20 awesomely untranslatable words from around the world

These are awesome, I love “tartle.” I do it so often.

Another great post Jason. Keep ‘em coming.

Very interesting list! I never realized “dépaysement” was especially unique, but it is true that it’s quite hard to translate. Oh, and not that I want to play the role of the grammar nazi, but it’s “L’appel du vide” and not “L’apelle du vide”!

Tartle – that’s fantastic. This is a great list!

“Schadenfreude” is a word that exists in Dutch as well. Why is it untranslatable? Because both in Dutch and German words are simply put together to form a new word. Schadenfreude is nothing more than Schade Freude, which would translate to ‘mischief joy’.

Another thing is number 17, where you mention Gezellig in the title, but fail to mention it again in the text. It’s the Dutch equivalent of the Danish word. It’s the most famous example of an untranslatable word for Dutchies.

Great article. Seen some of them before but some are new.
Just to add – in Czech both toska and schadenfreude exist (stesk and škodolibost respectively), probably due to to its Slavic roots and German influences.

In Chile #4 is pinchar, which also means a flirtatious connection or hookup. I had never heard of doing it in the states, where I’d never had a cell phone and was troubled when I realized there was no word for it in English!

Twenty words that ought to be adapted into everyday English (among other languages).

“Toska” struck me immediately. “Mamihlapinatapei” is the easiest for me to empathize with; I ought to shorten somehow it and start using it.

Schadenfreude

Actually, this word already does exist in English. It is epicaricacy.

Loved the list!

My favorite untranslatable word for quite awhile now is the Swahili “pole” (pronounced pole-ay). It is the rough equivalent of “sorry” in English but can only be used when the offense isn’t the fault of the apologizer. For example, if your friend stumbles while walking near you, you say pole.

The true closest English equivalent is “Sucks to be you.” Only nicer.

I’m a fan of the Italian “dietrologia:” the science of finding dark ulterior motives behind otherwise normal actions (especially by government).

Cool list. I’m curious, is the one listed as Scottish a Scots Gaelic word, or a regional word used by English speakers in Scotland? What I mean is, would you only hear it if people were actually speaking Gaelic, or did it originate from Gaelic but now gets used when people are speaking English?

Cool list – I would add “sisu” in Finnish, meaning Finnish spirit, or strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in
the face of adversity.

I agree with Schadenfreude. Sure it can be explained in English, but with a whole sentence. In German it’s neatly defined in one word.

Australian comedian Adam Hills talked about his favourite non-English words in one of his stand-up shows. I don’t know how to spell the other two words, but I am SO using them!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QedsH14GPUA

An Italian friend of mine told me about a saying they have; vomitare l’anima, which literally means “to vomit your soul”.
I love that saying simply because we’ve all had one of those illnesses where we’ve been so sick it’s felt like that, or eaten something dodgy that has given you food poisoning resulting in this, or had one of *those* nights out where the next morning, this has happened.

Great list.

fab post!
the welsh word Cwtch
some say its to have a cuddle others say its a place where your dog/cat sleeps i use it as both

Hygge, hyggelig

Good piece. Unfortunately you can’t say “*a* hyggelig” as ‘hyggelig’ is an adjective and the noun is uncountable, too. The noun is ‘hygge.’

I think the word “simpatico” in Spanish has no good English translation. It means “nice”, but there is much greater depth to it that that, and also conveys a relationship between two people which may not be shared by others.

I also would add (portuguese) Madrugada. While it does loosely mean dawn, it is not just a physical description of time, madrugada is describes the early, simple, romantic, sometimes longingness of the 1am-5am time of day.

I love this word.

“Gezellig” is Dutch. Is does mean the same as Danish “Hygellig”, but how many times do we have to tell you that Denmark and the Netherlands ARE NOT THE SAME COUNTRY? They’re not even next to each other, germany is in between!

(the Dutch live in the Netherlands. The Danish live in Denmark, and the German live in Germany but call themselves and their language ‘Deutsch’, which is not the same as Dutch.)

btw. the czech word “prozvonit” has its english equivalent: when i want someone to do it, i’d say just “beep me”

***Prozvonit**** sorry

Not translatable to a single word in english obviously isn’t the same thing as untranslatable.

The dutch word ‘geuzennaam’, and especially the concept behind it, would be quite useful in many countries. It can be a very effective alternative for the mechanism of Political Correctness, where people are forced to use an, often unwieldy, euphemism.

Geuzennaam: a Dutch term for when an originally negative or derogatory name is appropriated and reclaimed as a positive label of empowerment.

The Dutch word for Schadenfreude is leedvermaak.

I would say “raler”. It’s a French word that would mean “complain” but not exactly. It’s when you critizise a lot everything around you. It’s almost a national sport in France.

