, ranging from the simple (boring, plausible) like lugum lugum "to mumble" to the more interesting one I added below in this section.
    (Others are interesting but easily translatable, e.g. laṭar paṭar "a mixture of truth and lies wherein one does not know what to believe", which is translatable as "(confusing) mix of truth and lies".)
    However, these are "expressives", words similar to onomatopoeia (but not necessarily only expressing sound). Compare rasa pasa "a continuous rustle of dry leaves, paper, or straw as produced by the gliding of a snake or the passage of a rat or other small animal", where English might use an italicized "she heard a rustle rustle in the straw", or lada bada "the thuds of things soft, as mud, falling in succession", where English would use "plop plop", but see also the visual ones jaka maka "shining with a flashy dress (sari with gold)" (where one can imagine an English work might use "she walked in flish-flash in a shiny metallic sari", pseudo-onomatopoeically), and conceptual ones like seled meled "mixture of different kinds of grain, etc".
    The Course does also give enough information about the phonology of the language to deduce that this is pronounced /rawa dawa/ (where /a/ is /ä/)...so, रवदव?
    - -sche (discuss) 04:15, 24 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • ribuiˀ tibuiˀ : "the act of fat people, walking with the buttocks rubbing against each other". Sources: Toshiki Osada's Mundari section in The Munda Languages and Osada et al's A Course in Mundari, but see #rawa dawa. Compare ledeṅ pedeṅ "so fat that in walking he has difficulty". - -sche (discuss) 04:15, 24 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Norwegian

[edit]
User feedback: Non-compound Finish equivalent is pouta.[21]   — C M B J   08:07, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • utepils (Norwegian) - To sit outside on a sunny day enjoying a beer.[3]

Orcadian

[edit]
  • swadge (Orcadian) - The rest in between courses or during a meal to let your food digest and create space to continue eating.[5]
Orcadian what? English? Scots? Norn? — Ungoliant (Falai) 18:43, 10 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
A few other interesting Orcadian words can be found here.   — C M B J   02:24, 17 July 2013 (UTC)Reply
Michael Traynor's 1953 English dialect of Donegal: a glossary has "swadge. To make the groove, for receiving the nails, in a horse-shoe." The English Dialect Dictionary has swadge/swage as a dialect term for "the anvil on which iron is worked", "a bevel", "the excrement of the otter", "to assuage", "to reduce a swelling; to disperse (milk)", "to cool, as hot iron in water", "to sway", "of water: to leak out, to bubble up". If it's English or Scots, it might be a specific application of a more general word ("assuage", "make space", etc). But I can't find any evidence that it exists. - -sche (discuss) 02:48, 3 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Persian

[edit]
  • ghiqq (Persian) - The sound made by a boiling kettle.[3]
  • mahj مهج (Persian) - Looking beautiful after having a disease.[3]
The word has a broader meaning. --Z 10:11, 10 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • zhaghzhagh (Persian) - The chattering of teeth from the cold or from rage.[1]
ژغژغ (žaġžaġ) --Vahag (talk) 11:23, 5 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
teeth-chatter. — Ungoliant (Falai) 15:32, 5 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Or "chattering teeth", "teeth chattering", "chattering of teeth". - -sche (discuss) 02:50, 3 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
Isn't this effectively "act/feel/be shy"? "Being shy" already entails "...due to presence of strangers or unrelated people"; plenty of shy people open up around friends. - -sche (discuss) 02:57, 3 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Polish

