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On the topic "untranslatable words that express a culture" here are my favourites: - Italian: words that express refined craftsmanship: sprezatura, virtuoso, c

On the topic "untranslatable words that express a culture" here are my favourites: - Italian: words that express refined craftsmanship: sprezatura, virtuoso, capo-lavoro, affresco, al-dente, allegro/adagio, ... - French: life must be appreciated to its full: joie-de-vivre, bon-vivant, coquette, lingerie, gourmet, finesse, chic, .. - Japanese: a very sharp capability to appreciate what others can't: wabi-sabi, umami, satori, ... - English: a very ingrained respect for democracy and its values: accountability, grassroots/astroturf, pork-barrel, bullying, harassment, lobying, ... - German: a clear eyed perception that the world is dangerous and mean: torchlusspanic, schadenfreude,... - Brazilian Portuguese: all that matters are emotional and physical connections: cafuné, xamego, sacanagem, ...

ravedave5 4y ago
I think craic from Irish would fit into this. Not sure if there's a broader category there.
- beAbU 4y ago
  I tend to agree. Im not Dutch, but my language has the same word. My understanding is that craic means to have a good time with good people, and that's exactly what gesellig is. Gesellig might have broader application in this context though, as an event can be gesellig, a person can be gesellig. It's am adjective. It seems craic is used for all sorts of other terms which do not apply here.
- selimthegrim 4y ago
  The word is of Scots origin, apparently.
arethuza 4y ago
I'm Scottish - so I'm tempted to say "dreich".... :-) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-50476008 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-50476008
- rnoorda 4y ago
  My favourite thing about 'dreich' is how often people hearing it for the first time just... get it. The word sounds dreary on its own.
  - arethuza 4y ago
    I must admit that I've spent a lot of time walking up Scottish mountains in fairly dreich conditions - just makes me appreciate how utterly glorious this wee country is when it's not being dreich. :-) Edit: From the comments on that BBC article: Glasgow woman sits in the dentist's chair. "Comfy?" says the dentist. "Govan" says the woman. Edit2: When I was a child I would have asked where someone was from by saying: "Far are ye fae"....
    - dcminter 4y ago
      As a sassenach that took me a minute (even with your helpful addendum)...
stronglikedan 4y ago
I thought "al-dente" could be translated to "undercooked".
- diego_moita 4y ago
  Undercooked has a broader meaning. A steak can be undercooked but never will be al-dente. Undercooked can mean improperly cooked, al-dente always means properly not cooked too much.
- moolcool 4y ago
  (I'm not Italian, this is wild speculation) I think it directly translates to something like "to the tooth", so I always imagine it meaning a food having a certain kind of "bite".
  - Sharlin 4y ago
    It simply means that you feel a degree of resistance or firmness when you bite an al dente piece of food, ie. it has a "tooth feel" unlike soft, fully cooked starchy things. An engineer might say that al dente has more shear strength left than fully cooked.
- capableweb 4y ago
  "Undercooked" means "cooked too little", al-dente is not "cooked too little", it's "cooked enough" in order to be al-dente. I guess you could say al-dente is more "not cooked too much" instead. Personally I cannot stand pasta that is not al-dente.
- mentalpiracy 4y ago
  Sibling comments here are good but what I think they are missing is a nuance of artistry that underlies a lot of GP’s examples. So in this case, al dente means cooked to perfection. Not too much, not too little, and is reflective of the craftsman’s skill.
- beAbU 4y ago
  Al dente means the pasta "bites back". Its cooked, and its just cooked enough that there is still some bite in it. It's not turned to mush.
jeroenhd 4y ago
I don't know most of these languages, but I'm not so sure about some of your English examples. I don't think "accountability", "bullying", and "harassment" are that untranslatable. Whether a word is untranslatable very much depends on the language you're translating to. "Schadenfreude" translates quite directly to "leedvermaak" in Dutch, even though English has no word for it (therefore adopting it as a loan word). Personally, I've never really found a word in another language that encompasses the same meaning and connotation as "gezellig", though there are close contenders (like "hygge" in Danish). There are also words I know of in other languages that are in the same category, describing a feeling or perception that's impossible to explain (and may be shaped by culture as much as language). There are definitely English words that have the same problem, but they're still quite rare.
- diego_moita 4y ago
  Sure, I'd need to know all languages in the world to say which are untranslatable or not. But what I can say is that these languages introduced these words, perceptions, themes and discourses into worldwide discussion. In Latin-derived languages the English words I mentioned are either directly imported or very new. One example: in Spanish and Portuguese the word "assedio" has appeared as a substitute for harassment. But this is a very recent phenomenon, until recently wife-beating wasn't even a crime in some Spanish/Portuguese speaking countries.
  - nohaydeprobleme 4y ago
    I checked a couple of bilingual dictionaries, and found your insight interesting that it looks like there is no precise direct translation for "bullying" in French or Spanish, but only multi-word translations like those in the submitted article. In French, there is "harcèlement" for harassment, but according to WordReference.com, the closest one-word translations for bullying are "harcèlement" or "intimidation" (which appear closer to harassment and intimidation in English) [1]. Similarly, according to SpanishDictionary.com, the closest translation of bullying is the Anglicism "el bullying," with "intimidación" also used as a close but not exact equivalent [2]. Similarly, the closest equivalent to "accountability" according to WordReference is "responsabilité," with Spanish similarly using "responsabilidad" as its closest equivalent according to SpanishDictionary. Perhaps "responsabilité" and "responsabilidad" can carry the same connotations as the English word for "accountability" depending on the context, but it's true that there are no entries for standalone words in French or Spanish in these dictionaries that carry the exact associations as "accountability" in English. [1] https://www.wordreference.com/enfr/bullying https://www.wordreference.com/enfr/bullying [2] https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/bullying https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/bullying
OnlyMortal 4y ago
It translates as cosy. Or, in London area dialect “cushty”.
- tomgp 4y ago
  Cushty and cozy are not the same thing at all!
galfarragem 4y ago
I’m tempted to speculate… Portuguese: saudade, fado About the feeling of missing something, somebody or past times and complaining about the inevitability of it. Why? Portugal is a country of explorers, settlers and lost territories.
dingosity 4y ago
But we (English speakers) are not above ripping off untranslatable words from other languages. At work I used to talk about fingerspitzengefühl and schwerpunkt; we didn't even bother trying to translate them to English. And everyone I know knows about schadenfreude and zeitgeist and "je ne sais quoi." Maybe we do have translations for them. Maybe the English word for schadenfreude is "schadenfreude." (But yes, if you want to say I'm cheating, that's fine.)
- burnished 4y ago
  I took that same observation as evidence! The easiest means of expressing that concept is to just lift the word whole sale

