There are a few Swedish words, but the three that I miss the most when speaking English is Blunda (to close one's eyes ore to have one's eyes closed), Orka (to have the energy and willpower to do something), and Lagom (just the right amount; not to much, nor too little).
What are some other ones, from other languages?
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+1 y
By the way, Orka comes in tiers - palla, orka, klara. Palla is almost purely willpower, and klara is almost purely energy. Orka is in between.
What words in other languages do you think English is missing?
Meaning: Like @SuperManiac said in his reply, this is perhaps a phrase that is culture specific. It's very challenging to find a single word or phrase in English that encapsulates the whole concept. I checked Google, and the closest definition is:
"The pathos of things. The gentle wistfulness at the transience of things, and the awareness of the sadness of things." I guess "poignancy" could also be a very crude approximation.
An example of its use could be when you see a beautiful ballerina doing her magic on stage, twirling and dancing with inhuman grace, and she stands, bowing and smiling as she takes in the rapturous applause of the audience, and you sit there, drinking in the splendor of her art, her craft, and you realize, wistfully, that eventually, she too will grow old and die and the seasons will change and everyone will one day forget her name, but your fellow future humans will once again delight in the beauty of another gorgeous ballerina of equal grace, who will one day dance upon that very same stage.
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In Korean we have:
정 Romanization: Jyeong
Meaning: This is very culture specific as well. It ties into the unique collective nature of Korean society. The very, very crude translation is "Friendship". But 정 is about more than friendship. Maybe it's more "a friendship that is not limited to friends." You have 정 with anything, not just a person. For example, a common example is when you were still in school: you were a student who hated going to school. But when you graduate, you will feel 정 with the school, since you know you will never be able to return to your school years or that same school "feeling". You might have hated it, but you will miss it too. 정 refers to the emotional and psychological bonds that join people - it permeates all levels, and divides the world into multiple degrees of Us/We vs Them.
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In Chinese, we have:
歡迎光臨 (Romanization: Huānyíng guānglín)
Meaning: You might hear this as a greeting when you step into a Chinese business place, like say, an authentic Chinese restaurant. The Internet will tell you that "歡迎光臨 " translates to Welcome. That would be like saying "Unquenchable Raging Inferno" translates to "Fire". It is a lot more than just "Hello" or "Please come in". The first two characters 歡迎 (Huānyíng) might be literally translated to "I meet you with joy". The second pair of words 光臨 (guānglín) translates literally to "light arrive" or, to phrase it in English, "the arrival of light". The imagery of 光臨 is of daylight streaming into a room when you open the door (or windows, I suppose). So, taken in its entirety, 歡迎光臨 creates a positive and welcoming "tone" or "aura" by describing the guest's appearance/arrival at an event/venue.
Tagalog: ᜊᜒᜆᜒᜈ᜔ ("bitin"; "bee-TIN"; adj.「lacking sufficient in quantity something greatly enjoyable」) For example, you enjoy a simply DELICIOUS bite of chocolate cake… only to discover that it was the piece. That's it. There is no more cake available.