Quiz: Anyone know the difference between ‘just now’ and ‘now now’ (South African)?

Saudade is for sure the best of them! In Brazil we use this word a lot, but it doesn’t mean lonly to miss someone (or something) it’s much more than that: “saudade” is something that hurts, but at the same time it means that something or somebody really worth for you and you remember it with a will to rewind the time and repeat it. Or you can say that for someone you don’t see for a certain period of time (it can be a long time or just few hours and days), it means that you like and miss that person.

Italian ‘Guatare’. It means to stare intensely at something or someone for a long period with great emotion/intent, whether it be with longing, menace, fear, etc., such as how a cat would stare at a bird.

referring to #12.
The word Germans use is “Torschusspanik”. Somehow you have gotten an ‘l’ in there that shouldn’t be. ‘Tor’ means ‘goal’, and ‘schuss’ means ‘to shoot’ or ‘to shoot into’. The correct translation is then ‘panic before shooting a goal’, as in a soccer game or a sports game in general. This does not refer to middle age and midlife crisis as you say, but rather to the panic that often ensues right before something is about to happen that one has previously committed to. A good example of ‘Torschusspanik’ wold be to not show up for one’s own wedding.

Yes I have a word for you: Roodarvasi which means in word-for-word translation “standing in front of the face”. It’s Persian and means you are shy and cautious about some people. For example, if your boss visits you at home, you have too much “roodarvasi” to serve him sandwiches as dinner or not to clean the living room. You don’t tell your colleague that her dress makes her look fat because you have too much “roodarvasi”. And if you ask somebody to drive him home and he says: No thanks, I don’t want you to trouble yourself on my account, you can answer: Oh please don’t have any “roodarvasi”. A friend can also act offended if you show too much “roodaravasi” because it is usually used between people who are not very close.

I hope you get it now :)) I don’t speak English well but I could not find a similar word in English or German (a language I speak much better than English) or any other western language. It must be a Middle East thing

One of my favorite untranslatable words is the Swahili word “pole” (pronounced pole-ay) which is usually translated in English as “sorry.” This translation does not begin to encompass all that “pole” means, however.

In Tanzania, whenever you see someone working, or simply pass someone walking on the road, you say “pole” and they respond “pole na wewe” or “pole to you too.” It is an acknowledgment that life is hard, along the lines of “I feel your pain, life is hard for me as well.”

Many people realize that some words are difficult to translate from other languages to English, but often forget that some are hard to translate from English to other languages. I have found that the word “home” is often difficult to describe because it is both a feeling and a place, and that place could be one’s house, one’s hometown, or one’s country, and it includes the sentiments of every aspect of the culture surrounding that. It is commonly translated to “hogar” in Spanish, but the Spanish word does not carry anywhere near the depth of meaning of the word in English.

The Yiddish word “haimish” is similar to number 16 – Hyggelig. It means “warm” but connotes homelike, cozy, friendly. A person can be haimish, and event can be haimish and a place can be haimish.

There are lots of fun Yiddish words – courtesy of German as well as Hebrew – that are relatively untranslatable.

The word TINGO #15 above, would be translated into Yiddish as SHNORRING

Number 9. in Colombian Spanish is “Timbrar” or “Pegar/Dar um timbrazo”

Dar un toque, at least in Spain, just means “to call someone” or “to give someone a ring.” Una llamada perdida is what we call it when we call someone so they have our number. If someone gives you a llamada perdida, it’s like leaving a message. The recipient is expected to call back.

To be more accurate, all of these supposedly untranslatable words can be translated into any other language, you just might not be able to translate it into a single word. Just look at the definitions given on this page to see what I mean.

I didn’t see this one come up, but a personal favorite of mine is ‘mokita’. In New Guinea, ‘mokita” is the truth that everyone knows, but no one speaks. The elephant in the room, so to speak.

- Gezellig – No English eq. might have one in other languages.

denotes a cosy environment with friends, often referring to a place and/or situation among friends: ‘Its ‘gezellig here’. can also mean, cosy, quint, nice or general togetherness

Lehitchadesh – a Hebrew verb discribes the state of having recenetly purchased a new product or service. It’s usually used in its imperative form when someone is being saluted for having made a new aquisition of any form.

Prozvonit, the number 9, has a single word in Spanish, at least in Venezuela: “Repicar”. It´s exactly the same use and meaning.

in italian a Prozvonit is a squillo. but it is so much more than just a sign to be called back. it can mean ‘i’m thinking of you’ when you are in a couple, it can mean ‘yey!’ when your team scored a goal and you do a squillo to a mate who isn’t watching with you or it simply means ‘yes’ when someone sent you a message with a yes or no question. or it means ‘i’m there’ when you pick somebody up by car or something like that. it’s awesome!!

