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Top Comments: I don't have a word for this [1]
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Date: 2023-03-01
x Non-native English Speakers, what’s a word from your language that you think is perfect that doesn’t have an English equivalent?
Take us to church. — Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) February 28, 2023
As you might expect, German words made a strong showing. Most people know schadenfreude, taking pleasure in another person’s suffering. But there’s also freudenfreude, pleasure in another person’s happiness. Then there’s verschlimmbessern, to make something worse by trying to make it better. (This word also has a Norwegian equivalent, Bjørnetjeneste.) There’s Kabelsalat, literally “cable salad,” a tangled mess of cables. Fremdscham, secondhand embarrassment when someone else is making a fool of themself. Kummerspeck (literally, “grief bacon”), weight gained from eating because you’re emotional rather than hungry. (Similarly, Japanese has kuchisabishii, literally “lonely mouth”). And backpfeifengesicht, “face in need of a fist.”
Several people mentioned the Spanish word sobremesa (literally, “around the table”), the time after a meal when everyone’s sitting around the table enjoying the conversation. There’s also estrenar, to use something new for the first time. And salsipuedes, a compound word that literally translates as “get out if you can.” There are towns named Salsipuedes in Mexico, Argentina, and Panama.
Some other great offerings:
Arabic: Soubhiyé. That quiet time in the morning when you’re the only one awake in the house.
Cebuano (Phillippines): Abugágu, “a dumb lawyer.”
Finnish: Sisu. Strength of character/bravery/resilience: “ You might hate doing a thing, but the thing has to be done, so you will do the thing.” At the other end of the scale, kalsarikännit, literally “drinking in your underwear.”
Hungarian: Hiányérzet, that feeling that some undefined thing is missing.
Punjabi: Kacheechee, “a combined state of irresistible craving or urge to make some slight adjustment or small gesture, plus the unbearable suspense of not being able to act on it.”
Urdu: Aashiyanah, literally “bird’s nest,” meaning a happy, comfortable family home.
And my all-time favorite: tsundoku, a Japanese word meaning “buying books and letting them pile up without reading them.”
Tons more in the tweet replies.
On to Top Comments!
From BeninSC:
I’m submitting this comment by elfling in brillig’s incredible #solidarity diary on Monday. Many of us have been quite desperate for insight about the staff changes and layoffs. It’s good to get at least some useful information. Thank you, elfling. Greatly appreciated.
From hazey:
I almost didn't click on TheMike's diary, WTF Is The Weight About, Anyway?!, but I need more silliness in my life, right? Like any good diary, it delivered with not only silly comments but serious, knowledgeable ones as well. But bethann's comment, explaining what she thought "Take a load off Fanny" meant was not only funny but layered with rich and loving family dynamics that made it a Top Comment for me.
Top mojo, courtesy of mik:
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