Favorite Non-English words without English equivalent

[karean]

Hello!

Language is the reflection of a culture and the values that they espouse within their community. In a way, you can gauge the difference between two cultures by determining what words they don't share. For the sake of argument, let's benchmark English as the global language and see what values we have in our culture that we give importance to.

For example, in the Philippines we have opo and po which is a very respectful version of "yes" and "yes?" which displays how important respecting elders is to us Filipinos.

[btripp2]

Hygge is a Danish word that means "complete absence of anything annoying, irritating or emotionally overwhelming, and the presence of and pleasure from comforting, gentle and soothing things." Apparently it is associated with things like Christmas time. It is a very beautiful word. There is also another German word that was really long that I learned a long time ago. It also does not have an English equivalent, but I cannot remember the word or its meaning.

[primalclaws1974]

The one word that I remember from college is friolero. For those who do not know what it means, it is a person that cannot handle cold weather. It also can mean those susceptible to cold. I am surprised that there are not direct words like this in English, as it has the most words of any language in the world!

[elenamarie]

I know some Filipino words with no English equivalent. Filipino language is indeed very complex, there are even some words that I don’t understand if the meaning is too deep. I will share one of my favorite tagalog words with no English equivalent, the word “Kilig” is the feeling you get when you really like or love someone who did something romantic. A feeling of happiness, blushing, butterflies in the stomach, walking on cloud 9 all mixed together is considered “kilig moments”, we usually say the phrase “kilig to the bones”.

[elenamarie]

Tampo is a Filipino word described as not being angry, but you’re not happy either. Usually felt when someone close to you like a lover forgot your birthday or any special occasion. You are disappointed in them but you are not angry or can’t get angry and instead you just do the silent treatment until you feel better . I can best described it as a mixture of feeling disappointed, not angry but sad and taken for granted.

[elenamarie]

Another Filipino word I hear quite often is “pasma” or “pasmado”. It is defined as tremors, tingling or numbness due to exposure to cold water after strenuous activity, it is said that pasma is not even a medical phenomenon or atleast, that’s what experts say. It is an ancient practice passed on to younger generations not to wet usually the hands after doing vigorous activity so as not to have pasma and also not to wet the feet after wearing shoes.

[Baburra]

I like the word schadenfreude which is a German word that means to take pleasure in someone else' smithery or misfortune. I find it amusing that they have a word for it and I find it even more amusing that other cultures don't since the rain is essentially present in most humans.