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Is this for words or expressions? Clicking through a few, it seems both. I'm not sure it's fair to say phrases don't translate...they just aren't used word fo
by silisili 5y ago
Is this for words or expressions? Clicking through a few, it seems both. I'm not sure it's fair to say phrases don't translate...they just aren't used word for word. I think single words that have no single word translation in other languages is far more fascinating. Like say, Schadenfreude.
- akavi 5y ago"Schadenfreude"'s English translation is "schadenfreude".
- vidarh 5y agoOr "glee". Glee is just much broader, but given the right context it's a fine synonym.
- wunderlust 5y agoThis seems problematic. "Given the right context" a lot of words could be synonyms. It seems like it's implicit in the meaning of "synonymous" that two words share the same meaning if they're interchangeable (in their respective languages) in all contexts.
- vidarh 5y agoSynonyms are rarely exact matches, and even more rarely exact matches without additional context. Long and extended are synonyms when talking about length, but not family for example.
- simongr3dal 5y ago(Perhaps unsuprisingly) danish does have a single word translation: skadefro
- vidarh 5y agoAnd skadefryd in Norwegian. I'd argue English has a perfectly fine translation given the right context: "glee". E.g. He watched her fall with glee.
- groby_b 5y agoIt's only a single word because the gluing together words is a national German pastime (and, more importantly, a feature of the German language). That makes the distinction of expression vs word somewhat meaningless.
- silisili 5y agoUnderstood, but even gluing you couldn't come close in say, English. I mean, you could say HarmJoy but without a definition nobody would know what it means. I'd assume self harm. Gluing together words is a neat feature that I wish English did more often.