[edit]
  • bakalie (Polish) - any dried fruit, nuts, and candied citrus peel used in baking or added to ice cream[11]
  • chałtura (Polish) - A unambitious (or slightly degrading for the ambitious types) job in a given profession, performed solely for money, e.g. a professional musician performing at a funeral or an art/journalism photographer shooting a wedding.[4]
Identical Russian word: халтура (xaltura) (xaltúra) --Anatoli (обсудить/вклад) 12:05, 10 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • dożywocie (Polish) - Parental contract with children guaranteeing lifelong support.[7]
Unclear if term is generic or specific. Concept exists in more than one English legal term.   — C M B J   08:04, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
I'm a Polish native speaker, and dożywocie has a slightly broader meaning. It has three meanings: 1) life sentence (the most popular meaning), 2) annuity that ends with your life, 3) in more general terms, anything, that lasts until the end of life. A Polish dictionary to be used as a source: sjp.pwn.pl/szukaj/do%C5%BCywocie 89.78.39.6 20:13, 26 August 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • załatwić (Polish) - Zalatwic is the use of friends, bribes, personal charm or connections to get something done, similar to the English term “do a cash job.”[8]
Wrong. This is not a noun, but a verb, used in rather colloquial situations, and it means simply "to get (something) done". Never mind it is spelled incorrectly. Keφr 11:47, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Alternate version: Can mean the same thing in English as “to do a cash job,” but the Polish term carries broader and more subtle inferences. It may refer to the use of friends, bribes, personal charm or connections to get something accomplished. Particularly useful under communism, as it was usually easier to get something you wanted by guile than through official channels.[5]   — C M B J   11:26, 10 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
I've fixed the Polish spelling, Russian equivalent уладить (uladitʹ) (uláditʹ) --Anatoli (обсудить/вклад) 12:05, 10 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
It doesn't necessarily involve cash in Polish, or maybe I don't understand the English idiom "do a cash job". "Załatwić coś" (=załatwić something) means simply "obtain something, that is hard to be obtained". There are also other meanings: "załatwić kogoś" (=załatwić somebody) means: 1) "kill somebody", 2) "intentionally create a situation very difficult for somebody (an enemy for example), almost defeat somebody". "Załatwić się" means 1) "relieve oneself", 2) "enter a difficult situation because of one's own past actions". 89.78.39.6 20:13, 26 August 2013 (UTC)Reply

Portuguese

[edit]
  • sebo (Portuguese) - A second-hand shop for media (CDs, tapes, vinyl records, books, magazines). Second-hand appliances, clothes, furniture, etc. are not sold in a sebo.
— Ungoliant (Falai) 19:26, 5 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Used book store? But that doesn't convey the other things it sells. I dunno, this is an edge case, it could be considered difficult to translate concisely or it could make sense to consider it translatable by a phrase like "secondhand media store". - -sche (discuss) 16:00, 3 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
An argument for "secondhand media store" or indeed "used book store" is that the rareness of the former seems due mostly to the rareness of stores with this particular variety of things in English-speaking countries and the rareness of English discussion of such stores elsewhere. You could get more than this at a secondhand shop, or (normally) less variety at a used book store. Poking around Google Books for "sebo(s)" + "store(s)", it seems like authors accept "used book store" when they need to translate this:
Clifford E. Landers, Literary Translation (2001) "arriving in Brazil in 1965, the very first dictionary I bought, purchased in a sebo (used-book store), was a 20-year-old dictionary of slang." / Time Out São Paulo (2009): "The Centro has a concentration of 40 sebos (used book stores)." / Twilight in Guararapes (2015): "He read his way through a real mountain of old dusty books form the sebos (shops of leftover books)." / Brazil: field research guide in the social sciences (1966): "Used book stores ("sebos") are numerous, and book fairs are frequent."
Of course, I understand that there's a difference between authors translating a term, and the term having a translation (since the authors may simply be employing the best ersatz).
- -sche (discuss) 21:24, 25 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • cafuné - a massage made in the head to someone you have affection in purpose to nestle and snuggle
  • ser and estar (and their cognates in various Iberian Romance languages, and perhaps in other families)
    How do you guys feel about sets of words that are easy to translate (be, in this case) but an important semantic quality of the word is lost in the translation? Worth including here, or perhaps on a separate page? — Ungoliant (falai) 23:25, 11 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
    From the example sentences in those entries, it seems like the distinction could be rendered if necessary by "inherently" ("she is not inherently a beautiful person") and "at the moment"/"temporarily" ("the weather was cold at the time", "the apple is ripe at the moment"), respectively. But in addition to the section on the talk page for terms only translatable by obscure loans of themselves, and terms that are typically left untranslated like culture-specific poetic meters, it would probably make sense to have someone (on that page or elsewhere) to collect terms like those. (I've also considered adding a section for 'real but not yet CFI-attested untranslatable terms' like Bulgarian защотко.) - -sche (discuss) 23:46, 11 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • gincana (see entry)
    Sense 1 might be translatable with motorkhana, although that is not clear to me based on the WP page. It’s for sense 2 that I’m most interested in finding a translation. The concept is comparable to that of a game show, but a gincana is usually done for fun or to foster community spirit rather than broadcasting, and a gincana usually has a symbolic prize, a free prize (e.g. a day off from school or a hug from the organiser) or no prize at all. In addition, I’d be hard-pressed to call a competition with only quizzes a gincana; they typically focus more on physical activities. — Ungoliant (falai) 18:56, 21 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Russian