“gemütlich/gemütlichkeit” is a German word that I love isn’t included on this list–it describes an overall warm, cozy feeling; a good example is the atmosphere of a room full of longtime friends sharing a drink or two. Wikipedia does a pretty good job of explaining it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gem%C3%BCtlichkeit

Duende (SP) = Duende (PT-BR) = ELF (EN-US/EN-UK/EN-AUS/EN-SA)
Dépaysement would be homesickness unless I got the explanation wrong…

And the expression “Dar un toque” isn’t present only in Spanish, but also in PT-BR.

I’m glad that I speak the language that has “saudade”
I just love the fact it doesn’t exist in any other language.

In ‘The Key to Rebecca’ Ken Follet uses the arabic word ‘mactleesh’ that he translates as meaning somewhere between ‘sorry’ and ‘so what’

The Roumanian `dor`, meaning a strong, hurtful, tourmenting, passionate wish to see someone (that you love) or something again, or the wish to do something that you miss (to come back to your country ot to your childhood town, for instance). The word describes a powerful and untranslateble feeling. `To miss someone` is not an accurate translation, it misses out on the `saudade`, only that the persone is not necessarily dead. `To long after` would be better, but still not quite.

German doesn’t count because it is standard practice to just keep adding syllables until you have combined a paragraph into a single word if necessary. That is why Germans are so fond of abbreviations and acronyms.

Example: FLAK is taken from Fliegerabwehrkanone which literally translates as Flyer-Defense-Cannon. That is no more one word than anti-aircraft-cannon is.

Despite the thrust of this blog, my experiance is that it is English is typically the most consise way of expressing a thought. I think it has something to do with how large the English vocabulary is (My OED has over 300,000 entries in it). I am a software developer and have seen numerous multi-lingual prompt files. What I have learned is that inevitably other languages take up more display space than the English equivilent does. It really surprised me that even Kangi takes more display space (because the characters have to be bigger to be legible).

Here is an example of this from German. The classic longest German word is:

Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän

In English this translates to:

Danube steamship company captain

Notice that the English phrase is shorter than the “Single” German word.

Don’t believe me? Try typing just about any phrase into google translate and see how long the translation is in various languages.

Beyond the magic language performs between two human beings, isn’t it wonderful to be able to read about terms in one language than does not exist in another, yet identify with the spirit, emotion and sheer humanity of the expression? Bravo – great article!

Isn’t #14 just the same as “homesick”? I don’t see why it should be untranslatable?

What about “Magari” (Italian). It’s somewhere between ‘perhaps’, ‘if we’re lucky’, ‘we live in hope’ – word to optimistically express hope about a possible future outcome.

I love the word “convivir” in Spanish and the sentiment that it invokes. I always picture families strolling around the plaza, chatting with other townspeople and neighbors helping neighbors. “To live in harmony” is the closest I can come to the meaning in English; it means so much more than “coexist.” Amoungst Spanish speakers, “convivir” is a value and a way of life.

These are just awesome. I love the other languages’ names for random things.

Also, let’s not forget ennui–not simply translated as boredom.

The word saudade refers to persons, things or places not only lost but that you miss, or feel melancholy about, for being distant.

Indeed, this whole list errs a bit in the anglo-centric. I think that saudade is very akin to my understanding of toska based on the definition provided, and certainly “depaysement” is almost perfectly translated by “spaesamento” in Italian (although it is more commonly expressed as “sentirsi spaesato”). With that being said, an entertaining bit for sure.

There’s also the Swahili word “pole”, which translates to an apology, but it can also mean “you have my sympathy for all the stuff that’s wrong with your life, but that you are too polite to complain to me about”

This is a good word to have in Swahili also because it’s considered rude to say things are bad when a casual acquaintance asks you how you are.

My guess for the Arabic term is that is a highly colloquial statement and not one easily recognized by a majority of Arabic speakers. The word عبر itself has the connotation of “crossing over to death” in some circumstances, but I very much doubt that most Arabic speakers would intuit the meaning naturally. If one were to say this phrase stand alone, it would probably evoke little other than puzzlement. For pure singularity, I would offer the word “nasnaas” (alternatively pronounced “nisnaas”; نسناس) as the best untranslatable word in Arabic: “a fabulous creature of the forest, having one arm and one leg”. Also very obscure, but singular and universal in meaning (compare Hans Wehr and al-Munjid).

This list is INCOMPLETE.

Where’s

um…
like
and anything followed by -shizzle

In Hebrew, there is the wonderfully useful word with no English equivalent: “davka”, (which comes from the root meaning “exact”) variously approximately rendered as “of all things” or “precisely” but usually has a bit of “despite what you’d think” or “despite what you should have done” in it. E.g. “He davka took the one I was sure he wouldn’t like,” “You davka bought peanut butter ice cream even though you know I’m allergic to peanuts?” “Why did he davka have to show up today, the one day I am working?” Once you’ve got davka, you never go back–it’s a very useful word.

