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What's your favourite non-English word(s)


Cheshire-Cat

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Cheshire-Cat

Let's all do a little broadening our vocabulary. What is your favourite non-English word(s) and what does it mean.

 

My favourite is the Welsh word cwtch. Not quite a cuddle and not quite a hug, and cwtch is uniquely Welsh.

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Duke Memphis

Do they have to be words that weren't brought into conventional English? If borrowed words are allowed, then "touché", French for "touch". If not, then "cuchillo", Spanish for "knife".

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Cheshire-Cat

If it's the original of the English word (but not the exact english word) then it's allowed.

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Extroverted Introvert

My favorite word in Portuguese is abobrinha simply because it is so fun sounding. In English, it means zucchini, which is also a pretty funny word. I also like the Portuguese word for pumpkinabóbora. There is no clever reason for liking them; I just think the rhythm of the words are fun.

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RoseGoesToYale

All the words for beautiful are beautiful, take your pick... beau/belle, bonito/a, kaunis, krasiviy, krásný, utsukushii, gražus...

 

I think I have a preference for the [k] sound, so words like okno (window in Russian), kyntilä (candle in Finnish), and craquer (to crack in French) sound prettiest to me, though that last one doesn't have the best of connotations...

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I like the Hebrew word for 'bakery' (ma'afiyah) because well, it sounds like mafia :D

 

32 minutes ago, GhostGoesToWail said:

and craquer (to crack in French) sound prettiest to me, though that last one doesn't have the best of connotations...

Hm, do you mean because of 'craquer pour qn/qc'?

I like the word, too, as well as croque-monsieur.

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1 hour ago, Cheshire-Cat said:

Let's all do a little broadening our vocabulary. What is your favourite non-English word(s) and what does it mean.

 

My favourite is the Welsh word cwtch. Not quite a cuddle and not quite a hug, and cwtch is uniquely Welsh.

Unsurprising that your favourite word is Welsh :P

 

It might be my favourite word too!

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47 minutes ago, GhostGoesToWail said:

All the words for beautiful are beautiful, take your pick... beau/belle, bonito/a, kaunis, krasiviy, krásný, utsukushii, gražus...

 

I think I have a preference for the [k] sound, so words like okno (window in Russian), kyntilä (candle in Finnish), and craquer (to crack in French) sound prettiest to me, though that last one doesn't have the best of connotations...

It's actually kynttilä, with two t's

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Xanthophotophobia, the fear of yellow lights. I suffered from this when I was learning to drive.

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Captain_Tass

Welp, mine is a weird one. Everyone has chosen either beautiful or ordinary but beautiful sounding word, and I'm contributing a ridiculous light swear word.

 

It's a Greek word, κλασομπανιέρα. It literally translates to "Fart Bathtub" and pronounced klasobaniéra. (é means emphasis, I don't remember another way to describe it) It derives from κλανιά (fart) and μπανιέρα (bathtub). It's used as a light swear word (similar to idiot), in the context "You're a fart bathtub" similarly to how you'd use "You absolute walnut". And out of all the Greek words I could have chosen, this is my favorite. That says a lot about me.

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Cheshire-Cat

Another favourite of mine is a 'fake' Welsh word which is popety-ping. Some people say it's Welsh for microwave (it isn't, it's just the Welsh taking the piss). It comes from popety which is bakery and the fact a microwave goes ping.

 

Then there's Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllan­tysilio­gogo­goch which is the name of a place in Wales.The name means: Parish [church] of [St.] Mary(Llanfair) [in] Hollow (pwll) of the White Hazel [township] (gwyn gyll) near (go ger) the rapid whirlpool (y chwyrn drobwll) [and] the parish [church] of [St.] Tysilio (Llantysilio) with a red cave ([a]g ogo[f] goch). It becomes the challenge of who can actually say it. It's often known as Llanfair PG instead.

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Duke Memphis

Why does Welsh have so many Ws and Ls? Are those the Welsh vowels?

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Captain_Tass
7 minutes ago, Cheshire-Cat said:

Then there's Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllan­tysilio­gogo­goch which is the name of a place in Wales.

Oh yeah, I remember watching a video in which a weatherman flawlessly pronounced it and I was torn between laughing at the absurdity of the situation (as it seemed to me as a Greek at least, as it would seem normal to a Welsh person) and being impressed. I did both.

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Cheshire-Cat
6 minutes ago, Duke Memphis said:

Why does Welsh have so many Ws and Ls? Are those the Welsh vowels?

The Welsh vowels are AEIOUWY there's also a LL and an FF as well as CH. I just say they picked all the letters the English didn't use and decided to use them lots!

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6 minutes ago, Thea2 said:

My favorite word is “rot op” (Dutch), it’s a rude way to say, “go away” and I use it a lot. 😇

Hehe that reminds me, an American friend once asked me and a couple of friends to teach her how to say goodbye in Dutch, and we convinced her it was 'rot op'  (I'd translate it to 'f*ck off'), so she went around happily telling people to 'rot op'  for the next couple of days. It was beautiful.