[edit]
  • с лёгким паром (s ljóxkim párom) – (Russian) “With a light steam”: a friendly remark made to someone who's just come from the bath.[20]
  • белоручка (belorúčka) (Russian) - Literally translated as a “person with white hands”. It is a person who tends to avoid doing any dirty work.[3]
I’ve seen cat used as this, in reference to Animal Farm, but probably not citable. — Ungoliant (Falai) 00:03, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • авось (avósʹ) (also said авось (avosʹ) и (i) небось (nebosʹ) avósʹ i nebósʹ) (Russian) - Word has almost historical roots and often is used as “russky avos’” (‘Russian Avos’). The rough meaning of a word is hope for something happens without any endeavour.[4]
Apparently it doesn't, or we don't list that meaning, the phrase is русский авось (russkij avosʹ). I recommend asking Stephen G. Brown or Vahagn Petrosan. Mglovesfun (talk) 19:39, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
What do you mean it doesn't? You can also ask me, I'll try to answer. --Anatoli (обсудить/вклад) 06:22, 11 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

Scots/Scottish Gaelic

[edit]
  • moit (Scots) - Pretended indifference/shyness while speaking about a thing one is very keen for.[4]
  • tartle (Scots) – The act of hesitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name.[22]

Serbo-Croatian

[edit]
  • до̀чек/dòček (Serbo-Croatian) - A gathering organized due to someone’s arrival. Similar to the English words “greeting” or “welcome,” but a doček does not have to be positive.[5]
  • мерак/merak (Serbo-Croatian) - pleasure derived from simple joys, such as spending time feasting and merrymaking[11]
Hmm. Maybe joie de vivre. — Ungoliant (Falai) 03:10, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
sweetvoiced — Ungoliant (Falai) 03:10, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • инат/inat (Serbo-Croatian) - An attitude of proud defiance, stubbornness and self-preservation to the detriment of everyone else. The Bulgarian word for that is absolutely the same.[5]
So is Armenian ինադ (inad) and probably all other descendants of Arabic عناد (ʿinād), Turkish inat. --Vahag (talk) 12:35, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
recalcitrance? — Ungoliant (Falai) 16:02, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

Slovene

[edit]
  • vrtičkar (Slovene) - An elderly person, usually living in the city, who owns a tiny piece of land in the country or on the outskirts of the city–these pieces of land are usually remnants of “common land” from the communist era. On his land he will have built a small hut and be growing small amounts of beans, lettuce and other vegetables for his own use; but the main purpose of such establishments now is to permit the vrtičkar to spend weekends there drinking beer and socializing with other vrtičkars whose huts and fields are nearby.[5]

Spanish

[edit]

ajeno (Spanish) - Something that belongs to someone else.[4]