The author’s definition of schadenfreude is ‘close but no cigar.’ The author fails to convey that schadenfreude is the shame of feeling joy at someone’s misfortune, not simply the joy. I hope the other definitions are somewhat more exact …

Thai has a word, “gran jai” And it means to say “no” out politeness, like if a host offers you something and you say “no” because you don’t want them to bother. But this is often said in a way of, don’t gran jai. The host will literally say, “don’t be polite,” eat if you want it.

In Lakota (American Indian, South Dakota, U.S.) we have a word called “Ughneea” which describes a repugnant or or distasteful feeling that certain people give you. someone who is irritating and who rubs you the wrong way…but not strong enough to hate or be angry with. But you definitely would not have to be around them.

In Ghanaian english, we use “flash” as in, “I’ll flash you” for 9. Prozvonit. Czech – This word means to call a mobile phone and let it ring once so that the other person will call back, saving the first caller money.
The meaning is identical.

I like “tingo” best. Partly because it’s an interesting concept. Mostly because I like saying it: “tingo, tingo, tingo.”

For me, the French phrase “champs lexique” is not covered by “semantic map.” It describes not only the extent (or limits) of a given word, but also how and when it might be used. It tickles me that this phrase does not have a good equivalent in English, covering a different, oh, “champs lexique”

Wife from La Linea disagrees with 19. And 11 = sadistic lol

#1 and #13 are great!

The Cantonese word “won gut” has always amused me: wasting a shopkeeper’s time by acting as though you’re interested in some item that you actually have no intention of buying.

For untranslatability, I find the Buddhist concept of “dukkha” to be sine qua non. It encompasses at times Toska and Saudade, but has an incredibly rich spectrum of meaning from discomfort, unease and restlessness to sorrow, grief, pain, suffering and anguish. In fact, if you need to use the word dukkha, it’s best to simply leave it untranslated. A full understanding of dukkha takes a lifetime; in fact, it is a lifetime.

How come the only words for a male prostitute are Italian? The words “gigolo” and “cortigiano” both mean a male hooker/escort, yet there is no word in English for such a person. Says something about the English, don’t you think?

#9 is “to prank call someone” in English (possibly just British English). As a secondary meaning of course, but people tend to say it nowadays when exchanging numbers – you prank call your friend’s mobile so that your number comes up on her caller id, for instance.

in kitchens we use the term “all day”. its a sort of patois word. it can mean very many things, but the closest definition is “a total”. when I asked the cable operator what he difference bin praice between three cable packages “all day” she was confused. i was asking what the total, including tax, of each package was, and the difference in price from one to the next. almost any other professional cook would understand that, ut doubt many people outside my industry use that term. i wonder if other languages have a similar expression.

We in Ghana call Prozvonit(word no.9) ‘flashing’. Example : He flashed the clerk the whole day but couldn’t get a hold of him. i hope you get the meaning

Karoshi (japanese); “death by overwork” – A kind of death that I (hope) certainly will not suffer Ha ha ha

Banzo (brazilian portuguese); From unknowed african origin, a word born at the time of the slavery in Brazil, meaning “An deep and sad ‘Saudade’ (see above word nr 20) that kill, be by depression, or by leading to the suicide or madness”

Great post!

Scahdenfreude has a direct translation in Dutch, leedvermaak. Showing our blunt terseness, there’s even a proverb that goes “Geen beter vermaak dan leedvermaak”, i.e. nothing more fun than … Schadenfreude.

How could you miss http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sehnsucht ?

You’re forgetting another: Saudade, in portuguese. This word exists only in Portuguese and Galician.

Saudade is a Portuguese and Galician word difficult to translate adequately, which describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic longing for something or someone that one was fond of and which is lost. It often carries a fatalist tone and a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might really never return.
Saudade has been described as a “vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist … a turning towards the past or towards the future”.

A stronger form of saudade may be felt towards people and things whose whereabouts are unknown, such as a lost lover, or a family member who has gone missing. It may also be translated as a deep longing or yearning for something which does not exist or is unattainable.

Saudade is used not just for something/someone that is lost, but for those that are far away. I’ve heard that the Portuguese felt saudade for their homeland and their families when they went off & explored the world.

You can “matar saudades” (kill the saudades) by visiting those that you miss.

I’m fond of the Catalan “Seny” as difficult to translate. Seems to have connotations of common sense, methodical, ordered. And then you combine it with “Rauxa,” which is somewhat the opposite. The Catalan Gov’t translating site gives seny i rauxa “wisdom and impulse.”

