Untranslatable Words

Even though the English language contains more than one million words, there are certain words that are used to describe certain feelings and situations that do not exist in the English language . Here are some of them….

1. Cafuné ( Brazilian-Portuguese): the act of tenderly running fingers through someone’s hair
2. Palegg (Norwegian): anything and everything that you can put on a slice of bread
3. Gufra (Arabic): the amount of water that can be held in a hand
4. Baku-Shan (Japanese): a beautiful girl – as long as she is being viewed from behind
5. Schlimazl (Yiddish): a chronically unlucky person
6. Duende (Spanish): the mysterious power that a work of art has to deeply move a person
7. Age-Otori (Japanese): to look worse after a haircut
8. Kyoikumama (Japanese): a mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement
9. L’appel Duvide (French): instinctive urge to jump from high places
10. Luftmensch (Yiddish): refers to someone who is a bit of a dreamer, and literally means “air person”
11. Tretar (Swedish): is a second refill, or “threefill”
12. Torchlusspanik (German): the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages
13. Schadenfreude (German): feeling of pleasure derived by seeing another’s misfortune
14. Tingo (Pascuense): the act of taking objects one desires from the house of a friend by gradually borrowing all of them

Adapted from: http://www.idealistrevolution.org/cute-untranslatable-words-by-marija-tiurina/