As a noun? Odd. — Ungoliant (Falai) 02:11, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
ajeno is an adjective. The sense in question can be easily translated with the simple phrases “others’”, “another person’s”, “someone else’s” or “other people’s”. Other commonly used senses (usually found as ajeno a and ajeno de) can be translated with English cognates: “alien [to]” and “alienated [from]” (or “separated [from]”, “unrelated [to]”, etc. depending on the context). — Ungoliant (falai) 19:29, 2 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • amigovia/amigovio (Spanish) - A friend with benefits; a combination of amiga/o and novia/o. Also “un amiga/o con derechos a roce” (a friend with the rights to rub against–where “roce” is from the verb “rozar” to rub against, to touch lightly).[4]
  • amores perros (Spanish) - Literally means “love is dogs,” and is commonly translated as “love’s a bitch” in English. The meaning is perhaps closer to “you win some, you lose some.”[3]
  • atolondrar (Spanish) - To become so overwhelmed by something that you get scatter-brained and do something careless. For example, if you are being bombarded by emails, phone calls, text messages, etc, all at the same time, while trying to write an email, that you become so overwhelmed that you send it without an attachment. It has a connotation of being so overwhelmed that you get ahead of yourself.[4]
  • concuñado/a (Spanish) - It is the relationship between two men that marry sisters (or two women that marry brothers). It describes a familial relationship that is important even if it is not that common.[3]
  • conmoción (Spanish) - Emotion held in common by a group or gathering.[4]
  • consuegro/a (Spanish) - The relationship between two men (or women) whose children are married to each other. i.e. My father and my father-in-law are consuegros.[4]
  • cotisuelto (Caribbean Spanish) - A man who wears his shirt tail outside of the trousers.[5]
Alternate version: One who wears the shirt tail outside of their trousers.[1]   — C M B J   09:11, 20 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • duende (Spanish) – Originally used to describe a supernatural entity similar to a forest-fairy or sprite, that brought about a feeling of awe & gave one a unique understanding of the beauty of the world. But early in the 20th century, Spanish playwright Federico García Lorca altered its meaning to become the more straightforward “mysterious power of a work of art to deeply move a person.”[12]
User feedback: "...usually used to describe flamenco touch or energy when singing, which presumably non-gipsy people cant have."[23]   — C M B J   07:27, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • empalagarse (Spanish) - The sensation your tongue has after eating too many sweets. It the feeling you get when you need some milk to go with that chocolate cake.[4]
It’s a verb. Perhaps oversweeten. — Ungoliant (Falai) 02:11, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • enmadrarse (Spanish) - For a child who becomes attached excessively to her mother.[4]
Verb. — Ungoliant (Falai) 02:11, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • estrenar (Spanish) - To wear or use something for the first time.
  • fiambre (Spanish) - Food prepared for the dead/spirits.[4]
cold meat, and also a specific Guatemalan dish prepared with cold meat, which is eaten during the Day of the Dead (not given to spirits), if Spanish WP is to be trusted. — Ungoliant (Falai) 02:11, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • friolero/friolera: (Spanish) A person who is especially sensitive to cold weather and temperatures. (A lot like our regional adjective Nesh).[6]
  • ganas (Spanish) - Literally “urges”. To have ganas is to feel like doing…. I have ganas to eat Spanish ham![4]
urges. Why are you posting things that have translations in the definition? — Ungoliant (Falai) 02:24, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Same as French envie really, 'desire' but with the verb avoir it's usually translated as to want. Mglovesfun (talk) 19:30, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • huevón (Spanish) - Literally translated as “big heavy eggs”, but it is better translated as “lazy with a whiff of entitlement”. Here “eggs” = balls, but “big balls” is not a compliment, because the implication is that your balls are too heavy for you to possibly get up and move.[3]
  • merienda (Spanish) - A light meal eaten in the late afternoon, halfway between lunch and dinner. It’s considered a meal for children, and adults don’t normally use the term to refer to their own afternoon snacks.[4]
  • nalguear ‘to move the buttocks excessively while walking.’
  • vergüenza ajena (Spanish) - Shame experienced on behalf of another person, even though that person may not experience shame.[4]
  • sobremesa (Spanish) - the time spent after lunch or dinner, talking to people you shared the meal with[11][5]
  • tocayo (Spanish) - A Spanish word meaning a person who has the same name as you.[5]
namesake — Ungoliant (Falai)