Don't worry, we confessed everything to her later :) 

 

I like the Afrikaans word 'hijsbakkie' which means 'elevator,' because it sounds ridiculous.

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I like Komorebi! It's a Japanese word that can't be accurately translated into English without losing some of the meaning but it roughly means

'The beauty of sunlight filtering through tree leaves.'

 

I also like the Japanese word Natsukashii

Here's a good website translation of it

 

https://haikugirl.me/2014/07/13/word-of-the-week-懐かしい/

When I read the meaning of Natsukashii I started to tear up 😭because I've had that feeling a lot and there's no word in English that can describe it.

 

 

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RoseGoesToYale
2 hours ago, Salmiakki said:

It's actually kynttilä, with two t's

Ah, oops! Kiitos!

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1 hour ago, Laurann said:

... ‘rot op'  (I'd translate it to 'f*ck off') ...

Yes, me too. 😊

 

Quote

... I like the Afrikaans word 'hijsbakkie' which means 'elevator,' because it sounds ridiculous.

Great funny word. But I do think it does describe the action very well, ‘hijs’ meaning ‘hoist’ and ‘bakkie’ meaning ‘bin’.

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RoseGoesToYale
2 hours ago, kiaroskuro said:

Hm, do you mean because of 'craquer pour qn/qc'?

That, and my first French teacher told us that past tense e.g. "J'ai craqué!" means "I've lost my mind!"

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1 hour ago, Lonely Mudkip said:

I like Komorebi! It's a Japanese word that can't be accurately translated into English without losing some of the meaning but it roughly means

'The beauty of sunlight filtering through tree leaves.'

 

I also like the Japanese word Natsukashii

Here's a good website translation of it

 

https://haikugirl.me/2014/07/13/word-of-the-week-懐かしい/

When I read the meaning of Natsukashii I started to tear up 😭because I've had that feeling a lot and there's no word in English that can describe it.

 

 

I find it hard to believe any word can be translated into a sentence.

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Cheshire-Cat
1 minute ago, Bio 7 said:

I find it hard to believe any word can be translated into a sentence.

You've obviously never learnt German! They loooove combining their words together.

And it's more that a directly translatable word just doesn't exist so it needs sentence to describe it.

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Anthracite_Impreza

Achtung! (warning/danger in German), because there is no way to say it without it sounding like it's in a cartoon. Also Meerschweinchen (guinea pig, lit. "little sea pig"), Schmetterling (butterfly) and Nacktschnecke (slug, lit. "naked snail").

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Anthracite_Impreza
1 hour ago, Bio 7 said:

I find it hard to believe any word can be translated into a sentence.

I introduce you to Finnish.

https://thefinnishteacher.weebly.com/the-10-best-wordsphrases-in-the-finnish-language.html

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The thing about American English is that a good number of our words aren't English in origin at all, which is why you get such fun words as Mississippi:

Quote

 

http://www.ereferencedesk.com/resources/state-name/mississippi.html

The name Mississippi comes from the French "Messipi" - the French rendering of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe or Algonquin) name for the river, "Misi-ziibi," meaning "Great River."

Mississippi is taken from an Indian word meaning "Father of Waters."

Mississippi means "large river" to the Chippewa Indians.

 

Utah was named after the Ute tribe. The Dakotas are named after the tribe. Etc. and so forth.

 

Personal favorite non-English words: ukulele (Hawai'ian: [lit] lice jumping/jumping lice), ono (Hawai'ian: yummy), tsundoku (Japanese: buying books but never reading them), atlatl (Nahuatl for spear thrower), pueblo (Spanish: village), posole (Spanish: New Mexican: stew of pork, hominy, onion, red chile), sopapillas (basically fried bread squares that puff up into "sofa pillows" - really good hot and dripping with honey preferably over a bowl of posole - OK, guess I'm hungry! :P), fuego (Spanish: fire - Harry Dresden's favorite spell), moose (Eastern Algonquin [according to Google] - large, four footed, antlered critter with a bad temper) ...

 

Special word: buchord (Old English for book hoard).

 

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4 hours ago, Bio 7 said:

I find it hard to believe any word can be translated into a sentence.

Practically every word can be translated into a sentence - that's what most dictionaries do. :D 

 

2 hours ago, fuzzipueo said:

book hoard

We need to bring that back (modernized) as bookhoard. :) 

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1 hour ago, daveb said:

Practically every word can be translated into a sentence - that's what most dictionaries do. :D 

 

We need to bring that back (modernized) as bookhoard. :) 

I meant not being able to translate it into an english word, like Hello and whatever else, I can’t speak another language.

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4 minutes ago, Bio 7 said:

I meant not being able to translate it into an english word, like Hello and whatever else, I can’t speak another language.

There are plenty of words in languages that don't have exact cognates in other languages. Sometimes a language will borrow the other word and incorporate it for that very reason. English has done that a lot. :) 

 

Just to take a well known example, German has the word, schadenfreude. English has no equivalent (so English is adopting the German word).

It means "pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune." What one word in English would you use to mean the same thing?

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