Anyone who has seen some of my Monday posts will know that I am a big fan of words. I find them fascinating. I love finding out where words come from and how they have developed.
Well, thanks to a link on twitter, I discovered this Mental Floss article, about words that do not have an English language equivalent. The most well known word of this sort is "schadenfreude", meaning taking pleasure in someone else's misfortune (as evidenced by reality TV's popularity I think *laughs*)
The list I linked shows some different ones, so I've picked out a couple that I particularly like. Check out the link for more because some of them are really quite funny.
Shedmomedjamo (Georgian word) - literal meaning is "I accidentally ate the whole thing"... you know, when something is so tasty you keep eating even though you're feeling sick and full.
Pelinti (Ghanaian word) - "to move hot food around in your mouth"... and I think we've all done that when taking an impatient bite of something *laughs*
Rhwe (Tsonga, South African) - "to sleep on the floor without a mat while drunk and naked"... I don't think I need to say anything about this one!
But my favourite is a word that I think we should have in English (and isn't food related, as I realise the other two are!)...
Zeg (Georgian again) - "the day after tomorrow"
Now wouldn't that be a helpful word *laughs*
This is a great post, it really made me laugh. I also brought my husband in here to read it, so I wouldn't have to try to pronounce the words out loud. Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the list, I am using this today in my Grammar lesson.
ReplyDelete'Rhewe'?...ha, ha, ha! xx
Well, it seems I can't spell [ not a surprise ], that should read Rhwe!
ReplyDeleteThis is fabulous! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI seem to experience shedmomedjamo whenever there is chocolate around:)
ReplyDeleteHee hee.... I can think of some many times were those words would be handy!! *giggles*
ReplyDeleteBrilliant post! Have you been watching the Stephen Fry series about words and language? I caught the first ep on iPlayer, it was really interesting.
ReplyDeleteAs a native Spanish speaker I sometimes find it hard to communicate with my husband at times. There are some words that to me either don't translate well or just don't capture the essence of what I'm saying. He jokes that I'm like Ricky Ricardo when I'm mad because I break into very rapid (and LOUD) Spanish. Especially when we're driving.
ReplyDeleteFascinating! I probably need to start using Shedmomedjamo.
ReplyDeleteI like 'zeg' That one needs to be brought into common use right now! Like, how long does it take to say 'the day after tomorrow?'
ReplyDeleteLove 'accidently ate the whole thing' and will keep a note of that one. It happens a lot. I wonder what made these words Georgian and how we lost them. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteGreat finds. I like the word "chispa" in Spanish. Having chispa is kind of like having moxie, which is also a borrowed word, of course.
ReplyDelete