# American English has no word for .... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 29, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659 "2009-10-29T21:12:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/121 "2009-10-31T00:33:56Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > “Pissing” and “shitting”? Or more mildly, “peeing” and “pooping”? Or “micturition” and “defecation”, for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/122 "2009-10-31T00:40:41Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > We no longer have a word for what “gay” used to mean. It did NOT mean “happy.” It meant something like light and frivolous and carefree, but beyond what those words mean. Butterflies were gay. A lady’s hat with a big feather or flower in it was gay. Children skipping through a meadow were gay. Well, there’s still “gay.” Context makes it clear what you are referring to. > [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](#): > > Well, we have ‘spicy’. That seems to work. No because spicy also refers to spices that aren’t hot. Hot can mean either temperature hot or spicy hot and spicy can mean either hot spicy or tasty spicy. So you’re left with “spicy hot.” I’m sure there are a thousand German words that have no single word English translation due to their tendency to just join words together. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/123 "2009-10-31T00:41:47Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Further, we don’t have a word that describes the act of relieving oneself. We have plenty of euphemisms (using the toilet, going to the bathroom) and plenty of vulgarities (hittin’ the head), but no concise term for the act. The word would be “[Micturition](http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=4383)” or even just “urinate”… Unless you’re referring to something else. :dubious: > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > You’ve never seen a badger? Really? I find that asto… wait a minute, neither have I. Which, now that I think about it, is okay - I hear they spread brucellosis. While true, the 4 major pathogenic species of Brucellosis are found in pigs, cattle, goats, and dogs- each pathogen being named after one of the 4. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/124 "2009-10-31T00:43:48Z")
[quote=“1920s Style “Death Ray”, post:122, topic:515659”] Well, there’s still “gay.” Context makes it clear what you are referring to. [/QUOTE] You’d think so, [but apparently not](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=530167). ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/125 "2009-10-31T04:20:03Z")
_shrug_ I find concepts and ideas that are difficult to translate more interesting than whether Language A has a word for a particular kind of pastry. You can always come up with a word for a pastry. Translating something like the Japanese _amaeru_ is a lot harder. I found _amaeru_ also discussed in _Semantics, Culture, and Cognition_. \*Amaeru \*means “to depend and presume upon another’s benevolence”, a concept for which we have no exact counterpart in English. We might say “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers”, but that’s a stock phrase used in a self-mocking manner. There’s a certain passivity and sweetness that Japanese associates with \*amaeru \*(and it’s noun, _amae_) that’s alien to the English language. You’re not _soliciting_ indulgence from someone, you’re _accepting_ it from them (so it’s not merely ‘charming’ someone into adoring you). If you were to be _amae_ towards someone, you are allowing them to behave self-indulgently because of a special relationship between the two of you. Doi Takeo talks about how its strange to the Japanese that Westerners lack a concept of amaeru, because as he puts it, “even puppies do it, you know.” ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/126 "2009-10-31T06:29:54Z")
_Chutzpah_, of course, is the most famously unique Hebrew word. However, my favorite one is _Davka_, which based on context can be translated as “in fact”, "actually, “out of spite”, “just because” or “a general state contrariness.” ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/127 "2009-10-31T07:37:43Z")
> [@Mississippienne](#): > > I found _amaeru_ also discussed in _Semantics, Culture, and Cognition_. \*Amaeru \*means “to depend and presume upon another’s benevolence”, a concept for which we have no exact counterpart in English. We might say “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers”, but that’s a stock phrase used in a self-mocking manner. There’s a certain passivity and sweetness that Japanese associates with \*amaeru \*(and it’s noun, _amae_) that’s alien to the English language. You’re not _soliciting_ indulgence from someone, you’re _accepting_ it from them (so it’s not merely ‘charming’ someone into adoring you). If you were to be _amae_ towards someone, you are allowing them to behave self-indulgently because of a special relationship between the two of you. Doi Takeo talks about how its strange to the Japanese that Westerners lack a concept of amaeru, because as he puts it, “even puppies do it, you know.” The closest I can think of in English would be “Bludging”. A “dole bludger” is someone who sits on the dole (unemployment benefit) and makes no effort to get a job or support themselves, and it’s not uncommon to hear Gen Yers accused of “bludging” off their parents (living at home in their mid-20s to get cheap rent and food and washing done, despite having perfectly good jobs and otherwise being quite capable of living on their own- they just choose not to because they get a better deal with Mum & Dad). