What are some words in any language that have no direct translation into English?
How can you describe what they might mean if they could be translated into English?
I think there is a Swedish word like Jaglom, or something like that which mean's just right, but does not translate into English. That may not be the exact word or, the exact miss-translation.
I want to use some of these non-translatable words as clues in my Nano-Novel.
Any thoughts/ideas/imaginings appreciated.
Thank you,
Aisling
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http://www.symbolicbridging.com/
http://www.aislingnano.wordpress.com/
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Nov 7, 2009 - 19 29
every language has hundreds of idiomatic phrases. or were you looking for something else?
----------"the difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."
- mark twain
47,325 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 21 55
I've got tons of these in my language (Filipino). Here are some I might use:
1. Kilig: roughly translated as that feeling one gets when suddenly encountering a crush
2. Tarantado: an insult that could mean jackass....
3. Kaba: anxiety? foreboding?
----------My heart, my life, my praise is all for You
40,188 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 03 04
amae: Japanese for a warming feeling of social acceptance.
----------My first year participating in NaNoWriMo.
Day 24 of 30.
79% of the month is completed. 80% of my novel is completed.
I have ingested about 6 GRAMS(!) & 357.8 mg of caffeine.
I have ingested about 15 alcoholic beverages.
Next goal: 50k by November 26
42,070 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 03 26
viitsima:
Estonian verb for being to lazy to do something or not bothering, can be used as an excuse for not doing something without any other excuse
20,343 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 03 50
You'll find that every culture's cuisine contains far too many dishes that can only be described in English.
----------A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction. - Oscar Wilde
51,468 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 10 19
On top of my head:
Weltschmerz ~ direct translation would be world pain or weariness
The depressing feeling you get when you think about the sorry state of the world.
Zugzwang ~ being under pressure to make a move/ being forced to do something
Originally a chess term.
I don't think there's a real translation for Schadenfreude either... (being happy at someone else's misery.)
----------"spite" is often used as a translation, but I don't think it fits 100%.
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Nov 8, 2009 - 10 50
Just google untranslateables, you'll get loads of them.
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Nov 8, 2009 - 15 12
The Swedish word you're looking for is LAGOM, I think.
Means "just right" or adequate.
Two Norwegian words:
"Døgn" means 24 hours, ie a day and a night. Don't think you have that distinction in English.
Also, "føre" means the condition of the road, or (perhaps more often) the ski slope.
43,868 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 16 06
Ennui is a French word that means a combination of a sort of existential, pervasive boredom and a deep depression. That's a brief definition. You can google for a better one. The word in its fullest sense is a little complicated.
----------NaNoWriMo 2009 - I, Nutcase: The True Story behind Andy Peyton, Duplex Savage
73,288 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 20 02
Russian has a lot of these... "toska" is the deep longing for the Motherland that goes way beyond homesickness. It is like a gravitational pull towards the Motherland. It is a particularly beautiful word. Hmmm... "remont" means "repair, renovation, restoration" and well... repair, but it works well in any sentence, whereas sometimes repair does not. "Pora!" in Russian means, "about time" or "it's about time".
73,288 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 20 04
Oh, and there's the Arabic Mosha'allah, which translates mainly as "Hallelujiah". I guess you could translate it as "praise God" but it's not exactly the same.
Do they have to be words or are phrases okay? N'importe quoi! was something I could never adequately translate. "Whatever" doesn't really fit.
73,288 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 20 05
"Døgn" means 24 hours, ie a day and a night. Don't think you have that distinction in English.
No, we do not, but in Russian they do: sutka.
Sorry, will stop post-hogging.
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Nov 10, 2009 - 21 09
I thought that it meant a male deliberately pretending to be helpless to attract attention from a female that the man likes? I don't know, I just thought I'd heard that before.
40,074 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 10 05
My novel's set in Israel, with many of the scenes involving soldiers or the army. Hebrew speakers have an affinity for abbreviating longer phrases into acronym-words. So that's an issue for me. Also, since a lot of the slang comes from the army, it usually has to do with sex.
nishbar li hazayin- lit. "my penis is broken"- really means "This is it. I've had enough." And usually has nothing to do with sex.
----------sababa- "cool" as in "alright"... not completely awesome, but more like "chill" or decently cool.
Nu- kind of means "Come on!" or "Well?" as in, "Nu, you really think Ari is going to let you have that last piece of halva cake?"
Tzeva Adom- lit. means "the color red". It's the rocket warning system in towns close to the Gaza and West Bank borders that warns residents of incoming enemy rocket attack. The loudpseakers chant, "Tzeva Adom". That one is the toughest to translate without the previous dictionary sentence.
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Nov 11, 2009 - 18 55
saudade: portugese; nostalgia or longings for something that was once loved but is now lost.
----------2006: shtiemopoetry; 300 or so
2007: story-in-four-seasons; maybe 10k
2008: travelstory; 8.7k
2009: halfwaytogod; successful,,, so far
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Nov 12, 2009 - 07 14
schadenfreude - a German term that sort of means you're glad when things go badly for somebody else! Not nice, but definitely pithy!
Duende - a Spanish word that applies when a flamenco dancer or singer is almost possessed by a spirit.
53,395 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 13 11
you have already posted this topic, here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3430121
----------Heather Dudley
Forums Moderator
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