Sometimes they describe an attribute. Or a moment. Or maybe just a vibe.
These are the words from other languages that don’t have a direct equivalent in English, and yet carry so much meaning.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary set out recently to gather some of these words on Twitter, and was flooded with responses from people offering their own.
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This one caught my eye right off the bat (as it were):
“tsujigiri” in Japan (trying out your newly-acquired sword by decapitating a random passerby)
Read the article and you will learn about
Débrouillard
Estrenar
Haa shagóon
Soubhiyé
Lots of Dopers speak other languages (I don’t ), so please do suggest some of your own.
Along similar lines, I’m particularly fond of the etymology of “avatar”, because it went from having no equivalent concept (thus no equivalent word) to a hugely important equivalent concept.
It was originally a Sanskrit word, referring to the incarnate or tangible form of a deity when it manifests on earth. There was no easy equivalent, because there was no similar belief/concept in Western religion. We don’t think of Jesus as an avatar of God. The word was adopted into English but remained obscure. (We could now say that “virtual character” is a synonym, but of course that sense of virtual didn’t exist then.)
Then, with the advent of computer games, an important new concept arose that did naturally correspond to the Hindu meaning, and the already-adopted-but-rarely-used word exploded.
In Hungarian, a sorstárs is someone who shares your tragic fate. Something like “fellow victim” or “fellow sufferer” but more eloquent. It’s often used in the context of those who lost their lives to political persecution under the Nazis or the communists.
One Chinese word that’s tough to translate into English is meng (also pronounced “mong.”) It’s a word that is kind of what you get when “intense,” “fun,” “hardcore”, “funny,” “driven” or “exciting” are all blended together.
“That roller coaster ride was so meng!”
“That customized silly painting is so meng.”
“This basketball game has been really meng thus far.”
“That billionaire’s lifestyle is so meng!”
On the other side, the English word “cousin” is notoriously difficult to translate into Chinese, because there are 8 different, extremely-specific words for cousin in Chinese, all depending on the cousin’s age (compared to the speaker,) gender, and family line. An English statement like “I had dinner with my cousin last week” is impossible to translate into Chinese without that supplemental information.
Another good one is “inshallah”, which means “if god wills it”. An Arabic equivalent to “mañana” is “bokra”, which also literally means “tomorrow”, but really means “at some indeterminate time in the future or perhaps not ever”.
In the world I grew up in, cool and awesome aren’t adequate to describe a perfectly executed Godzilla rail flip or a lightening bolt t-fish painted in hot rod flames. Bad was after my time and stupid confusing.
In several vulgar latin languages (except french), there are two words for the english word ‘to be’. In Portuguese, for example, ser and estar both mean ‘to be’ in English. Ser is intrinsic, estar is conditional (e.g. eu sou um homen (I am a guy), but estou com fome (I’m hungry). There can be a play on words between which verb to use, ser or estar, when referring to politicians (I am (ser) your mayor versus I am (estar) your mayor, which doesn’t easily translate to English.
Typically you would use estar to describe a politician, because this is not intrinsic. But if you use ser, you imply that you are not just temporarily mayor, you are intrinsically mayor.
), so please do suggest some of your own.