6 ms·

25 Words that Simply Don't Exist in English

16 points by fryed7 14y ago

mistercow 14y ago
I have to object "arigatameiwaku". First off, it's really two words: "arigata", which means (in this context) "appreciated", and "meiwaku", which really is a word that we don't exactly have in English but roughly means "annoyance", and is tightly coupled with Japanese cultural concepts of societal acceptance. Secondly, we do, in fact, have a very closely related term in English: "white elephant".
zoidb 14y ago
Hm, since when is "duende" not an english word? I'm pretty sure we borrowed that one and it's not that uncommon. The dictionary definition that I'm aware of differs slightly from the definition given though the spirit of the word is similar.
philsnow 14y ago
They've never heard a girl called a "butterface", I guess. e.g. "She looks good (from the neck down / from behind), but her face..."
felixr 14y ago
Regarding two of the German words: I don't know if I have ever heard somebody using "Backpfeifengesicht" recently, but I have heard the english term 'fist magnet', which I think is pretty much the same. And "Waldeinsamkeit" is a word I have never heard before and I do not see how this is "handy" (as the post's original title suggests). If you are really looking for good words that don't exist english, you should read Douglas Adam's "The Deeper Meaning of Liff"
Mz 14y ago
Schadenfreude is one I am familiar with as an adopted English word. Desenrascanco: They gave the English equivalent: "to Macgyver it". Guanxi: We call that "goodwill". Nunchi: Social savvy. It's opposite is called socially awkward or gets labeled as ASD (and, no, I am not joking).
tzs 14y ago
I don't think we need a word for Backpfeifengesicht. We can just say that's a face needing fist. "face needing fist" is actually one character shorter than Backpfeifengesicht. For L’esprit de l’escalier, the phrase "jerk store" would probably be sufficient to convey that sentiment for anyone familiar with the Seinfeld TV series.
drallison 14y ago
http://j-klein.blogspot.com/2011/05/its-dinglehopper.html http://j-klein.blogspot.com/2011/05/its-dinglehopper.html covers much the same ground with illustrations.
twiceaday 14y ago
The Russian "Pochemuchka" is a portmanteau. "Pochemu" translates to "why" or "how come" and "chka" is a common ending for something small or someone little, usually a girl. Its not really a word, just a use of a suffix. You can modify most words like this. For example car is "machina", little car is "machinachka". There isn't an English word for little car but so what?

16 points by fryed7 14y ago

I have to object "arigatameiwaku". First off, it's really two words: "arigata", which means (in this context) "appreciated", and "meiwaku", which really is a word that we don't exactly have in English but roughly means "annoyance", and is tightly coupled with Japanese cultural concepts of societal acceptance. Secondly, we do, in fact, have a very closely related term in English: "white elephant".

zoidb 14y ago

Hm, since when is "duende" not an english word? I'm pretty sure we borrowed that one and it's not that uncommon. The dictionary definition that I'm aware of differs slightly from the definition given though the spirit of the word is similar.

philsnow 14y ago

They've never heard a girl called a "butterface", I guess. e.g. "She looks good (from the neck down / from behind), but her face..."

felixr 14y ago

Regarding two of the German words: I don't know if I have ever heard somebody using "Backpfeifengesicht" recently, but I have heard the english term 'fist magnet', which I think is pretty much the same. And "Waldeinsamkeit" is a word I have never heard before and I do not see how this is "handy" (as the post's original title suggests). If you are really looking for good words that don't exist english, you should read Douglas Adam's "The Deeper Meaning of Liff"

Mz 14y ago

Schadenfreude is one I am familiar with as an adopted English word. Desenrascanco: They gave the English equivalent: "to Macgyver it". Guanxi: We call that "goodwill". Nunchi: Social savvy. It's opposite is called socially awkward or gets labeled as ASD (and, no, I am not joking).

tzs 14y ago

I don't think we need a word for Backpfeifengesicht. We can just say that's a face needing fist. "face needing fist" is actually one character shorter than Backpfeifengesicht. For L’esprit de l’escalier, the phrase "jerk store" would probably be sufficient to convey that sentiment for anyone familiar with the Seinfeld TV series.

drallison 14y ago

http://j-klein.blogspot.com/2011/05/its-dinglehopper.html http://j-klein.blogspot.com/2011/05/its-dinglehopper.html covers much the same ground with illustrations.

twiceaday 14y ago

The Russian "Pochemuchka" is a portmanteau. "Pochemu" translates to "why" or "how come" and "chka" is a common ending for something small or someone little, usually a girl. Its not really a word, just a use of a suffix. You can modify most words like this. For example car is "machina", little car is "machinachka". There isn't an English word for little car but so what?