| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8] > | Words that exist in only one language. Thread poster: Henry Dotterer
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| More untranslatables | May 16, 2002 |
Well, there\'s \"lagom\" in Swedish which comes across in two words in English most of the time as \"just right\" but a friend of mine, having just picked up the word in Swedish class, promptly tried it out on her fishmonger. When he asked her how big a fish she wanted, she just said \"lagom\" and waited to see the size of the fish. And it was perfect.
The Lapp and Inuit languages have something between 14 and 17 words for snow depending on texture, condition, compaction and whatever.<... See more Well, there\'s \"lagom\" in Swedish which comes across in two words in English most of the time as \"just right\" but a friend of mine, having just picked up the word in Swedish class, promptly tried it out on her fishmonger. When he asked her how big a fish she wanted, she just said \"lagom\" and waited to see the size of the fish. And it was perfect.
The Lapp and Inuit languages have something between 14 and 17 words for snow depending on texture, condition, compaction and whatever.
The Finns are very proud of \"sisu\", or the ability to bulldoze unswervingly through to the end to see something through.
And then Chinese has \"mafan\" for the hassles specific to government bureaucracy.
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terms of cooking, food can be very difficult to translate or even untranslatable.
one word that comes into my mind is the danish \"ymer\" - my da>en dictionary translates it into \"junket\" but eurodicautom translates it as \"ymer\" into any of the other languages. it also provides the following explanation in german:
\"Mit Saeurewecker hergestellte, im Eiweissgehalt durch Molkenablauf angereicherte Sauermilch in Daenemark\"
maybe I should add, that it is not a pr... See more terms of cooking, food can be very difficult to translate or even untranslatable.
one word that comes into my mind is the danish \"ymer\" - my da>en dictionary translates it into \"junket\" but eurodicautom translates it as \"ymer\" into any of the other languages. it also provides the following explanation in german:
\"Mit Saeurewecker hergestellte, im Eiweissgehalt durch Molkenablauf angereicherte Sauermilch in Daenemark\"
maybe I should add, that it is not a product name.
ymer is also the name of a figure of norse mythology - i suppose the name of the dairy produce is inspired by him, since he drank the milk from the cow standing above his head (if i remember right). ▲ Collapse
| | | | Minna Wood MITI (Purring CAT Ltd.) (X) 
United Kingdom
English to Finnish
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| "löyly" / "vasta" in Finnish | Jun 28, 2002 |
In Finnish language we have some sauna related words which, I assume, don\'t have a direct equivalent in any other language.
\"löyly\" = the heat wave you get when you throw water on the hot stones in the sauna
\"vasta\" or \"vihta\" (depending which part of Finland you come from) = the bunch of birch twigs (incl. the leaves) used for slapping against the naked body in order to increase the \"löyly\" sensation and to purify the body and the soul.
... See more In Finnish language we have some sauna related words which, I assume, don\'t have a direct equivalent in any other language.
\"löyly\" = the heat wave you get when you throw water on the hot stones in the sauna
\"vasta\" or \"vihta\" (depending which part of Finland you come from) = the bunch of birch twigs (incl. the leaves) used for slapping against the naked body in order to increase the \"löyly\" sensation and to purify the body and the soul.
And I am not joking, it\'s feels great! 
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| | | | | Gapers' block | Jul 18, 2002 |
Just thought of another one! A \"gapers\' block\" in Chicago is a traffic jam caused by people in their cars slowing down to get a look at an accident (\"to gape\"). I have only heard this used in Chicago, but would be interested to know whether other English speakers know it and whether there is an equivalent in another language.
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Terry Gilman
Germany
Local time: 22:59
Member (2003)
German to English
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| Gaper's block ... Haven't heard/read it | Jul 18, 2002 |
Hi Daina,
Just \"rubberneckers,\" which you probably know. (Schaulüstige in German or something else?)
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I don\'t think anybody mentioned yet this famous Portuguese untranslatable.