Torschlusspanik actually has a more narrowly defined meaning, it’s the fear of an aging woman to not find a man.

Bullshit, the german one got eqialence in swedish :3

Dutch: parterretrap (stairs from the first floor)

#11 Schadenfreude also exist in Danish … it is called “skadefryd”. Skade means “injury” or “damage” and fryd means “joy” or “pleasure”.

In arabic, the word أدهم “Ad-ham” (a common name nowadays) translates as a pitch black, pure-bred Arabian stallion with a white stroke on its forehead!

Both Hyggelig and Schadenfreude exists as words in Swedish

(as Hygglig and Skadeglädje)

As for calling someone to let it ring once, in Nepal, in English, they call it a “missed-call”. It’s not one word, but they use it like one. For instance:

I’ll missed-call him tomorrow.

I know of a few words, from various languages. I think “Torsk” comes from Norway, and it refers to a man who consorts with prostitutes; and the Japanese word moe does not even have a direct English translation: at least “kawaii” means “cute.”

However, my favourite general untranslatable Welsh word is “hiraeth,” which generally translates as “Homesickness,” but which might have more in common with the Portuguese word “saudade” above, in that it is a longing for the feelings of home life, family and nostalgia rather than a literal longing to want to be back home.

I have never heard the word “moe” in Japanese except maybe in the Osaka dialect, which would mean “Enough already!” or something like that.

It also could might be found in a comic book as the sound someone makes before they are going to puke….

If you could explain the context or knew the Chinese character it might help….

ANArKH

It almost means a damned fate and inevitability, but the whole of the word can only be fully understood through reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Ilunga = Strike 3

“Prozvonit” – In India, we call it a “missed call” – a missed call is often used to indicate something determined beforehand (come to the cafe when I give you a missed call) or in the case where I call someone, and they couldn’t pick up the phone, so later they give me a missed call stating they are available and I should call them (since I did the original call, I have some job and so it is my responsibility to pick up the charge )

Haven’t quite a few of these proved … err … translatable? Interesting words all the same!

That there is a place in the world that needs the word “Jayus” makes me very happy.

“9. Prozvonit

Czech – This word means to call a mobile phone and let it ring once so that the other person will call back, saving the first caller money.”

This is not unique: There’s a german verb for it, too: “anklingeln”.

“Pratt” and “Plonker” come to mind. I have tried in vain to express the exact shade of meaning to my American friends. There just isn’t an American expression that conveys the non-malicious, friendly yet disparaging meaning of these UK expressions.

Oy!

Hiraeth- Welsh

Similar to Saudade- Hiraeth is the emotion one feels when we are longing for something/someone/somewhere. It’s a nostalgic longing.

I too was looking for the Swedish word “lagom” when reading the list. I’ve read several essays (in Swedish and in English) trying to define the word. It isn’t just “enough” in English. I’ve often thought of it as a personalized “comfortable perfect.” Like your favorite jeans once you break them in fit “lagom.” Or different people have different ideas of what a “lagom” Sunday morning is like. But it can be negative too. It would be deeply insulting to describe your boyfriend as “lagom.” And Swedes sometimes disparagingly refer to their own country as “the land of lagom”

“orkar” is good too.

I like “vemod” too, which is often translated into English as “melancholy” but I’ve heard Swedes get very poetic when trying to describe “vemod.” Some will describe it as a very yin-yang experience, that there is “vemod” in the midsommar celebrations because even though there is happiness and light, in your heart you know that it has reached the peak of brightness and after this it only gets darker. I once saw someone translate it as “a beautiful sadness.”

But one noun I miss particularly from Swedish is “blast,” as in the phrase “ta bort blasten.” This refers to the act of “taking away the leaves from a vegetable.” You can (and do) “shuck corn” in English, but what do you call it when you take the ferny tops off of carrots? or the leafy tops of radishes/beats/turnips? or the leaves around a head of cauliflower? or the plant over the ground that potatoes grow from? All of these parts that are taken away are “blast” in Swedish. Sometimes you are expected to do this at the store, and then a “blast-tunna” is provided (a trash can for “blast”). Many recipes have the phrase “ta bort blasten…”

Depaysment=morriña (gallego) y bastante similar a la palabra “saudade”, que también se utiliza en gallego por cierto.
me parece q no tienes ni idea

Hi,

I love this list – nice work. I’d add two German words to i:

– Gemuetlich – a word that has affected me over the years and always has me stumbling when I try to tell people what it means in English. Means something close to cozy or comfortable, but also is deeper than that and hard to translate.
– Strohwitwer (or Strohwitwe) – the person left behind with the ids when a partner goes on a trip

And a plea for help to coin a new term: the feeling one has when one realizes one’s web browser is about to crash and there’s nothing you can do to save whatever important text you were working on.

