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Words with particular meanings


Mameha

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Some time ago i saw a post on facebook where people were talking about particular words (most of all verbs) which are not translatable in other language because they indicate an entire expression, category of people, particular actions, ecc. I was thinking about the english verb "to troll" that in my language isn't translatable, we use "trollare", which is only a derivation (on the internet it's very used when someone is making fun of someone else xD) but it isn't entirely or particularly translated. In your language is there a single word like a verb or an adjective which has a particular meaning?

Edited by Mameha
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Some time ago i saw a post on facebook where people were talking about particular words (most of all verbs) which are not translatable in other language because they indicate an entire expression, category of people, particular actions, ecc. I was thinking about the english verb "to troll" that in my language isn't translatable, we use "trollare", which is only a derivation (on the internet it's very used when someone is making fun of someone else xD) but it isn't entirely or particularly translated. In your language is there a single word like a verb or an adjective which has a particular meaning?

That's an interesting question Mameha. Some time ago we had some threads about this 'phenomenon'. For instance, please have a look at this thread here:

http://linguaholic.com/topic/2584-tagalog-words-with-no-direct-translation-to-english/

I will try to think about some in my native language (German) and maybe add some Chinese examples.

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I didn't see that there was a similar thread, i'm sorry :o

Thinking about Italian, i have some example:

"Sbolognare" means make someone go away; get rid of someone/something

"Scervellarsi" is commit fully to solve an hard problem

"Ciancicare" is to chew slowly

"Gozzovigliare" is not used (i didn't even know the meaning some time ago) and it means having fun abandoning yourself in eating and drinking with your friends.

There are some words from dialects that i don't write here because they are really bad xD

 

Edited by Mameha
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I didn't see that there was a similar thread, i'm sorry :o

Thinking about Italian, i have some example:

"Sbolognare" means make someone go away; get rid of someone/something

"Scervellarsi" is commit fully to solve an hard problem

"Ciancicare" is to chew slowly

"Gozzovigliare" is not used (i didn't even know the meaning some time ago) and it means having fun abandoning yourself in eating and drinking with your friends.

There are some words from dialects that i don't write here because they are really bad xD

 

no problem at all. I think we eve have more threads like this on here. Let me do some 'reserach' ^^

Edited by linguaholic
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Ok, let me add some Chinese terms that are difficult to translate:  

There is the word 麻烦 [má fan] in Chinese. I don't say that Ma Fan can not be translated into English, however it is not easy. Depending on the situation, many different translations are possible. Chinese people use this phrase all the time to express that something is actually very troublesome and/or annoying. Then, there is the word 道. It means way/method/road/path, just to name some of the more important meanings of the character. It also stands for Taoism. However, a lot of Chinese experts prefer NOT to translate this term when translating from Chinese into their native language because the character 道 is loaded with so many different meanings. This is especially the case when 道 is used in a religious context. If you are not familiar with 道, you might want to read the classic 道德經。According to tradition, this awesome work has been written by 老子 Lǎozǐ. You might have heard about him if you do care a bout Chinese Philosophy/though/religion. 

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