Sumerian

[edit]
debt freedom?   — C M B J   08:32, 24 February 2014 (UTC)Reply

Swedish

[edit]
  • fika (Swedish) - Relaxed social event with good friends involving coffee and pastries.[7]
Alternate version: Swedish word meaning meeting at a café, or at home, to drink coffee and eat pastries. But the focus is on the socialising and the fact that a ‘fika’ can go on for hours. A typical activity to suggest to someone when they want to catch up.   — C M B J   01:42, 9 June 2013 (UTC)[4]Reply
  • gökotta (Swedish) - To wake up early in the morning with the purpose of going outside to hear the first birds sing.[3]
  • mångata (Swedish) - a roadlike reflection of the moon in the water[11]
  • resfeber (Swedish) - To be jittery before undertaking a journey.[5]
  • vattenkammad - "Water combed", meaning "having slicked back hair". To the extent that that English phrase normally implies that someone is also clean-cut/neat, it seems like a sufficient translation (and it seems that it does and is: Google Image results for the Swedish and English phrases show the same hairstyle), but I'll still mention the term here because it was in r/DoesNotTranslate/ and might make a good FWOTD. - -sche (discuss) 21:00, 25 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
    There's a Danish cognate for that; vandkæmme (infinitive).__Gamren (talk) 16:33, 24 July 2019 (UTC)Reply

Tagalog

[edit]
  • kilig (Tagalog) - That feeling you get from having interacted with a person you love or find attractive – butterflies in your stomach, blushing, giggling/smiling uncontrollably. To experience this emotion is referred to as “kinikilig”. This can also be vicarious.[5]

Telugu

[edit]
  • engili (Telugu) - The state of food when a person has taken/tasted a bite or morsel out of it. It is mildly taboo for Hindus to eat another person’s ‘engili’.[3]
If this turns out to be an adjective (these lists often explain words in a way that they seem to be another PoS than the one they actually are), there is semese. — Ungoliant (Falai) 23:53, 8 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
In Hindi we call this झूठा (jhūṭhā). —Aryaman (मुझसे बात करो) 09:48, 5 August 2017 (UTC)Reply

Thai

[edit]
  • kreng jai (Thai) - Literally “deferential heart”. The desire not to see a friend go to any special trouble on your behalf.[4]
  • sabsung (Thai) - When you’re bored or have had a long day, it’s the thing that brings you back to life or livens up your day. Whatever it is that makes you happy to be alive.[3]
This :-) — Ungoliant (Falai) 00:03, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • tɕāj (Thai) - sincere kindness and willingness to help others, even before they asked, without expecting something in return[11]

Tibetan

[edit]

Tshiluba

[edit]
  • ilunga (Tshiluba) – Someone who is ready to forgive and forget any first abuse, tolerate it the second time, but never forgive nor tolerate on the third offense.[22]
Ranked as the single most untranslatable word in any language according to a survey of 1,000 linguists conducted by Today Translations.   — C M B J   10:57, 10 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Sounds like an overspecific meaning, like tingo. — Ungoliant (Falai) 04:14, 8 July 2013 (UTC)Reply
@Metaknowledge, can you check your resources for this one? I see evidence of it as a name, but the common-noun definition seems suspiciously specific. - -sche (discuss) 23:29, 2 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
@-sche: Firstly, I was suspicious of CMBJ's alleged survey. There is evidently good reason to be suspicious. As for the word itself, it would be a nominalisation of the verb -lunga (“connect, braid”), which does not support this definition. But I'm afraid I don't have any digital resources for this language, and I can't get to the physical ones until Monday. —Μετάknowledgediscuss/deeds 23:56, 2 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Ubykh

[edit]
  • qaamch’ip’q’i (Ubykh) - Literally ‘a filigree metal ornament on the handle of a whip’. An idiomatic term for someone whose good or kind outward appearance is deceptive.[5]