Its entry in the \"Aurélio\" reads:
\"Nostalgic, and at the same time sweet, memory of people or things that are far away or no longer existent, combined with the desire of seeing or possessing them once more\"
Now that I see it, the definition is quite as beautiful as the word itself.
I just had to laugh about the Spanish \"fofo\" thing... See more I don\'t think anybody mentioned yet this famous Portuguese untranslatable.
Its entry in the \"Aurélio\" reads:
\"Nostalgic, and at the same time sweet, memory of people or things that are far away or no longer existent, combined with the desire of seeing or possessing them once more\"
Now that I see it, the definition is quite as beautiful as the word itself.
I just had to laugh about the Spanish \"fofo\" thing. I had an American teacher of English, and once I made some comment about an untranslatable English word (I don\'t remember which), and she said that there were also such words in Spanish, for example, \"fofo\". \"Fofo?!,\" said I, \"but it\'s...\" And unconsciously, I started with the infamous gesture! And she said: \"Oh yeah, everybody I ask starts doing that, but no one comes up with a real explanation!\"
My Simon and Schuster\'s says \"spongy, soft,\" but it is not quite like that. A person can be \"fofo,\" meaning, flabby.
In Portuguese, \"fofo\" has a different meaning, and not quite easy to define either. It is something like, \"sweet, cute.\" A baby is \"fofo.\" ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jacek Krankowski (X)
English to Polish
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| Kami: gods unlike others | Aug 16, 2002 |
Henry will know more about it.
What all these versions of Shinto have in common is belief in kami, or \"divinities\"; Shinto itself is a Chinese-derived word which means \"the way of the gods\" (Shin=\"gods\"; To, from Tao=\"the way\"). What these kami are is hard to pin down. They range from the original creating gods to lesser gods, from the spirits of ancestors to any natural force or aspect of nature which inspires awe.... See more Henry will know more about it.
What all these versions of Shinto have in common is belief in kami, or \"divinities\"; Shinto itself is a Chinese-derived word which means \"the way of the gods\" (Shin=\"gods\"; To, from Tao=\"the way\"). What these kami are is hard to pin down. They range from the original creating gods to lesser gods, from the spirits of ancestors to any natural force or aspect of nature which inspires awe.
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GLOSSARY/KAMI.HTM
And from www.jinja.or.jp/english/s-4c.html:
In order to understand the concept of Kami of the Japanese, it is importantto wipe off a preconception caused by the word, god, an English translationwhich is often used for the word Kami. In Shinto, there is no faith in theconcept of the absolute one god who is the creator of both nature and humanbeings. The ancient Japanese had never divided material and spiritual existence,but considered that the both were inseparable, seeing everything to be spiritual.In other word, they did not draw a border between a certain object and thework of that object. According to the Shinto myth, there was one thing inthe beginning of this universe. Later that thing was divided into two things:Heaven and Earth. From Heaven, Kami appeared and a couple of Kami who weremale and female appeared last gave birth to the various Kami, the land ofJapan and her nature as well as people. The Shinto faith starts with a beliefin this mythology. Therefore, Shinto does not acknowledge the existenceof the substantial difference or discontinuation between Kami and man, natureand human beings. It can be said that Shinto is basically the faith in thelife-giving power.
However, Shinto is not pantheism which sees all the existence on thisworld as Kami itself. If it is necessary to define its concept, it mightbe the best to refer to the opinion of Motoori Norinaga, a scholar in thelate 18th century, which is now widely accepted. He wrote, \"Whateverseemed strikingly impressive, possessed the quality of excellence and virtue,and inspired a feeling of awe was called Kami\". Here \"the qualityof excellence\" means an enormous power which gives great influenceon many things. It is beyond the human power or human works. It brings agood luck and happiness to man but at the same time it could bring a misfortuneor an evil as well. On the other hand, both natural elements (or phenomenon)and man are given a possibility to become Kami, because both the land andthe people of Japan were given birth by Kami. So, they are all childrenof Kami.