ᜄᜒᜄᜒᜎ᜔ ("gigil"; "GEE-gil"; n.「the feeling of great intensity felt by to do something physical in a really intense manner, like (in a civil sense) baby-lovers when they see a specifically-cute baby and they just HAVE TO squeeze those plump cheeks… or (in a violent sense) a Democrat would while hypothetically squeezing the life out of Pres. Trump's neck」) For example, you''ll be punished severely by the drill-sergeant if your uniform & bunk aren't perfect by a given deadline. You've done it: It's utterly perfect… until you spill black shoe-shine liquid on the white floor and you see the drill-sergeant from the window already entering the building. You have a clean kitchen towel damp kitchen-towel and you MUST scrub that speck out of existence A. S. A. P.！！！
In my native language there are 3 words that can't be translated in any other language. I will try to explain them, although it might not be easy to. 1. Filotimo = is best understood as ones responsibility to himself as a human being to always act in accordance with righteousness and honor. Even if ones wealth, safety, freedom, or even life is at peril, one that lives by this virtue will always choose to do the right and honorable regardless of consequence. The idea of filotimo goes beyond the idea that one needs no motive to act in good faith and for a good cause, and suggests that for a sentient being, right and honorable actions should be the only acceptable behavior. It therefore requires a universal (or at least well-established) sense of morality, and a "golden standard" of behavior, which must be reached by all means possible, and by any sacrifice necessary. 2. Kefi = when directly translated from Greek to English means “fun” , but that doesn’t even come close to what it really means. When asking Greek speakers what kefi means, they say that it means you are joyful, spirited, passionate, happy, and in general, that you love life. To the Greeks, kefi is a way of life. Many describe it as the “Spirit of Greece” 3. Meraki = this means to do something with passion, with absolute devotion, with undivided attention. No matter how difficult a task, it is done with all your effort, with enthusiasm, with eagerness, with complete love; it is done with all your heart, a labour of love, so to speak. Meraki is to put your soul into something, to put a little bit of yourself into it. It can be the simplest of tasks, such as making a cup of coffee for your husband; you made it with love, with devotion, with meraki!
A few in Spanish are no where to be found. Especially when expressing emotions. In Spanish romantic interest would be expressed by saying "me gustas" which would roughly translate to "I like you". However, in English you can also say "I like you" to someone who you only view as a friend. In Spanish "me gustas" is reserved for romantic interests. There's also the gap between "me gustas, te quiero, y te amo." which in English means "I like you, (error no word), and I love you." I feel like there's no direct word to simbolize what "te quiero" or "te quiero mucho" means. You could say "I care about you" or "I care about you a lot" but it's much less endearing and meaningful than its Spanish counterpart. Spanish is very complex and rich in a lot of areas where English is not, also a lot more phonetically correct. However I still enjoy English a lot. I guess you could call it the weird nit-pickings of being bilingual.
I really miss Japanese "shouganai" (しょうがない) in English. It's a very concise way to say like, "There's nothing you can do about it. It cannot be helped. It's beyond your control."
I consider it a rather Stoic expression since Stoicism revolves around the dichotomy of control (things within your control vs. things beyond your control). A key tenet of Stoicism is that in order to truly be a master of your own happiness, you must recognize and accept the things which are beyond your control. Having a concise word like shouganai helps to encourage this state of being as I see it.
>> Westerner: WHAT THE F***? THE WEATHER LADY SAID IT WAS GONNA BE A SUNNY DAY NOW MY CLOTHES ARE GONNA BE DRENCHED AND IM GONNA NEED TO TAKE A SHOWER, WHYYY IS THIS HAPPENING TO MEEE? >> Japanese/shouganai mindset: "... shouganai" *shrugs and walks off*
I actually think to have a concise word like this, and seeing is used very commonly, helps people deal with harsh times better without accumulating as much stress or becoming as upset.
@dantetheexplorer That's a good one as well, although really difficult to explain without the cultural context. I think shouganai is applicable to just about every culture. I can't count how many times I wish I could have said that on this site, for example, as a much more concise answer.
@dantetheexplorer I miss "ne" as well. :-D It sometimes slips into my English like, "It's a nice day, ne?" Have you seen the show, Rome? Oddly they used "ne" sometimes even though they were using English.
By Rome, do you mean the show where they show naked people having sex and fighting? I would be very surprised to see a Japanese "ne" there! :D Do they use it in the same way?
@dantetheexplorer Pretty much the same way. And the show starts to get a bit less gratuitous about the sex after the first few episodes (similar to Game of Thrones). I think that was a marketing tactic. I really recommend the show!
Okay. Now that you mention it, I have heard "ne" being used this way by non-Japanese before. I just can't remember whether I heard it in Rome or somewhere else.
@dantetheexplorer There were lines like, "You're growing into a woman now. It's time for you to think about marriage, ne?" It might be "nay?" ("no?") that they're saying, like "It's time for you to think about marriage, no?" But the pronunciation sounds closer to "ne" to me than "nay".