Urdu

[edit]
  • chai-pani (Urdu) - Money and favors given to someone, often a bureaucratic worker, to get things done. Literally, "tea and water". In English, we would describe the action as “greasing someone’s palm,” but in Hindi-Urdu it doesn’t have as negative a connotation. If you don’t offer enough money or gifts in the first place, someone may actually tell you that you’ve given the pani, but you still need to give the chai.[2]
baksheesh; lubrication payment — Ungoliant (Falai) 04:46, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Those both seem to have pretty ugly stigmas around them. One sense of greasing the wheels may work, though.   — C M B J   07:49, 11 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
  • goya (Urdu) - a contemplative “as-if” which nonetheless feels like reality[11]
Additional interpretation: "The transporting suspension of disbelief that can occur, for example, in good storytelling."   — C M B J   02:17, 9 June 2013 (UTC)[5]Reply

Welsh

[edit]
  • glas wen (Welsh) - A smile that is insincere or mocking. Literally, a blue smile.[1]
Would have to be spelled glaswên or else gwên las. —Angr 12:28, 5 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
I can find glaswên in several dictionaries from the 1820s to 1870s, glossed as a simper or smirk, which seems like a reasonable translation. - -sche (discuss) 05:23, 21 June 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • cynefin (Welsh) - A place where a person or even an animal feels it ought to live. It is where nature around you feels right and welcoming.[3]
Isn’t home used like that? I.e. “It’s where I live, but it’s not my home.” — Ungoliant (Falai) 15:13, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Seems to be leaning more toward a prospective place of home. Feels like home or feel at home or sense of belonging would be the closest things that come to mind.   — C M B J   21:46, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
"Home" would seem to cover the definition it is claimed to have. A variety of old dictionaries translate it as "accustomed", "usual", "observant"(!), or habit(uated); other books translate it as habitat, environment, or "spirit of place". We would need confirmation of the meaning from a more reliable source before we could determine the translation... - -sche (discuss) 05:23, 21 June 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • hiraeth (Welsh) – Homesickness for a place you can never return to, or that never was.[20] Wikipedia describes it as 'homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. It is a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, and the earnest desire for the Wales of the past.[9]
Consistently claimed as a favorite example of untranslatability by at least 4-5 user comments and several articles.   — C M B J   06:59, 9 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
I'll be a bit surprised if this isn't attested as a loanword in English. - -sche (discuss) 05:23, 21 June 2018 (UTC)Reply

References

[edit]
References
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 “15 Wonderful Words With No English Equivalent”, in mental_floss‎[1], 2011 July 22
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 (2010-12-01) "20 more awesomely untranslatable words from around the world". Heather Carreiro. Matador.
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 3.23 3.24 3.25 3.26 3.27 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named LS2
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 4.21 4.22 4.23 4.24 4.25 4.26 4.27 4.28 4.29 4.30 4.31 4.32 4.33 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named LS3
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16 5.17 5.18 5.19 5.20 5.21 5.22 5.23 5.24 5.25 5.26 5.27 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named LS5
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 (2013-03-06) "More of our Favourite Untranslatable Words". Sam Sedgman.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Quay 2012-08-15
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named chibimonkey
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 (2012-04-27) "10 Untranslatable Words (And When You'll Want to Use Them)" User comments.
  10. ^ Gezelligheid
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8 Lundgren, Dick; De Keyser, Els (2012-06-24), "21 untranslatable words", TEDGlobal 2012, Edinburgh, Scotland: TED
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named SBSG 2012-10-16
  13. ^ Fond de l’air. Josh :D Compton.
  14. ^ untranslatable: Fond de l'air
  15. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Jarnikova 2013-04-10
  16. ^ (2008-08-01) "Word of the month: Schlimmbesserung". KrautBlog.
  17. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Inglis-Arkell 2012-04-27
  18. ^ suaimhneas croi (mirror)
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 R., Ashton (2009 April 13) “The 10 Coolest Foreign Words The English Language Needs”, in Cracked‎[2], Demand Media
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Sedgman 2013-02-08
  21. ^ Better Than English | Oppholdsvær (Norwegian). User comments.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Jason Wire 2010-10-09
  23. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named SBSG 2012-10-16 user comments

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

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