# Those little lexical gaps **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 11, 2014, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473 "2014-03-11T21:13:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Puzzler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d07c76/32.png) [@Puzzler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Puzzler)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/41 "2014-03-12T21:42:32Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Not once have I heard it used. Most often where English uses “he likes”, Hebrew would use the (awkward, to my ear) “motze chen beeynav” - “finds favor in his eyes”. These are not the same. “Motse Chen Be’Eynav” is a more general term. “Mehabev” is reserved for inter-personal likes. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/42 "2014-03-12T21:43:10Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > It’s the same in Russian. Let’s say the word that means both is “loan”. You say “I loaned from him” when you borrow or “I loaned to him” when you loan. As a noun, you either “take a loan” or you “give a loan” - just like in English. There really is no need for two verbs. Same thing in Norwegian (and presumably lots of languages). I’ve never missed having two different words for those. Harping on about my “enjoy” from my OP: I was thinking about how to say “married life can be enjoyable” in Norwegian. Can’t do it. Married life can be… nice? Not really what I want to say. Fun? Not the same thing. There’s no way for a waiter to say “enjoy your meal” in a restaurant. What they’ll say instead is “I hope it tastes good”. (Well, actually, the expression is just “hope it tastes”, with the “good” either presumably being implied. Either that, or maybe your expectations shouldn’t be too high and they just hope it tastes _something_.) Nope. No word for “doing something in a pleasurable sort of way, but not excessively so”. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/43 "2014-03-12T22:10:30Z")
A friend of mine was born in France but has lived in England (where I live) for over 20 years. She often undertakes translation work. She says the worst ‘lexical gap’ she ever encountered was that there’s no French equivalent for ‘charity shop’. In French, you more or less have to say ‘a shop to which people donate things so they can sell them to raise money for a charity’. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/44 "2014-03-13T04:23:49Z")
> [@ianzin](#): > > A friend of mine was born in France but has lived in England (where I live) for over 20 years. She often undertakes translation work. She says the worst ‘lexical gap’ she ever encountered was that there’s no French equivalent for ‘charity shop’. In French, you more or less have to say ‘a shop to which people donate things so they can sell them to raise money for a charity’. Actually, that’s an idiom that’s not common in American usage. I could figure out the meaning but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone here call something a charity shop. We’re more likely to call it a thrift shop but that doesn’t carry the same connotation that there’s a cause involved. I’ve also heard people call a store like this a Goodwill, which is a case of genericisation. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/45 "2014-03-13T04:35:14Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > 1. prep. ant. a2. _Archaic, to (the linked article has 23 meanings)._ > ~ ti a mí, ~ usted a mí, etc. _from you to me, etc._ > 2. locs. advs. coloqs. Entre los dos, o para entre los dos. _between both or to be placed between both_ Me bad on that line: 27. prep. ant. a2. _before a, “to” (the linked article “a” has 23 meanings)._ > [@Terr](#): > > It’s the same in Russian. Let’s say the word that means both is “loan”. You say “I loaned from him” when you borrow or “I loaned to him” when you loan. As a noun, you either “take a loan” or you “give a loan” - just like in English. There really is no need for two verbs. Hispanics have a lot of problems with that pair as well, one of my brothers still doesn’t get it; the one who works in finance and I took over 10 years to stop confusing them. We use _prestar_ or _dejar prestado_, “let loaned”, for loan and _tomar prestado_, “take loaned” for borrow. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/46 "2014-03-13T05:38:26Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Familial relations words differ greatly from language to language. Some languages have a word for every relation. Some use phrases to indicate relationship. Russian doesn’t have one word for “cousin” (well, there is one from French, but it is considered a bit pretentious and wouldn’t be used in everyday speech). But does have one for “nephew”. Go figure. As another example, in Cantonese “aunt” and “uncle” are represented as different words depending on whether the relation is on the mother’s side or the father’s side. ---
**Author:** ![Puzzler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d07c76/32.png) [@Puzzler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Puzzler)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/47 "2014-03-13T05:59:12Z")
I read a while ago an article in Hebrew that claimed to give several words that exist only in one language. I don’t speak any of them, so can’t vouch for their accuracy, but here goes (in English letters): French: "Depaysement – a feeling of exile, the feeling one has when away from one’s homeland German: “Waldeinsamkeit” – The feeling a man has when alone in the woods Japanese: “Komorebi” – The sun light penetrating through tree leaves Italian: “Cualacino” – The mark left by a cold drink glass on the table Swedish: “Mangata” – the moon’s light path on water Russian: “Pochemuchka” – He who asks too many questions Inuit: “Iktsuarpok” – A feeling on anticipation, making one peek out of his Igloo to see if someone is coming Polynesian languages: “Pana Po’o” – Scratching one’s head to remember something Indonesia: “Jayus” – “A joke within a joke” – telling a joke so awfully, that the way you told it is funnier than the joke itself ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/48 "2014-03-13T07:44:49Z")
> [@Puzzler](#): > > Russian: “Pochemuchka” – He who asks too many questions Spanish, _preguntón_. _Pregunta_ is question. So, this one exists in at least two languages. As for _depaysement_, it would appear to be one form of homesickness / nostalgia / _morriña / saudade_… which may or may not get covered by another one; when specifically referring to those exiled against their will, Spanish has a phrase for it but not AFAIK a word (_el dolor del exiliado_, the pain of exile), a feeling of having been torn away from your roots. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/49 "2014-03-13T08:23:50Z")
