# Words That Don't Translate **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 15, 2022, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813 "2022-01-15T00:10:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/61 "2022-01-16T19:45:05Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > In the [Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache](https://www.dwds.de/wb/schmalzig) I find a reference that goes back to the 9th century, when what later would become German was a language linguists call today Althochdeutsch, so the direction seems to be from German to Yiddish. Well, now I’m a bit embarrassed that I fucked up the German spelling the whole time as Schmaltz and schmaltzig, though it’s Schmalz and schmalzig. And that’s my native language… 🤦‍♂️ ETA: maybe the fact that I’m a vegetarian and don’t eat lard/Schmalz is a tiny excuse. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/62 "2022-01-16T20:03:25Z")
I actually saw that in a movie theater. We’d gone to see an actual Bergman film (_Shame_), and it was one of the additional features. It’s was funny to watch/listen to the slow catcher-onners realize they were (mostly) speaking English! ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/63 "2022-01-16T22:04:39Z")
Water = H2Oska 🤣 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/64 "2022-01-16T22:09:00Z")
Yeah, it was really funny! ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/65 "2022-01-16T23:03:49Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > You think _that’s_ bad, Kevin Smith is working on [**Moose Jaws**](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4269346/mediaviewer/rm2940583169/) – Tagline: **Jaws** with a moose. Is it set in Canada? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/66 "2022-01-16T23:10:12Z")
Yes, it’s the last movie in Smith’s True North Trilogy, after **Tusk** and **Yoga Hosers**. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/67 "2022-01-16T23:26:48Z")
Actually, “treppenwitz” is a good example. Somehow, “staircase wit” just doesn’t quite seem to capture the idea. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/68 "2022-01-16T23:44:37Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > I almost wonder if the guy **CairoCarol** was dating might have made up the word “Weltschmalz” as a joke. Probably not. I would guess he said “weltschmertz.” This is a memory closing in on 50 years old, so it isn’t surprising that I would mangle the word. @Pardel-Lux: “World-lardiness” is cracking me up. Maybe it refers to the collective weight gained by everyone during the pandemic, due to excessive eating and cooking fueled by boredom, rage, and despair. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/69 "2022-01-16T23:51:44Z")
Or maybe it means lard is the perfect lubricant for this slippery slope the world has turned out to be and your German acquaintance was a very prescient person. I shudder to imagine how this is going to end when we hit the bottom. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/70 "2022-01-17T03:04:04Z")
I learned several years ago that Spanish has no word for “elope”. (Somebody tell me – Is that true? I find this surprising.) We looked it up in a English-Spanish dictionary. The Spanish translation was a multi-word phrase, something along the lines of “to run off with one’s lover”. It’s common for languages to have words that don’t exist in other languages, which can only be expressed by a multi-word phrase. It can also happen with individual words. English has the very basic verb “to be”, but Spanish has two verbs for this: Ser and estar, each of which has its own circumstances when it should be used. English speakers, upon learning Spanish, typically have a hard time learning when to use some form of ser and when to use some form of estar. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/71 "2022-01-17T07:54:04Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I learned several years ago that Spanish has no word for “elope”. (Somebody tell me – Is that true? I find this surprising.) It actually is kind of strange – at least to me – to have a single word for this action. I was checking to see if there’s a word in Polish, and all the translations I get are for the verb “to escape” or “to run away.” I don’t see a word that specifically denotes “for the purpose of marriage.” When I put “he eloped with her” into Google translate, I get a sentence that, without other context, would mean “he escaped with her.” Now, while Polish is my first language, the subject of elopement never really came up growing up, so I don’t know for certain whether there is another way of expressing this, or whether that single word meaning “to escape/run away” is enough to communicate the concept. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/72 "2022-01-17T13:55:06Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Actually, “treppenwitz” is a good example. Somehow, “staircase wit” just doesn’t quite seem to capture the idea. As is often the case, the German version is more concise (compared to the source French, _l’esprit de l’escalier_, anyway). [on a side note, _Treppenwitz_ has also migrated to an adjacent meaning in German, kind of the ‘ironic twists of history’] ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/73 "2022-01-17T14:35:08Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > That makes sense, I hadn’t thought about lard being pig fat and that Jews wouldn’t have much use for the word Schmaltz in its original meaning. I do not speak Yiddish, but I’m an American Jew and know lots of people who spoke at least a smattering of Yiddish. And i know the word “schmaltz” as rendered chicken fat. My father kept a jar or it in the fridge to make latkes, and some of the Jewish delis in New York have it on the table, where another establishment might put butter. I’ve seen people spread schmaltz on bread or toast, as if it were butter. Unlike butter, you can eat it with a meat meal within the laws of Kashrut. I’m not certain whether the same word is used for rendered duck and goose fat, or if they have their own words. But I’m pretty certain “schmaltz” was a common Yiddish word for an item that Yiddish speakers would be completely familiar with and use regularly. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/74 "2022-01-17T14:54:37Z")