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/128 "2009-10-31T10:02:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Really, there’s a language that has a word for that? In my extended family, we call those “turkey cousins”, but I know that’s just restricted to us (though there are enough of us that we could almost qualify as a dialect). We use that term because we joke that the group of such cousins who are closest to us are all a bunch of turkeys. The next one I know for sure is a local expression unlikely to appear in any dictionary: “familia ribera,” “primos riberos” or “familia estilo ribero.” It means “people that you emotionally consider as family:” it does not include relatives you don’t give a fig about and does include those neighbors who were your age therefore you were always in and out of each others’ houses and that kid at school who was you BFF and her mom and yours were BFFs and her grandma and yours were BFF and her greatgrandma and yours were also BFFs (arf arf, don’t try to read that out loud without breathing). It’s from an area called “la Ribera (del Ebro)” (a fragment of the Ebro River’s valley), where you do, indeed, run into families that have been BFFs for generations. Or, say, those relatives of mine whose father was my grandmother’s cousin and one of them was my classmate, leading to things like “imported” teachers getting nervous when I called him Uncle and he called me Niece. From the government’s point of view, we’re not related; from the local point of view hell yeah. **Alessan** , I laughed so hard I couldn’t speak for several minutes the first time I heard someone pronounce chutzpah, which until then I’d encountered only in writing. It sounds like the Spanish chispa, literally spark, but also meaning… chutzpah. I’d love to know whether they are related and how. RAE says chispa is an onomatopoeia… ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/129 "2009-10-31T10:09:25Z")
Thank you for this thread! When I was learning German, and then moved to Germany and lived in Berlin for 14 years, I was often learning new words in German that didn’t seem to have an English translation. For a long time, I thought either I was stupid, or the Germans didn’t explain things well. Often they would explain the word had a “feeling” to it, and didn’t lend itself to a literal translation - even in German. I thought that was bullshit, but then, after awhile, started to understand what they were saying, and what some of those words meant. I learned you had to use a word often enough to start to - yes - “feel” the word. Every example of German words in this thread is one that I struggled with, but eventually started to understand. People laugh at the German language, and make fun of the guttural sounds if you don’t speak it. But when I was reading this thread, it made me realize how complex the language is and, in a sense, how pure it really is. They have created words that are simply too difficult to really translate, but once you learn the language - well, you understand and it is really kind of wonderful/genius that they could create words that even today are more or less impossible to translate, but express so much in a single word. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/130 "2009-10-31T10:23:27Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > The closest I can think of in English would be “Bludging”. A “dole bludger” is someone who sits on the dole (unemployment benefit) and makes no effort to get a job or support themselves, and it’s not uncommon to hear Gen Yers accused of “bludging” off their parents (living at home in their mid-20s to get cheap rent and food and washing done, despite having perfectly good jobs and otherwise being quite capable of living on their own- they just choose not to because they get a better deal with Mum & Dad). Change ‘bludging’ and ‘bludger’ with ‘sponging’ and ‘sponger’ and you have the British version. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/131 "2009-10-31T11:08:11Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > There’s also the wonderful Japanese word _genki_. [As far as I can tell, it means generally happy and merry] > > And the Thai concept of _sabai_. [Chilled and content and happy] > > The Irish noun _craic_. [An amorphous cloud of fun] The Irish neologism (seems to be from the 1980s) “craic” is from the English dialectical word “crack” which goes back centuries. On review I see someone else has addressed this upthread. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/132 "2009-10-31T19:05:31Z")
I noticed recently that English has the verbs to shoot and to stab, while German does not have these verbs. Conversely, German has verbs for “to kill by shooting” (_erschießen_) and “to kill by stabbing” (_erstechen_), while English does not. So, the sentence “A shot B” is hard to translate to German without context - I’d have to put something like “A shot at and hit B, result unstated” or “A wounded or killed B by shooting”. ---
