26 words that don’t translate into English: foreign vocab to take home from holiday
- The English language boasts a lot of words, but these expressions from overseas highlight its shortcomings
- From spreading the philoxenia hospitality in Greece to dancing in the rimjhim rain in India
It may boast the largest vocabulary of any language but there are occasions when English just isn’t up to the job. The Germans have the option of describing a lovely sunny day as postkartenwetter (literally “postcard weather”) and the Swedes can use resfeber (“travel fever”) to describe that mixture of apprehension and excitement before setting out on a journey.
In Japanese, yoko meshi sums up the stress of speaking a foreign language and if you find yourself hiking in Iran’s Zagros Mountains in winter, zhaghzhagh is the Persian word for when your teeth chatter uncontrollably in the cold.
Here’s an A-to-Z of beautiful, evocative and quirky words that don’t have an exact English equivalent.
The Arabic word samar means “evening conversation”. It might describe travellers sitting on a beach, chatting, laughing and having such an agreeable time no one notices day has turned into night.
Keliling is a Bahasa Indonesian word that refers to the habit long-distance minibus drivers have of circling around town in search of passengers and setting off only when the vehicle is crammed full. As soon as a passenger gets off, the driver will begin keliling again to find a replacement. If you are on a bus in the Czech Republic, you might spot a tycovka. The word is used to describe a woman who stands at the front and chats up the driver.