> [@Puzzler](#): > > Swedish: “Mangata” – the moon’s light path on water Mångata (notice the “å”). Literally “moon-street”. Huh, that’s a nice little word. I’d actually never heard it, I had to look it up. I guess the good news for translators is that its primary use seems to be to feature in lists of untranslatable words. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/50 "2014-03-13T16:29:31Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > English seems to lack a common but non-crass verb for “to make love” or “to have sex” (meaning, to engage in sexual intercourse). We have the clinical term “copulate” that a doctor or biologist would use in professional discourse. And we have crass verbs like “fuck” and “screw”. But we don’t seem to have a polite but common (non-clinical) word. How about “to know” – a bit old-fashioned, but polite enough. ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/51 "2014-03-13T17:32:34Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Mångata (notice the “å”). Literally “moon-street”. Huh, that’s a nice little word. I’d actually never heard it, I had to look it up. I guess the good news for translators is that its primary use seems to be to feature in lists of untranslatable words. 😛 Finnish has a word for it as well - “kuunsilta” or “moon’s bridge”. I don’t think we have any of the other words on that list though. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/52 "2014-03-21T07:50:43Z")
Another case of English having two words when one would do the job just fine: Roof and ceiling. None of that in Norwegian, just one word covering both. Actually, even though I think my English is pretty decent, that’s one of those things I keep slipping up on, saying roof when I mean ceiling, as I’m used to those basically being the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/53 "2014-03-21T08:34:36Z")
Another one from Spanish for which I don’t know one in English (it may exist, but I don’t know it): _chapurrear_. To speak a language badly but understandably. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/54 "2014-03-21T16:05:17Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Another case of English having two words when one would do the job just fine: Roof and ceiling. None of that in Norwegian, just one word covering both. Actually, even though I think my English is pretty decent, that’s one of those things I keep slipping up on, saying roof when I mean ceiling, as I’m used to those basically being the same thing. He’s on the roof would have a completely different meaning to he’s on the ceiling. Welsh has cwtch, a special heartwarming kind of hug. That might be a word in some other languages, but not English. ---
**Author:** ![Batistuta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/58956e/32.png) [@Batistuta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batistuta)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/55 "2014-03-21T19:16:48Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Welsh has **cwtch** , a special heartwarming kind of hug. That might be a word in some other languages, but not English. That word can’t possibly exist. I tried to read it out loud and my mouth broke 😛 Anyway, here’s a couple of mine: English speakers don’t realise how great the word “ **eventually** ” is. It seems that every time I speak to my parents in Spanish, I end up wanting to use the word “eventually” in a sentence and then think “oh, that’s right, it doesn’t exist”. Such a great word… Now that I’ve been speaking Swedish for a while, there are some details I really appreciate. The greatest one has to do with relationship terms, which are oddly specific: far = father mor = mother syster = sister bror = brother farfar = your father’s father ie. your paternal grandfather farmor = your father’s mother, ie. your paternal grandmother farbror = your father’s brother, ie. your paternal uncle faster = your father’s mother, ie. your paternal aunt How great is that? So helpful, so specific, you’ll never ever have to ask the question “is that your grandmother on your dad’s side or on your mum’s side?”. The word for step-father is also very descriptive: “ **plastpappa** ”, or “plastic father”. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/56 "2014-03-21T19:55:18Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > He’s on the roof would have a completely different meaning to he’s on the ceiling. It would, which is why I always confuse people when I want to explain the whereabouts of Spider-Man and mix the words up. But you can still explain where he is without having a word for ceiling. Say you only have the word “roof”. In Norwegian, you’d say “he’s up under the roof”. Since you don’t have the word “ceiling” in the first place, that’s not confusing. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/57 "2014-03-21T20:14:38Z")
> [@Batistuta](#): > > Now that I’ve been speaking Swedish for a while, there are some details I really appreciate. The greatest one has to do with relationship terms, which are oddly specific […] Swedish is good for that stuff. The best Swedish word ever, although it’s of fairy recent coinage, is “sambo”, which is an unmarried cohabiting partner (“sam”= together", “bo”= habitating). How nice is that? “He’s my sambo”. In English, you have to say “he’s my boyfriend, and we live together”, and you’ll only get around to expressing that if the subject of your habitation status is brought up in the first place. In Swedish, it’s just that little and very specific word. We have it in Norwegian as well, as “samboer”, but the shorter Swedish version is just more fun to say. It sounds like a piece of IKEA furniture. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/58 "2014-03-21T20:30:37Z")
(Missed edit: Or girlfriend, obviously, it’s not gender specific. Anyway, English needs that word.) ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/59 "2014-03-21T20:49:15Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > It would, which is why I always confuse people when I want to explain the whereabouts of Spider-Man and mix the words up. But you can still explain where he is without having a word for ceiling. Say you only have the word “roof”. In Norwegian, you’d say “he’s up under the roof”. Since you don’t have the word “ceiling” in the first place, that’s not confusing. That would make it sound like he was in the attic space under the roof, though, not on the ceiling. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473/60 "2014-03-21T21:22:42Z")
> [@Batistuta](#): > > That word can’t possibly exist. I tried to read it out loud and my mouth broke 😛 The W is more like the oo in book. It’s actually a [near-close near-back rounded vowel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-close_near-back_rounded_vowel). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-lexical-gaps/683473.md?page=4)