# Let's make a list of untranslatable words & phrases **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 8, 2004, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323 "2004-06-08T20:06:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/41 "2004-06-11T10:59:42Z")
> [@gum](#): > > That’s great, **jjimm**. Nearly the same as ‘gezellig’, huh. But can you _be_ ‘Craic’? I’ve always imagined ‘the craic’ as a kind of gas-like substance that exists all around Ireland in varying qualities and quantities. In some places the craic is better than in others. In some places there is almost no craic at all. And all you need to do is to start enjoying yourself in Ireland and you tap into it. (My personal definition is contradicted by **PookahMacPhellimey** ’s declension, but feck it, I like the concept.) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/42 "2004-06-11T12:39:11Z")
Twice in e-mails to German e-friends I’ve mentioned “it really hit the fan today.” They didn’t have a clue what it meant. Also “going postal.” I wonder if any non-USA person knows that “Nooner” means. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/43 "2004-06-11T13:14:24Z")
In Brazil you have **saudades**. This means a kind of homesickness, or longing, but the real meaning can’t be translated to any of the other languages I know (Dutch, German and English). You can feel **saudades** for a person, a place, or even for a certain way of life. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/44 "2004-06-11T13:18:35Z")
Why didn’t I preview? I almost always do. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/45 "2004-06-11T13:45:24Z")
I had a friend from Uruguay who used an idiomatic phrase that in English is “_You want the Potato in the mouth_” which had a sense to it that was roughly equivalent to the English phrase “_you want to be spoon fed_”. But it sounds so much more funny,and often carries the sense better [and seems erudite somehow], to give the Uruguyan idiom in English & I often do. A woman I knew from Poland found the English word \*\*hub-bub \*\* meaning roughly “busy excitement & talking noises” to be funny &, apparently, there was no equivalent short Polish word for the concept. Wasn’t there a whole list of English words borrowed into French that the French Governement treid to discourage use of & promote the use of (often unwieldy) French translations? Words like “Computer” etc.? I may be misrembering that, I can’t find it on google – but I seem to recall a story… ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/46 "2004-06-11T13:49:51Z")
I took a course in college that dealt with the literature of the Islamic world, and the professor had spent a lot of time in the Middle East and Central Asia. I think he’d been in the Peace Corps or something. We were reading a book translated (I think) from Arabic where two female characters had a lesbian experience. The professor explained to us that the word for male homosexuality in Arabic was _lawat_, and it referred to the biblical story of Lot, who lived in Sodom and whose wife turned into a pillar of salt. I don’t quite understand the connection, because I never got the impression that Lot was supposed to be gay, but that’s what he told us. But he also said that there was no word or expression in Arabic that referred to the concept of lesbianism. ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/47 "2004-06-11T14:27:36Z")
> [@jimmmy](#): > > Wasn’t there a whole list of English words borrowed into French that the French Governement treid to discourage use of & promote the use of (often unwieldy) French translations? Words like “Computer” etc.? I may be misrembering that, I can’t find it on google – but I seem to recall a story… Académie Française has a role moderating the French language, which has come to mean protecting it from English influences by choosing French equivalents. Possibly the story you remember followed from when the academy decided “email” was too English and nominated the Québécois word “courriel” in its place. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/48 "2004-06-11T18:29:19Z")
Not an untranslatable word, but a very useful grammatical structure that dosen’t appear in English - in Japanese, any verb can take the passive voice. So you can have constructions like “I was sat down next to by you-know-who today on the bus”, with the connotation of the (possibly Southern) “I was minding my own business when…” It’s called the “suffering passive” and I quite like it. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/49 "2004-06-11T19:27:52Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Oy. Such disrespectful a post! The _Chutzpeh!!_ 😃 And another Hebrew word I can’t think of an English equivalent for is _ **davka** _. It basicly connotes contrariness in all its forms. A few examples: “Why did you do this?” “_Davka_!” (sort of like “just because”). “How do you like my new dress?” “_Davka_ quite nice!” (“You were sure I wouldn’t like it, weren’t you?”) And “Not _Davka_” is **not** the same as “_Davka_ not”. It means sort of like “not necessarily”, but, again, with a twist of contrariness and orneriness. Then again, we Israelis tend to be ornery and contrary anyway… Dani ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/50 "2004-06-11T20:08:41Z")