Cheers,

Tobias

“Mamihlapinatapai … from the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego” meaning “a look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that they both desire but which neither one wants to start”.

Clearly these words are translatable since not only did you provide translations for them, but they’re all things to which we can relate, hence the article. They can simply not be translated by just one word. Ask any translator and they’ll tell you that you never translate word for word anyway.

I love the word “saudade”. I mean, I don’t like to feel it, but it’s beautiful and sad at the same time.

Oh, and “duende” we have in Portuguese too.

I don’t speak German, and don’t remember what the word is, but my German neighbor once told me a word that I think translates to something like “looking inward”… she used it in regard to the look on my toddler’s face when he was “filling his diaper.” Anybody familiar with this?

So what’s the opposite of schadenfreude? Geumutlichkeit seems to come close, and litost is kind of a self-reflexive opposite, if you see what I mean. It’s the other side of schedenfreude; maybe schadenkummer? Is that a word?

In Spanish I can think of a word that I never really know how to translate: hostigoso. While it’s translated as “sickly or cloying food”, it’s not really accurate because it makes it sound bad (which hostigoso necessarily isn’t). It’s something that is sticky and extremely rich, it leaves your mouth somewhat pasty or thick. It generally tastes pretty good, except due to richness, only a bite or two suffice (unless you down loads of water after them).

Words in Chinese are a funny thing too since they tend to combine words to create new ones. For example, ganbei （干杯） means “cheers!” but it breaks down into dry/empty (gan 干) cup (bei 杯) or renao （热闹）means “bustling with noise and excitement” which is warm/hot/heat (re 热) and noisy. Well one of those untranslatable words into a single word in English is yuanfen （缘分）which means “fate or fortune by which people are brought together”. It loosely translates into destiny, but it feels like more than that.

Another Swedish word I love is “sambo” – literally translated is “same living” but actually means “a lover you live with but are not married to”. The distinction of a special word for an unmarried couple living together is fascinating to me.

While studying Swedish, the “lagom” word was explained to me as “something just right according to that individual”. I always think of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” in reference to things like soup temperature and the softness of beds – lagom is always a different thing for each person.

I don’t know a proper equivalent of the Tamil word “Saandraanmai” (சான்றாண்மை). Though it is generally described as “being good”.

Saudade is very easily translated into English. To ‘miss’ something or someone!!

Of course, it sounds much sexier in Portuguese.

litost (lítost, or ľútosť in slovak) = sorrow. That’s it.

my favorite “untranslatable” word is the french “se débrouiller,” which means to manage, or to come up with a solution, or, as I think to myself, to *macguyver* a problem!

the hardest english words to translate or even define in english for me have always been “cheesy” or “corny.” impossible to do without using the other!

I also like the Swedish word “duktig” – it describes a person who is busy, hard working, productive, positive, capable…

Also, in my experience, there are lots of untranslatable words that describe grants and positions in small and medium level bureaucracies, organizations and government forms, especially in the grants and programs that they run. But they aren’t as interesting as these common words.

Regarding the last word in the post, Saudade, there is an equivalent in Romanian -> Dor.
They used to tell us in school that this word (Dor) has no equivalent in any other language.
Well, apparently there is one in the Portueguese language
No wonder the two languages are sister languages, both from the Latin tree.
Very nice site.

Cheers

A most beautiful Arabic word is Nasihah or Naseeha.

It is commonly translated to mean ‘sincere advice, to counsel’ etc.

but the deeper meaning which is gorgeous means:

“Contemplation is broken with wisdom to articulate the truth”

I love this word. Its meaning is slightly similar to the French name Monique. (my own name), meaning advisor/counsellor. I am a Psychologist, so this is very apt.

there is an untranslateable word in turkish spelled “can” pronounced like “john” in english…
“can” is the thing that keeps a living thing alive and certainly non-livings do not have it…but it can not be translated as life…because life is “hayat” in turkish…

“can” is simply the thing that separates livings from non-livings but it is not the spirit as well….because spirit is “ruh” in turkish…

i wonder if teher is a a word equivalent to “can” in any other language

MABROUK is a fabulous Arabic word. It is a warm, kind, generous word. We use it each time someone gets something new. It means “may you were it/use it/ with joy and luck, may you be blessed with it”. Mabrouk is much more than congratulations, as it involves spirituality and GOD and genuinely means that we are happy for the other person.

The word ‘jayus’, by that definition can also be the same as ‘garing’, which can mean both crispy and corny.
Really, jayus is our way of saying that a joke is corny. Even though yes, I think ‘jayus’ means something more than corny.

