# 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:** 16\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/141 "2009-11-02T15:51:49Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > 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. We have a similar concept here, though the actual term for it isn’t fixed. This year, for instance, we called it “May”. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/142 "2009-11-02T17:34:05Z")
> [@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). Deadbeat or slacker might work. I mean, they don’t work, but the words might. ---
**Author:** ![\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/eada6e/32.png) [@\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Undecided_Adrian)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/143 "2009-11-02T17:58:21Z")
> [@tschild](#): > > 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”. I’m sure you didn’t mean to imply that, but of course _schießen_ and _stechen_ are normal German verbs, they just can’t be used in the sense of “shooting and hitting someone, result unstated”. You can of course say “he shot at somebody”, but that doesn’t specify if he hit or not. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/144 "2009-11-02T19:26:33Z")
I’ve taken a couple of words from my mother’s Low German because they don’t really have an English counterpart - _vavinksh_, meaning some physical thing that is out of true, bent, half-broken, crooked, and _ferschlook_, which means choking on your own spit. Used in sentences: That old bench is vavinksh. Gah! I just ferschlook myself! Cough, cough. ETA: I meant to mention English language constructions like “like like” - “Hey, Anne, Brad likes you!” “You mean _like like_?” “Yeah!” ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/145 "2009-11-02T19:30:53Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Just as oddly, English have several words that seem to have no real definition, “mercenary” and “hispanic” come to mind. English has millions of words–almost all of them; the exception is rare I’d say–that has more than one meaning, or at least more than one shade of meaning. “Mercenary” and “hispanic” very definitely have definitions. They just have more than one. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/146 "2009-11-02T20:00:20Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > _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.” I think \*chutzpah \*is originally Yiddish. I completely forgot about _davka_! Hahaha. But the Hebrew word I STILL want to use when speaking English - even though my Hebrew skills have completely gone to shit - is _balegan_. English just doesn’t have a word that encapsulates that sense of “chaotic, annoying situation that fucked up my plans.” “I was going to go out but then there was this \*balegan \*at work and I couldn’t get out.” “Traffic was such a \*balegan \*today.” Upon realizing [del]I[/del] you need to read two hundred pages of academic reading for school tomorrow: “_Ezeh balegan_!” ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/147 "2009-11-02T20:05:38Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I’ve taken a couple of words from my mother’s Low German because they don’t really have an English counterpart - _vavinksh_, meaning some physical thing that is out of true, bent, half-broken, crooked, and _ferschlook_, which means choking on your own spit. Aside: I have no idea how to spell it, but my mom goes with something that sounds like fuhrhunnoxed for confused. I try to use it and people say, oh flummoxed? and it really is the same thing so it would be pretentious to say it her way. :smack: We’ll keep in the family I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Walpurgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Walpurgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walpurgis)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/148 "2009-11-02T22:26:49Z")
I humbly submit the Finnish concept of [sisu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisu). A Finnish friend of mine described it as “when your last milking cow has died, when you’re out of vodka, your toes are turning black from the cold and you can see the Russians come up the hill… _sisu_ is what makes you go on. It’s our inner _fuck you_.” (No offense to Russians, of course. We were talking about how the [Winter War](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Winter_War)illustrated what sisu means.) ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/149 "2009-11-02T22:50:17Z")
Here’s a word I’ve never heard outside of my little corner of Mississippi: the tuh-dun-ta-dun. If you’re a little bit sick, but it’s mostly the lazy ass, you’ve got the tuh-dun-ta-dun. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/150 "2009-11-02T23:06:36Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Well, the animal from which one gets milk is a _cow_. > The male version of that animal is a _bull_. > Collectively those animals are _cattle_. > But we don’t have a word for a single, non-sex-specific specimen of that animal. I think we do…the word is cow. It just happens to be the same word as for the female of the species. Similarly, duck, goose and dog have gender-specific variations, but also generically refer to the species. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/151 "2009-11-02T23:20:41Z")
American English seems to not have a word for American English. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/152 "2009-11-02T23:22:02Z")
I remember reading in an Alan Watts book about the Japanese word for an emotion - yugen - for which there is no English translation. He described it use thusly: “Yugen is to watch the sun sink behind a flower-clad hill, to wander on and on in a huge forest without thought of return, to stand upon the shore and gaze after a boat that disappears behind distant islands, to contemplate the flight of wild geese seen and lost among the clouds.” ---
**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:** [November 2, 2009, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/153 "2009-11-02T23:46:10Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Well, the animal from which one gets milk is a _cow_. > The male version of that animal is a _bull_. > Collectively those animals are _cattle_. > But we don’t have a word for a single, non-sex-specific specimen of that animal. I suppose it depends on where you live and what you do. Around here, and throughout the cattle ranching trade, a single bovine raised for food is called a beef (the plural is “beeves”). ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/154 "2009-11-03T00:29:55Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > American English seems to not have a word for American English. 'Merican? As in “'Merican? DO YOU SPEAK IT?” ---
**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:** [November 3, 2009, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/155 "2009-11-03T01:14:21Z")
I was going to start a thread about this but it’ll do posting it here I hope. When I was last in America I heard the term “nigger rich”, meaning as I took it, someone who say wins $1,000 in the Lottery and blows it all on something stupid, swiftly. It is a reprehensible, vile term for obvious reasons but is there a polite equivalent? Someone has suggested “ghetto rich” but I think that still has a racist air about it. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659/156 "2009-11-03T01:45:34Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > American English seems to not have a word for American English. Sure we do. Have you never heard anyone say “Talk American”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-has-no-word-for/515659.md?page=7)