20 Awesomely Untranslatable Words from Around the World
Toska - Russian – Vladmir Nabokov describes it best: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”
Mamihlapinatapei - Yagan (indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego) – “the wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start”
Jayus - Indonesian – “A joke so poorly told and so unfunny that one cannot help but laugh”
Kyoikumama - Japanese – “A mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement”
Tartle - Scottish – The act of hestitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name.
Cafuné - Brazilian Portuguese – “The act of tenderly running one’s fingers through someone’s hair.”
Wabi-Sabi - Japanese – Much has been written on this Japanese concept, but in a sentence, one might be able to understand it as “a way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay.”
Tingo - Pascuense (Easter Island) – Hopefully this isn’t a word you’d need often: “the act of taking objects one desires from the house of a friend by gradually borrowing all of them.”
L’appel du vide - French – “The call of the void” is this French expression’s literal translation, but more significantly it’s used to describe the instinctive urge to jump from high places.
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.
Saudade - Portuguese – One of the most beautiful of all words, translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost.” Fado music, a type of mournful singing, relates to saudade.
(click through to source for a couple more)
Ya’aburnee is so beautiful.
(via knightpanda)
