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The untranslatable words that you love | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6515 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes  Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 17 of 61 31 October 2011 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Czech must have a suitable word for defenestration. As far as I remember the thirty years war started when the protestants in Praha throw some irritating catholics out of a window.
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| Remster Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4617 days ago 120 posts - 134 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: German, French | Message 18 of 61 31 October 2011 at 2:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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To bequeath: to hand down (your will/dream/goals) to the next generation.
Though it isn't used that often, in my opinion it's one of the most beautiful English words I know. I have several words that I like in my native language, but one I really like is ''rechtvaardigheid'', which translates to ''righteousness''. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| floydak Tetraglot Groupie Slovakia Joined 4666 days ago 60 posts - 85 votes Speaks: Slovak*, English, German, Spanish Studies: French | Message 19 of 61 31 October 2011 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | ||
well, the czech word is "defenestrace" ..:) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5736 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 20 of 61 31 October 2011 at 8:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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My favorite word that may not be fully translatable into English is the Finnish word "löyly" which is usually translated as "steam from a sauna".
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| Delodephius Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 5215 days ago 342 posts - 501 votes Speaks: Slovak*, Serbo-Croatian*, EnglishC1, Czech Studies: Russian, Japanese | Message 21 of 61 31 October 2011 at 8:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Lowland Slovak word 'patilo'. I haven't really tried looking for an equivalent word in
other languages, but I don't even know how to explain what it exactly means. We use it for a person or persons (in plural 'patilá') who are inflexible, hard to accommodate, always failing at most actions they undertake, usually in need of other's help to pull them out of some problems they got into. The word 'pathetic' comes to mind for a part of its meaning, but it is much more wider. Then the Serbian word 'inat'. It is something like 'spite' but much more malicious and self-destructive. For instance, if you can't have something, then you'll do your best to prevent others from having it as well. Or if someone tells you to do something you won't do it simply because they told you to, in fact you'll most likely do the exact opposite even if it harms you. Wiktionary uses the word obstinency and spite to describe this behaviour, but it is as well more than just that. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Nature Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 5049 days ago 63 posts - 80 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 22 of 61 01 November 2011 at 11:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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The Italian word 'boh'. It COULD be translate to "I don't know" but it has more of a negative/mean connotation.
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| lecavaleur Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4589 days ago 146 posts - 295 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish | Message 23 of 61 01 November 2011 at 11:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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I like two French words that resemble each other in speech (though not identically) but have completely different meanings. They are bof and beauf.
Bof is an interjection used to expressed the fact that you're not so impressed by something. For example, if you've just got back from the movies and someone asks you how the film was, you can simply say bof and the meaning is clear: not unwatchable, just not impressive. Beauf has two meanings. It is an abbreviated form of beau-frère (brother-in-law), and can mean exactly that (with a tinge of disregard, nonetheless) or it can be used to describe what many French people see as the 'typical', closed-minded, tacky, boorish, bourgeois Frenchman. The beauf is a concept unique to French-speaking Europe, though every country has their version of this. In the US, it would be the hick or the redneck: your typical close-minded American, set in his ways and ignorant of everything else. The nuance between beauf and hick however, is that beauf has no special rural connotation and can easily apply to a city-dweller. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 5937 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 24 of 61 02 November 2011 at 12:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Not quite untranslatable, but this one always comes up among Japanese learners.
辻斬り 【つじぎり】 (n) killing a passerby in order to test a new sword 1 person has voted this message useful |
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