**Author:** ![Promethea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Promethea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Promethea)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/133 "2009-10-31T20:30:18Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > Some neat words from Scot Gaelic (from an old dictionary of mine): > and my favorite… > > moit: pretended indifference, shyness while speaking about a thing one is very keen for > > (I love that last one because I thought I was the only one who felt that way, and here this culture has its own entire word for it) AWWW! I think I’ve spent my life in a state of moit (if indeed that is the noun form) about one thing or another. What a truly lovely word! Also, add me to the people with the love for saudade. I’m going to tell everyone I know about this word in the hope of getting it happen here. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/134 "2009-10-31T21:55:36Z")
> [@bup](#): > > “Their.” Cecil even mentioned it in a column once (just as “they” is the gender-indefinite “he or she”). A English teacher wouldn’t accept it in a composition, but English teachers are losers anyway. Whether technically correct or no, I haven’t encountered anyone who accepts it in formal writing - not just English teachers. Can the OED send out some kind of memo so that the arbiters of grammar start accepting the indefinite use of their? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/135 "2009-10-31T22:35:53Z")
> [@MichaelQReilly](#): > > Whether technically correct or no, I haven’t encountered anyone who accepts it in formal writing - not just English teachers. Meet [the Canadian Department of Justice.](http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/dept-min/pub/legis/n41.html) ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/136 "2009-10-31T23:16:01Z")
> [@bup](#): > > In German, they say that a wheel that is not true ‘eggs.’ We don’t have any good verbs for that. Oscillates? Wobbles? > [@Small\_Hen](#): > > It may just be that I lack vocabulary, but I’ve never thought of a good American equivilant for “cheeky.” Wait. “Cheeky” isn’t a good American word? I’ve lived in the U.S. my whole life, and I’ve heard it frequently. > [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](#): > > Well, we have ‘spicy’. That seems to work. The problem is that “This food is hot” is ambiguous: it may be heat-hot or spicy-hot. But “This food is spicy” is ambiguous, too; it may be full of spices or spicy-hot (or both). > [@HeyHomie](#): > > Further, we don’t have a word that describes the act of relieving oneself. We have plenty of euphemisms (using the toilet, going to the bathroom) and plenty of vulgarities (hittin’ the head), but no concise term for the act. A number of people have given you separate words for urinating and defecating, but if you were looking for a single word that covers both, “eliminating” works fine. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/137 "2009-10-31T23:48:46Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > The Irish neologism (seems to be from the 1980s) “craic” is from the English dialectical word “crack” which goes back centuries. On review I see someone else has addressed this upthread. FWIW the Chambers dictionary claims the word ‘crack’ in this context as Scottish (Scots or Scots English, not Scots Gaelic). ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/138 "2009-11-01T00:38:01Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > However, my favorite one is _Davka_, which based on context can be translated as “in fact”, "actually, “out of spite”, “just because” or “a general state contrariness.” Once you’ve learned it, it becomes indispensable. We left Israel 30 years ago and rarely speak Hebrew, but ‘davka’ is still in common use in my English and Spanish-speaking family. ---
**Author:** ![Stopfordia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Stopfordia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stopfordia)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/139 "2009-11-01T17:24:29Z")
Welsh has _hiraeth_, which usually gets translated as ‘homesickness’ or ‘an intense form of longing/nostalgia’. It also implies a strong desire to return to one’s roots, or a longing for a connection with Wales. Also, from UK English, there’s _twee_, which is probably best defined as ‘forced quaintness’ - think pictures of kittens in lacy bonnets, or children who speak with a lisp because they think it makes them sound endearing. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/140 "2009-11-02T15:14:10Z")
> [@flodnak](#): > > In Norwegian, there is a cover word for everything (except butter) that you can put on a piece of bread to make it a sandwich. Lunch meat, cheese, jam, peanut butter - it’s all pålegg. No easy way to say that in English. “Sandwich fillings” comes close but isn’t as broad, and it certainly isn’t in as common use. > [@Nava](#): > > **flodnak** , would pålegg cover foie-gras or nutella, or not? Spanish relleno (filling, the same word used for the filling inside a thick coat or a pillow; the verb is “rellenar” and it’s different from “llenar,” which means “to make full,” for example a handbag) is reserved for things inside a sandwich that you can take back out. The ones that get irreversibly “stuck” on the bread are untos or untaduras but it’s more normal to use the verbal forms (the verb is “untar,” which is also what you do with cream on your skin, for example). Now you’ve got me confused. When I think of it, if Norwegian thinking is anything like Swedish it is limited to what you **lay** on top of a slice of bread, not something that you spread out on it. While on the subject of peculiarly Scandinavian words we also have _opholdsvær_ (No)/_uppehållsväder_ (Sw). It simply means a state of a momentary stop in the otherwise eternal(?) rain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659.md?page=8)