Oh, the joy of one’s country being mentioned <3

In German, Hyggelig also exists, only it’s called “Gemütlichkeit.” It’s like a feeling of peace, acceptance and coziness… I like to think of it as reading your favorite book, sitting in the sunshine on a dock, dipping your feet into the water.
PS. I adore #2!

4. Iktsuarpok
not a single wor, but in scottish it’s “keep the edgy”

The Russian word Toska is similar to the German Sehnsucht and the Portuguese saudade, both of which are used in the English language. I’ll remember it though.

“Hyggelig” in english is basically “cozy” or “nice”. Nothing more than that.
The connotations of words are purely open to perspective and not some undefinable translation.

Your delightful and expanding list of cool phrases from other tongues has inspired me. So I did a little more research, and purchase a 1988 book called “They Have a Word for It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words and Phrases” by Howard Rheingold… before he became a famous media critic.

In Croatian we say: POZVONIT. I suppose the pronaunciation is very similar to the Chezch one (prozvonit) and the meaning is exactly the same. We use it all the time.

One hell of an article!
cheerio

i find it funny that that it states in the beginning that it states “However, to think that English – or any language – could hold enough expression to convey the entirety of the human experience is as arrogant of an assumption as it is naive.” Then it goes on to describe the definition of “untranslatable” words…. ah the irony

Although the explanation of the word is correct, however it does not clearly explain its usage.
18. Ya’aburnee
Arabic – Both morbid and beautiful at once, this incantatory word means “You bury me,” a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person because of how difficult it would be to live without them.

Ya’aburnee is primarily used by mothers while talking to or about her child. Since language translates feelings & traditions within a culture. Hence, it is not a matter of “how difficult it would be to live without them” but rather it is the utmost tragedy for the survivor.
The Arabic language goes one step further to give a name to a mother that lost a child i.e. “Thaqla”. The same way the there are words as widow or orphan. The thaqla is the word that is used to refer to the grieved mother that lost her child (no matter how old the son or daughter at the time of death). So, this is why mothers use the word Ya’aburnee.

Don’t mean to be a kill joy here, but I’d like to clarify “untranslatable” there. You see, in Structuralist semiotics, a “word,” which is a symbol, is composed of a “signifier” (the word’s evident part, i.e. letters, sound etc.) and a “signified” (the “concept” behind it, i.e. it’s definition). So to say that “schadenfreude” is an “untranslatable” word would be incorrect, since translation involves reassigning the signified with a different signifier. By giving us the definition of “pleasure derived from seeing other people’s misfortune,” the word is thereby translated to English, already. Perhaps the best description for these fascinating words would be “most unique,” in that there is a “lexical gap”: they have no “equivalent” words in other languages.

Be that as it may (pardon the structuralists, they’re notorious for “killing” truth in Literature), this is a fascinating list of words. Mamihlapinatapei is a mouthful, but it’s worth the effort! Just to follow the other comments, I’d like to mention my own. In Tagalog, there’s an expression “bahala na,” whose closest equivalent would be “come what may,” but whose literal meaning is difficult to determine even in Tagalog (the phrase in Tagalog would be “Darating ang darating”). It could be appended with an actor (“bahala na si (actor)”) to roughly mean “let (actor) worry over it,” but that isn’t the exact translation either. What’s beautiful about this expression though is how, in lacking that actor, it captures the passivity it tries to convey. Of course, any expert in Tagalog is welcome to answer to this.

Oh, and there’s the Japanese morpheme “-ne,” which may mean “isn’t it?” (complete with rhetorical meaning, “sou desune” would mean “isn’t that so?”) But the way the Japanese use it so liberally is unique to the language, showing just how much the culture puts value on harmony.

The British English term for Prozvonit is “drop call’.

http://hegelincanada.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/living-with-untranslatables/

“Saudade”, more less equivalent to “I miss you”, like the auhor said it’s this feeling for someone or something that you really miss or lost – like some love or someone, some remembrance (childhood for example), etc.

In Croatian we have equivalent for the Czech word ‘pozvonit’ – it’s ‘cimnuti’. But it’s used only in informal speech, and it also has some other meanings.

Eyy, Hyggelig is a Norwegian word too n_n

Here in South Africa we have a word: Ubunto. It relates to the concept of “I am, because we are.” The feeling of interdependence, of shared destiny.

I am Portuguese and I’m so happy that you included Saudades! Also, in Dutch, Hyggelig, is Gezellig, which roughly translates as “Cozy” or a nice warm, wonderful with friends and family, experience. (my husband is dutch)

there’s one, I use a lot: “ojalá”. It is translated literally as “hopefully” but there’s much more into it… It’s the desire of something to happen, given that an invincible force wanted to. (the word comes from the arabic “if God wanted to” It is not a noun, not an adjective, it’s just an interjection. ojalá I made the true meaning of the word be understood!