ravedave5 4y ago

I think craic from Irish would fit into this. Not sure if there's a broader category there.

beAbU 4y ago
I tend to agree. Im not Dutch, but my language has the same word. My understanding is that craic means to have a good time with good people, and that's exactly what gesellig is. Gesellig might have broader application in this context though, as an event can be gesellig, a person can be gesellig. It's am adjective. It seems craic is used for all sorts of other terms which do not apply here.
selimthegrim 4y ago
The word is of Scots origin, apparently.

arethuza 4y ago

I'm Scottish - so I'm tempted to say "dreich".... :-) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-50476008 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-50476008

rnoorda 4y ago
My favourite thing about 'dreich' is how often people hearing it for the first time just... get it. The word sounds dreary on its own.
- arethuza 4y ago
  I must admit that I've spent a lot of time walking up Scottish mountains in fairly dreich conditions - just makes me appreciate how utterly glorious this wee country is when it's not being dreich. :-) Edit: From the comments on that BBC article: Glasgow woman sits in the dentist's chair. "Comfy?" says the dentist. "Govan" says the woman. Edit2: When I was a child I would have asked where someone was from by saying: "Far are ye fae"....
  - dcminter 4y ago
    As a sassenach that took me a minute (even with your helpful addendum)...

stronglikedan 4y ago

I thought "al-dente" could be translated to "undercooked".