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| | | | Jacek Krankowski (X)
English to Polish
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| Kami: gods unlike others | Aug 16, 2002 |
[ This Message was edited by: on 2002-08-16 07:04 ]
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Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:59
Russian to English
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In memoriam
I don\'t know Japanese, but there is a Japanese word \"sabishi\", which I believe means something very similar to sauded in Portuguese.
| | | | Gerard de Noord
France
Local time: 22:59
Member (2003)
English to Dutch
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I just thought of this Dutch word. Uitwaaien is a verb meaning \"walking in the wind for fun\". I can\'t think of an equivalent verb in our neighbouring countries.
Regards,
Gerard
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The closest feeling to that I can muster is \"You picked a winner there, buddy.\" But it would fall flat on its face unless you started it with \"One-two-three\". Whic is too longwinded: I\'m stumped.
I also recall getting change of something like DM 1.23 at a store in Germany and the cashier commenting on that being a Schnappszahl. I can\'t think of anything in English that is the same - \"lucky number\" has a different meaning.
Daina
[/quote... See more The closest feeling to that I can muster is \"You picked a winner there, buddy.\" But it would fall flat on its face unless you started it with \"One-two-three\". Whic is too longwinded: I\'m stumped.
I also recall getting change of something like DM 1.23 at a store in Germany and the cashier commenting on that being a Schnappszahl. I can\'t think of anything in English that is the same - \"lucky number\" has a different meaning.
Daina
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| | | | | Áåðåçîâûé âåíèê !!! That is the Russian equivalent for "vasta" or "vihta"...:) | Nov 17, 2002 |
Quote:
On 2002-06-28 19:15, Minna wrote:
In Finnish language we have some sauna related words which, I assume, don\'t have a direct equivalent in any other language.
\"löyly\" = the heat wave you get when you throw water on the hot stones in the sauna
\"vasta\" or \"vihta\" (depending which part of Finland you come from) = the bunch of birch twigs (incl. the leaves) used for slapping a
... See more Quote:
On 2002-06-28 19:15, Minna wrote:
In Finnish language we have some sauna related words which, I assume, don\'t have a direct equivalent in any other language.
\"löyly\" = the heat wave you get when you throw water on the hot stones in the sauna
\"vasta\" or \"vihta\" (depending which part of Finland you come from) = the bunch of birch twigs (incl. the leaves) used for slapping against the naked body in order to increase the \"löyly\" sensation and to purify the body and the soul.
And I am not joking, it\'s feels great!
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| a thought and some words.... | Nov 18, 2002 |
What a nice topic!!! I\'d love to add something:
Reading old messages I came up with a few ideas and thoughts. Let\'s see what you think:
but first, a note: in this sense, aglutinating (are they called so in English?) languages (germanic languages enz) have an advantage over the rest: for example, geisterfahrer has the Spanish translation \"conductor suicida\", which is two words... but that\'s because in German you can just put them together!!! handy is... See more What a nice topic!!! I\'d love to add something:
Reading old messages I came up with a few ideas and thoughts. Let\'s see what you think:
but first, a note: in this sense, aglutinating (are they called so in English?) languages (germanic languages enz) have an advantage over the rest: for example, geisterfahrer has the Spanish translation \"conductor suicida\", which is two words... but that\'s because in German you can just put them together!!! handy is that!!!
I also wanted to say that in Spain we use \"goloso\" as well...
Another comment: gezellig. Every Dutch person I met was happy to explain how that is such a tipically Dutch word. But I suspect it is exactly the same as \"hyggelig\" in Danish; can anyone please confirm?
And now some words I think are untranslatable (at least into any of the languages I know):
NL: \"uitwaaien\" (someone suggested it already), \"overheid\" (I know it\'s the government, but doesn\'t it have a wider sense?)
Catalan \"seny\" (could it be \"razúm\" in Russian?)
Spanish: \"fofo\" (also there already), \"apalancar\" (this kind of feeling of people who never do anything but laying around watching TV, similar to laziness, but not quite it).
Russian: nieokhotá (not feeling like doing something)
hoping to read your comments soon!
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| | | | | | kin
Local time: 16:59
Chinese
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in chinese, we called that \"a number of coincidence\".
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