> [@Jervoise](#): > > Académie Française has a role moderating the French language, which has come to mean protecting it from English influences by choosing French equivalents. Possibly the story you remember followed from when the academy decided “email” was too English and nominated the Québécois word “courriel” in its place. They also wanted to replace “Walkman” with “Balladeer” ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/51 "2004-06-11T20:23:50Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Uff da (which I have no idea how to spell). A Scandinavian word originally, now common in the upper midwest of the U.S., it’s kind of akin to “yikes,” but definitely has more nuance. Actually, it’s more of a verbal sigh after something arduous or something mildly disappointing. Like: “Uff da, that was a lot of snow to shovel” or “Uff da, Margie, I forgot to put the shaved carrots in the Jell-O”. ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/52 "2004-06-11T22:57:51Z")
**stpauler** > [@](#): > > “Uff da, Margie, I forgot to put the shaved carrots in the Jell-O”. I dunno. Uff da? Shaved carrots? in the Jell-O? It sounds like a WWII code. 😉 **PookahMacPhellimey** Is that like in: Having a gas? **Mycroft Holmes** How about ‘heimwee’. Or ‘nostalgia’? **Annie-Xmas** Nope, I don’t know what ‘Nooner’ is. Nor am I sure about ‘going postal’ . I do - however - know, what hit the fan. **Noone Special** Is ‘Chutzpeh’ a Hebrew, or a Jiddish word? Did you know that the Dutch language uses a lot of Jiddish words? ‘Mokum’, for example, [I believe it’s the Jiddish word for home, or house?] is used as an alternative name for Amsterdam. Amsterdammers are Mokummers. \*I love this thread. Did you notice? 😃 \* ---
**Author:** ![swannguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@swannguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swannguy)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/53 "2004-06-11T23:28:49Z")
Let’s not forget that great Dutch word…Enne?. (Questionmark inclusive) The one silly word replaces whole lines of conversation when you meet somebody; Enne? Ook enne… With those 3 words everything has been said about ones wellbeing/feelings/etc…let;s get rid of the whole cumbersome “How are you? I’m fine and you?” Let’s all go; Enne…ook enne ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/54 "2004-06-12T00:00:16Z")
This is a great thread. Here is the link for the aboveforementioned book link. Looks very interesting. [They have a word for it](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1889330469/qid=1086997720/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-9599692-7575352?v=glance&s=books) ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/55 "2004-06-12T00:31:22Z")
The Czech word **litost** is apparently untranslatable (according to Milan Kundera, and I wonder if our own poster who uses this name got it from Kundera). Anyway, Kundera writes this about the word in The Book of Laughter and Forgetting: > [@](#): > > _Litost_ is an untranslatable Czech word. Its first syllable, which is long and stressed, sounds like the wail of an abandoned dog. As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I find it difficult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it. > … > Or take an instance from the student’s childhood [as an example]: His parents made him take violin lessons. He was not very gifted and his teacher would interrupt him to criticize his mistakes in a cold, unbearable voice. He felt humiliated, and he wanted to cry. But instead of trying to play in tune and not make mistakes, he would deliberately play wrong notes, the teacher’s voice would become still more unbearable and harsh, and he himself would sink deeper and deeper into his _litost_. > > What then is _litost_? > > _Litost_ is a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery. I have an old Scot Gaelic-to-English dictionary that I once went through to highlight all the words with the oddest/loveliest meanings. My favorites: **moit** (" pretended indifference, shyness while speaking about a thing one is very keen for") and **atamaich** (“to fondle an unreasonable person”). ---