Back in high school, I took Spanish, and our teacher encouraged us to ask questions in Spanish to get used to using it in conversation. I remember asking her if I could use the pencil sharpener (they used to have those mounted by the entrance), and asked her how to say it in Spanish. She was a little befuddled, as “sharpen” in Spanish applies more to making razor edges. She settled for “make a point on the pencil.” Is there a Spanish word for “sharpen” when it applies to a pencil? ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/75 "2022-01-17T17:11:10Z")
Spanish native speaker here. Your teacher made a mistake there. In Spanish it is perfectly ok to apply the verb “afilar” (=“to sharpen”) to pencils in the sense of “making them pointy”. To sharpen a pencil = afilar un lápiz. Maybe your teacher got confused because there is also the verb “aguzar”, which ultimately comes from “aguja” (needle) and “agudo” (acute) and originally meant “to make pointy”, but nowadays it is only used in fixed constructions like “aguzar la vista” (=“to look intently at something, trying to discern some minute detail”). ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/76 "2022-01-17T17:24:29Z")
I have been served Schmalz on bread in Germany, and there were visible bits of fried pork belly in the spread. I am going to go out on a limb and assume the fatty part was not kosher, either. I am sure you are correct that Yiddish speakers would be quite familiar with Schmalz (obviously not the pig variety as a favourite compared to eg Gänseschmalz), but I doubt the word itself has to do with chickens; seems more plausible that it has to do with “smelting” (schmelzen) / rendering fat in general, and everyone just had their go-to varieties. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/77 "2022-01-17T17:46:21Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > > That makes sense, I hadn’t thought about lard being pig fat and that Jews wouldn’t have much use for the word Schmaltz in its original meaning. > > I do not speak Yiddish, but I’m an American Jew and know lots of people who spoke at least a smattering of Yiddish. And i know the word “schmaltz” as rendered chicken fat. My father kept a jar or it in the fridge to make latkes, and some of the Jewish delis in New York have it on the table, where another establishment might put butter. I’ve seen people spread schmaltz on bread or toast, as if it were butter. Unlike butter, you can eat it with a meat meal within the laws of Kashrut. > > I’m not certain whether the same word is used for rendered duck and goose fat, or if they have their own words. > > But I’m pretty certain “schmaltz” was a common Yiddish word for an item that Yiddish speakers would be completely familiar with and use regularly. That makes perfect sense, and thanks for the correction. I had totally forgotten that Schmalz/lard could me made from the fat of other animals than pigs. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/78 "2022-01-17T17:57:38Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > One of the great features of German is that concatenation of words. Just take the prefix _scheiß_ , for shit - _scheissegal_ for “I don’t give a shit”, _scheißwetter_ for really crappy weather, _scheißfreundlichkeit_ for fake friendliness. Genius stuff. English does this rarely, see “unfuckingbelievable”. How well do other languages translate that word? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/79 "2022-01-17T18:13:33Z")
Good point, we do like our concatenations with _fuck_ - ratfucking, fuckface, fuckwit, lots more. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813/80 "2022-01-17T18:42:39Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I learned several years ago that Spanish has no word for “elope”. (Somebody tell me – Is that true? I find this surprising.) Yes, it is true. Elope translates into Spanish as escaped or as kidnapped depending on whether complicity of the bride with the deed is to be put in the foreground or the responsability is attributed mainly to the bridegroom: if you say they escaped, she went voluntarily. If you say she was kidnapped, she resisted or at least the family can pretend. I don’t know if I am gendering this right, but I hope you get the general idea. And BTW, I can’t think of a perfect translation into German either. Durchbrennen is not bad, but I see nuances, because you can _elope_ (durchbrennen) alone (_er brannte mit 16 von zuhause durch_: he _eloped_ (sic!) from home at the age of 16) or with money you stole (_er brannte mit der Beute durch_: he _eloped_ (sic!) with the booty), it does not have to be a bride. [Cite](https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/durchbrennen). > [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Is there a Spanish word for “sharpen” when it applies to a pencil? Indirectly yes. A sharp pencil is a pointy pencil so to sharpen a pencil is _sacar punta al lápiz_: make the pencil pointy. And for that we use the [_sacapuntas_](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacapuntas), the “pencil pointy-maker”. Seen that way it has the logic of a compound German word. And also what @JoseB wrote, but _afilar_ is not only for pencils. _Sacar punta_ is almost exclusively pencil-y (arrows and spears may apply, but… nah! That is _afilar_ too). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-dont-translate/957813.md?page=5)