# "Lost in Translation" -- words that have no easy equivalent in English **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 11, 2023, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032 "2023-03-11T15:56:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/81 "2023-03-16T10:50:47Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > My cousins are my aunt’s children. I would never refer to them in any other way. The issue isn’t that you wouldn’t call your aunt’s children cousins, the issue is that you would use modifiers in thinking/talking about more distant relations. I was an only child, but my grandmother had 8 siblings, who had from 1 to 7 children themselves, who had children of their own. Those offspring are all my cousins, I’ve always thought of them only as cousins, and I don’t think I’m in any way unusual in that regard. I have so many people that I know to varying degree that I consider simply “cousin” that I can’t even keep count of them. For instance, one of my Facebook friends is one of my grandmother’s sister’s son’s daughter’s daughters (who I haven’t actually seen IRL since she was an infant but who recently graduated college). Not only do I not think of her in any term more detailed than “cousin”, but I’d have to study a chart before I could list what degree of cousin she is. ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/82 "2023-03-16T11:08:04Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > … wouldn’t _hold-up_ or _snag_ be an adequate translation? Nice, I hadn’t thought of these. However, I’m not sure they’re as ubiquituous as _empêchement_ in French. In English, I often hear or use periphrastic structures such as “I’ve been held up” or “I will be unable to attend”. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/83 "2023-03-16T11:13:20Z")
Or that. 😆 ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/84 "2023-03-16T12:47:36Z")
I would never refer to the children of my aunts and uncles as anything other than cousins - the “maybe” is about restricting the use of “cousin” to _only_ those people. You might say you are going to your second cousin’s wedding but other people would say “cousin’s wedding” as they don’t feel any need to distinguish between degrees. I would simply say 'my cousins are visiting from out of town" even if the cousins I’m talking about are my first cousins once removed and their children , my second cousins. The friend/coworker/whoever I’m talking to doesn’t need to know that over the weekend I went to Sean’s wedding and he is Christine’s son and Christine and I share four great-grandparents. Saying I went to my cousin’s wedding without the family tree is enough. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/85 "2023-03-16T14:42:03Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > For instance, one of my Facebook friends is one of my grandmother’s sister’s\* son’s\*\* daughter’s\*\*\* daughters\*\*\*\* \*Great aunt \*\*Second cousin once removed \*\*\*Second cousin \*\*\*\*Second cousin once removed The “removed” business is interesting, but somewhat confusing, because it doesn’t distinguish between generations above and below one’s own. Thus your second cousins’ parents and children are both your second cousins once removed. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/86 "2023-03-16T20:16:45Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > my grandmother had 8 siblings, who had from 1 to 7 children themselves I come from a traditionally Catholic family. My dad was one of seven kids. Each of them has has at least two kids so I have 17 first cousins. But… my great-aunt Peggy, the family authority until she died (my father’s mother’s sister in law) kept note of who was who in the family, so I have tens of second, third and fourth cousins at various stages of removals. It probably adds up to over 100. Or actually more now we are getting to 5 times removed. We just call them cousins, no one left has great aunt Peggy’s extensive interest in familiy trees. As for the actual topic of the thread, the word in chiShona (a Zimbabwean language) “Zwakapressa” It literally means “it crushes” but using it implies resignation to the burdens of life which you can do nothing about. Something like stoicism but with a much more pessimist attitude. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/87 "2023-03-16T20:53:50Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > It literally means “it crushes” but using it implies resignation to the burdens of life which you can do nothing about. Something like stoicism but with a much more pessimist attitude. That’s heavy. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/88 "2023-03-19T23:44:19Z")
There’s a Japanese word like that, too, isn’t there? I remember a reference to it in a book about the last year of WW2, when things kept getting worse and worse for the common people. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/89 "2023-03-21T03:59:26Z")
There is a common expression 仕方がない _shikata ga nai_ which is often translated as “it can’t be helped” but depending on the circumstances can mean utter despair. There is also 絶望的 _zetsuboteki_ which means completely without hope. I don’t recall the exact words my former in-laws who lived through the Tokyo firebombing and years of despair and then the widespread poverty and horrific conditions while Japan was being rebuilt used to describe the experience. I’ve also talked to friends who survived Nagasaki as well as watched various programs on the war, but I don’t remember if there was one particular word they used. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/90 "2023-03-21T21:49:14Z")
I think that first one might be it. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2023, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/91 "2023-06-25T00:29:02Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > > > “tsujigiri” in Japan (trying out your newly-acquired sword by decapitating a random passerby) > > Is this real? Was this really such a common occurrence that there was a word for it? > **[Watch the Oldest Japanese Anime Film, Jun’ichi Kōuchi’s The Dull Sword (1917)](https://www.openculture.com/2023/06/watch-the-oldest-japanese-anime-film-junichi-kouchis-the-dull-sword-1917.html)** > > Japanese which means 'to try out one's new sword on a chance wayfarer.' (The word is tsujigiri, literally 'crossroads-cut.') A samurai sword had to be tried out because, if it was to work properly, it had to slice through someone at a single blow,... ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/92 "2023-06-25T17:12:18Z")
The Spanish word _[desgarrar](https://dle.rae.es/desgarrar?m=form)_ is a good one for this thread. In its most commonly used sense, it means to rip up something (like paper), while the adjective _desgarrador_ is used more often and metaphorically to describe emotional impact, as in a story or a sight that rips you up inside. There are reasonable translations in English, but they’re not used much: [to rend](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rend) and [heartrending](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heartrending). ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/93 "2023-06-26T16:32:22Z")
There could be an exact equivalent in French : _déchirer_ - _déchirant_ (_des adieux déchirants_). Used to great effect in [**Jean-Louis Aubert** ’s _Voilà, c’est Fini_ (“There, it’s over”)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H22yv2c-gKY) _Il [vaut] mieux couper que déchirer_ (“It’s better to cut off than to tear apart”) at 1:57. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/94 "2023-06-26T16:38:33Z")
The thread is about translations into English, not French. ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/95 "2023-06-26T18:52:25Z")
Sure, but I meant that the same goes the French equivalent. There’s no English word that conveys the exact meaning. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/96 "2023-06-26T23:15:20Z")
> [@alovem](#): > > The thread is about translations into English, not French. No, it isn’t THAT narrow. It’s more general than that. It’s about equivalent expressions across various languages, back and forth. And expressions/words that don’t have equivalents in other languages. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/97 "2023-06-27T05:19:53Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > It’s about equivalent expressions across various languages, back and forth. And expressions/words that don’t have equivalents in other languages. Well, it’s your thread, but it’s the first time you’ve said that. “In English” is right there in the thread title. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/98 "2023-06-27T12:23:10Z")
I wanted to kick off a discussion based on this article: > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Provoked by this article on the NPR website > > [Lost in translation: 4 perfect words that have no English equivalent : NPR](https://www.npr.org/2023/03/11/1162340949/words-language-english-dictionary-translation) I didn’t intend for everyone to take this absolutely literally… I like _discussions_ in the threads I start, and I’m not all that rigid unless things go waaaay off track. Then I’ll flag a mod. (Because in the past I’ve been accused of junior modding.) ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/99 "2023-06-27T13:59:11Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Estrenar This is just the verb form of premiere. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032/100 "2023-06-27T14:16:39Z")
Premiere is also a verb, but it’s not a perfect match. _Estrenar_ doesn’t necessarily refer to the first showing, performance, etc. of a work of art or entertainment. It could refer to the first time new shoes are worn, for example. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-translation-words-that-have-no-easy-equivalent-in-english/981032.md?page=6)