diego_moita 4y ago
Undercooked has a broader meaning. A steak can be undercooked but never will be al-dente. Undercooked can mean improperly cooked, al-dente always means properly not cooked too much.
moolcool 4y ago
(I'm not Italian, this is wild speculation) I think it directly translates to something like "to the tooth", so I always imagine it meaning a food having a certain kind of "bite".
- Sharlin 4y ago
  It simply means that you feel a degree of resistance or firmness when you bite an al dente piece of food, ie. it has a "tooth feel" unlike soft, fully cooked starchy things. An engineer might say that al dente has more shear strength left than fully cooked.
capableweb 4y ago
"Undercooked" means "cooked too little", al-dente is not "cooked too little", it's "cooked enough" in order to be al-dente. I guess you could say al-dente is more "not cooked too much" instead. Personally I cannot stand pasta that is not al-dente.
mentalpiracy 4y ago
Sibling comments here are good but what I think they are missing is a nuance of artistry that underlies a lot of GP’s examples. So in this case, al dente means cooked to perfection. Not too much, not too little, and is reflective of the craftsman’s skill.
beAbU 4y ago
Al dente means the pasta "bites back". Its cooked, and its just cooked enough that there is still some bite in it. It's not turned to mush.

jeroenhd 4y ago

I don't know most of these languages, but I'm not so sure about some of your English examples. I don't think "accountability", "bullying", and "harassment" are that untranslatable. Whether a word is untranslatable very much depends on the language you're translating to. "Schadenfreude" translates quite directly to "leedvermaak" in Dutch, even though English has no word for it (therefore adopting it as a loan word). Personally, I've never really found a word in another language that encompasses the same meaning and connotation as "gezellig", though there are close contenders (like "hygge" in Danish). There are also words I know of in other languages that are in the same category, describing a feeling or perception that's impossible to explain (and may be shaped by culture as much as language). There are definitely English words that have the same problem, but they're still quite rare.

diego_moita 4y ago
Sure, I'd need to know all languages in the world to say which are untranslatable or not. But what I can say is that these languages introduced these words, perceptions, themes and discourses into worldwide discussion. In Latin-derived languages the English words I mentioned are either directly imported or very new. One example: in Spanish and Portuguese the word "assedio" has appeared as a substitute for harassment. But this is a very recent phenomenon, until recently wife-beating wasn't even a crime in some Spanish/Portuguese speaking countries.
- nohaydeprobleme 4y ago
  I checked a couple of bilingual dictionaries, and found your insight interesting that it looks like there is no precise direct translation for "bullying" in French or Spanish, but only multi-word translations like those in the submitted article. In French, there is "harcèlement" for harassment, but according to WordReference.com, the closest one-word translations for bullying are "harcèlement" or "intimidation" (which appear closer to harassment and intimidation in English) [1]. Similarly, according to SpanishDictionary.com, the closest translation of bullying is the Anglicism "el bullying," with "intimidación" also used as a close but not exact equivalent [2]. Similarly, the closest equivalent to "accountability" according to WordReference is "responsabilité," with Spanish similarly using "responsabilidad" as its closest equivalent according to SpanishDictionary. Perhaps "responsabilité" and "responsabilidad" can carry the same connotations as the English word for "accountability" depending on the context, but it's true that there are no entries for standalone words in French or Spanish in these dictionaries that carry the exact associations as "accountability" in English. [1] https://www.wordreference.com/enfr/bullying https://www.wordreference.com/enfr/bullying [2] https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/bullying https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/bullying

OnlyMortal 4y ago

It translates as cosy. Or, in London area dialect “cushty”.

tomgp 4y ago
Cushty and cozy are not the same thing at all!

galfarragem 4y ago

I’m tempted to speculate… Portuguese: saudade, fado About the feeling of missing something, somebody or past times and complaining about the inevitability of it. Why? Portugal is a country of explorers, settlers and lost territories.

dingosity 4y ago

But we (English speakers) are not above ripping off untranslatable words from other languages. At work I used to talk about fingerspitzengefühl and schwerpunkt; we didn't even bother trying to translate them to English. And everyone I know knows about schadenfreude and zeitgeist and "je ne sais quoi." Maybe we do have translations for them. Maybe the English word for schadenfreude is "schadenfreude." (But yes, if you want to say I'm cheating, that's fine.)

burnished 4y ago
I took that same observation as evidence! The easiest means of expressing that concept is to just lift the word whole sale