My favourite is ‘oeillades’, a French word that can be translated as ‘winks’ or ‘flirty glances’ but is better defined as ‘the secret looks exchanged by lovers’.

The direct translation of the Turkish word “kara sevda” is “black love” – it means being lovesick but I think it´s beautiful and there is a different perspective to it…

Weltschmerz doesn’t have a t. yes, I like that word, too. it is also used a bit ironically, someone suffering from “weltschmerz, it’s, oh, so deep…There’s also Zeitgeist, which the English seem to ahve pinched from the Germans. the spirit of the Age we live in.Something like that. I don’t think it exists elsewhere, except, as I say, they have pinched it. But that’s it, language wanders, isn’t it.

So I’m kind of thinking…untranslatable…into what ?

Sasha

The Spanish “Duende” means gnome. The supposed translation is totally wrong, unless it was taken as a metaphor.

Okay so looking at the other comments, this list seems to be totally incorrect..

Dépaysement I assume to be displacement…which you would also feel away from your home country. Nice words, but most are translatable.

Schadenfreude, translated into English, could be Sadistic. Sadistic people get pleasure from the misery/misfortune of others. So that one does have an English word.

Weltschmerz-German

Pokka-Finnish

Jason – totally stumbled upon this post – <3. 

Yay! I’m brazilian, so I can totally understand how English lacks the word “cafuné”! When I wanna translate it, I never know quite how to! But when I see all those other awesome words, I wanna speak all the languages in the world…or have them in Portuguese so people can use them!

there is one more word but its a name that cannot be translated and that ” YAHWEH”….
its the name of the creator that He told the Hebrews to remember for generation upon generation for all generations….tel-aviv, Israel did an archaeological dig thru solomon’s temple and found items that have YHWH on them the 4 letter tetragramaton-meaning that it cannot be translated into any other language….for more info please look up…

http://www.yahweh.com for the truth will set you free from this pagan elohim worshipping world for HE calls u out at this time from this world and to be part of his family.

Good collection, but how come you missed the English word “SUPERCALIFLAGELISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS”

“chi ku” (吃苦） in Chinese literally translates into “eat bitterness”.

 It actually means the ability of persons to endure hardship without becoming embittered.

 “Preserving your good cheer even under the most adverse circumstances” would be a good description of this Chinese term.

The lack of a corresponding term in Western languages reflects the absence of such a virtue in occidental civilizations.

Hungarian has these phrases 
1. Schadenfreude -> káröröm
2. Torschlusspanik -> kapuzárási pánik
3. Dépaysement -> honvágy

They might be translations but they are commonly used.

Let me contribute some untranslatable Hungarian phrases:
honfibú ->  Patriotic melancholy. It usually involves some apathy and resentment. These days it’s often said with ironic or sarcastic undertones because of the collective self-pitying element it evokes.

sírva vigad – Lit. “having a good fun/a good time (among friends)… while  crying”.   It’s a kind of an emotional state which can be related to the above.

talpraesett – Lit. “fallen on their feet” – when somebody has the wits and finds his ways to manage no matter what

testvér / Lit. “body-blood”:  brother or sister. However it can refer to spiritual relation, too, i.e.  brotherhood or sistership.  “testvér”  is completely gender-neutral.  “testvériesen” means “in good faith, justly, with no selfishness”

“Nhõng nhẽo” – Vietnamese for “To behave like a brat, but in a cute way, towards your parents, older brother, sister or loved one, to get what you want, because you know they love you and will indulge you.”

taroof… iranian.

 
 “Tao” from Taoism, a simple but complex word that suggests an infinite unknowable essence and intelligence that is everywhere but is seen nowhere.  John Wong  

I can think of some more words:
Onoroke is a great  one in Japanese, and it is used to pejoratively denote a man who is proud and boastful of his wife.

Dharma in Sanskrit has been continuously mistranslated ever since the west heard that term. It roughly denotes an ethical code, and can be suffixed to an individual or group. When suffixed to the word “Sanaatan” (or eternal), it denotes the eternal code of ethics that has been found to resonate with people across cultures and religions and usually forms a subset of our larger individual ethical codes.

The Italians have a new word: “mamone” – a man who still lives w/his mother, a common Italian experience.

Great post thank you! My favorite French expression is: “n’importe quoi’ there is kind of no way to  translate it in any other language that I know. It means if someone says something completely ridiculous or silly and you want to comment that what they said is ridiculous, silly, outlandish or out of control… you would say: ‘n’importe quoi!’

Try: 

schlimmbesserung
 
German for “An Improvement that Made Things Worse!”

English hit 1 million words last year.  250,000 English words is required for mastery of the language.