I don't know any words off the top of my head, but there's a phrase that the Brits use that most Americans don't know, but it's one of the best turns of phrase I have ever heard:
"You've lost the plot."
It's an excellent description of someone who has forgotten his original problem or mission and has gone off on needless and irrelevant tangents - something that people do a lot. But when you say it to most Americans, they don't understand what you mean because it's not something they hear often.
"Before the truth will set you free, it'll piss you off Before you find a place to be, you're gonna lose the plot Too late to tell you now; one ear and right out the other one 'Cause all you ever do is chant the same old mantra"
Dutch: gezellig. It's a word that I think any language should have and it means social fun, coziness, the feeling/atmosphere you get from being with friends. Example: 'hey wanna grab a beer with me and the girls/guys?' - 'yes, gezellig!' Or: the party was smaller than planned, and while it wasn't very fun or exciting, it turned out really gezellig when we decided to just play cardgames instead.
Heheh, or when I have to sit in a circle of people on my birthday and everyone just talks and drinks coffee and eats cheese and sausages from a plate on the table and everyone keeps saying how gezellig it is, that's Dutch birthdays for you I guess... I'm not really a fan of them...
@CocoBat I don't really like those kinds of birthdays. But when they contain booze or when I'm all cuddly with people I love, they can be nice. Just being around your own people without any stress.
I don't know what the phonetic spelling is when you change the chinese to English but it sounds like "chi zhe" which is a word that relates to somebody's flawless, strong, graceful, pure, untainted, audacious, and conformable demeanour - basically how poised and well postured and classy and visually pure somebody looks.
A better question is "what words does English have that other languages do not?" because people just assume that English doesn't have nice words that do not translate well when in fact that are A LOT of such words. English is a rich language with a deep history. It just became butchered and the Germanic origin words became less used over time.
We need more words for "okay, alright, just fine". Spanish has más o menos, swedish has lagom as @weirdoweirdo mentioned. In American English, it's very common to ask someone how they are upon first introduction. Most don't want to respond with a negative like "bad" or "not okay", but most view words like "fine" and "amazing" as completely circumstansial. Most just say "I'm fine" or "I'm okay" or "I'm alright".
In Norway we have different words for love, like different levels of love. Friends you say glad I deg, direct it's love I you or i love you. Glad is only used for friends and things you like. Your partner in love we say jeg elsker deg, direct it's I love you. And I have one more, you know grandparents? We have 4 of them but the father side we say farfar and farmor it's father of the father and mother to the father. And the mother side we say morfar and mormor.
„The day before yesterday“ ← before I'm finish typing this, today will be that. The same for tommorow. In my native language, we have simple word for that. The preposition can be repeated couple of times to shift the day relativelly even further.
Tekol atley (eat a beating) because when the kids are annoying me because they want to eat snacks after lunch. You say "bidak tekol?" (Do you want to eat?) The when they say yes you raise your voice and say (tekol atley hah!) (You'll eat a beating) lol. I had a traumatic childhood 😂😂
The term for "to have the energy and willpower to do something" could be "preparedness", "enthusiasm", or "readiness." "just the right amount; not to much, nor too little" could be "adequate", "sufficient", or "suitable".
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Anonymous
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Hears the scribbling noises of native English speakers adding the terms to the dictionary since English is a language of borrowed terms.
@InTimoreDei Latin, French, German, they are the main root origins of words... yes, there's Celtic origin too but in comparison to the others altogether it's not exactly a majority.
With the way intelligence around here uses words, I doubt it makes any difference what letters in what combinations are in which box. Let them play with sounds again.
It just doesn't have the same ring to it.. Vosotros sounds much more formal as a word. I don't think I can ever say y'all and be taken seriously unless I am in Texas or the south.
What an interesting question I can't think of any specific words at the moment. But I know there are some really cool Swedish and Finnish words that don't have English translations
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