**Author:** ![Kaotic\_Newtral](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@Kaotic\_Newtral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaotic_Newtral)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/56 "2004-06-12T00:51:18Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > Actually, it’s more of a verbal sigh after something arduous or something mildly disappointing. > > Like: “Uff da, that was a lot of snow to shovel” or “Uff da, Margie, I forgot to put the shaved carrots in the Jell-O”. Exactly! That’s how we used it too in Minnesota/North Dakota. You could use it that way or in a sort of ‘wow’. Like this with emphasis on the Uff (so I spelled it differently): “Oof da! How the hell did that man lift that car off of that womans leg.” -K ---
**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:** [June 12, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/57 "2004-06-12T01:11:08Z")
An Alan Watts book talks about the Japanese word for a feeling - yugen - for which there is no English translation, which we can only understand by opening our minds to situations in which they use the word. “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 a distant island, to contemplate the flight of wild geese seen and lost among the clouds.” He says, “All of these are ‘yugen’ but what have they in common?” I don’t know, but it has always intriqued me. Would it be akin to wander-lust, y’all think? He’s right - there is no English translation. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/58 "2004-06-12T05:42:23Z")
> [@gum](#): > > **Noone Special** Is ‘Chutzpeh’ a Hebrew, or a Jiddish word? Both, really. While Yiddish is really mostly a Germanic language (in terms of syntax and grammar) it has a large vocabulary of words taken from the Hebrew. One of those words is _Chutzpah_ (notice the slight variation in pronounciation at the end; it’s also pronounced with the emphasis on the last syllable - _chutz-PAH_). the word then made it’s way into English and other European languages through Yiddish (which is why Yiddish is recognized as its source) - but it’s a perfectly good Hebrew word (and descriptive of far too many Israelis, to boot!) > [@](#): > > Did you know that the Dutch language uses a lot of Jiddish words? ‘Mokum’, for example, [I believe it’s the Jiddish word for home, or house?] is used as an alternative name for Amsterdam. > Amsterdammers are Mokummers. 🆒 And also another case of exactly the same process: [Hebrew] _Makom_ (meaning “place”, but also, when used with “the”, “the place of God”, or just “God”) ==\> [Yiddish] _Mokom_ ==\> Dutch _Mokum_ … So Amsterdamers are those in the presence of God, huh? Sounds about right, from at least two diverging points of view (that is - one: the Dutch are really, really great people :). Two: it’s all that weed that gets them closer to god ;)) Dani ---
**Author:** ![stately\_plump\_buck\_mulligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@stately\_plump\_buck\_mulligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stately_plump_buck_mulligan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/59 "2004-06-12T06:02:51Z")
> [@Vision of Love](#): > > **Gigil** (hard “g” sounds, as in “Google,” and the “i”'s both sound like “ee”). I think it’s a noun, but I’m a bit thrown off because of Tagalog (Filipino) grammar. Anyways, it’s that feeling you get when: > > 1. You see a kid (or anyone) that’s so cute that you want to pinch/slap them. Yes, we Filipinos can go beyond a simple cheek pinching. Those poor children get hurt. 😃 > > 2. Someone’s (or something’s) behaviour is getting on your nerves and it’s taking every ounce of energy for you to not do anything. > > It may be of interest to note that when this word is pronounced, it is often done with teeth clenched. !!! A favorite term of my Lola’s. Woe befall whatever little kid dares to be too cute around that lady. I was so damn cute it’s a wonder I escaped childhood without any facial scars from her pinches. 😃 Filipino people in general have a lot of really funny words dealing with little kids. ‘Dai’ and ‘Bubuy’ [sp?] spring to mind, terms which me and my other fully-grown half-Flip cousins have apparently yet to outgrow. (It’s also hilarious how it’s perfectly normal for a 42 year old Filipino lawyer to be known as “Pik-pik” or some other similar cutesy repeating nickname by his family) What’s that Tagalog word that describes the distinct manner in which a Filipino person or family who isn’t particularly rich, but would like to think themselves as such, decorates their house? It’s that wonderfully tacky way that can only really be applied to certain Filipino households. The only way I can draw a parallel to American houses is those people who flank their painfully modest homes with marble lion-holding-a-paw-up statues. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323/60 "2004-06-12T10:16:19Z")
> [@gum](#): > > **Mycroft Holmes** How about ‘heimwee’. Or ‘nostalgia’? That’s close to **saudades** but not quite the same thing. **Saudades** is less melancholy an emotion than ‘nostalgia’ or ‘heimwee’. It also includes a kind of craving, because you can have **saudade** for a certain kind of food, prepared ‘just right’. When a Brazilian has **saudade** he has to do something to ‘scratch that itch’, even if it’s just partying with friends. Babelfish translates it as ‘homesickness’ but that’s not quite right. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-make-a-list-of-untranslatable-words-phrases/249323.md?page=4)