9 Beautifully Quirky Foreign Words That We’re Jealous We Can’t Say In English
Updated: Mar. 16, 2022Can you say "the distance a reindeer can travel before needing to rest" in just one word? The Finns do. Here, more magical words that pack volumes of meaning into few letters.
Mangata (Swedish): The road-like reflection of the moon in the water
Perhaps people don’t notice these glimmering, lyrical moments enough anymore, but the way the moon reflects and leaps across the black water of the ocean at night is surely a sight to behold. These are the 6 romantic words with no English translations.
Akihi (Hawaiian): Listening to directions and then walking off and promptly forgetting them
When they explained how to get there, their directions all made perfect sense—you nodded and looked back with clear understanding. Then you parted ways, and now you can’t remember whether to take a left or a right.
Commuovere (Italian): To be moved in a heartwarming way, usually related to a story that moved you to tears
Maybe you had a single tear rolling down your cheek, maybe you were crying for days afterward. Touching and powerful stories hit you in the most inexplicable, unexpected, and undeniably human ways.
Kilig (Tagalog): The feeling of butterflies in your stomach, usually when something romantic or cute takes place
You know exactly what this is. Once it’s taken hold, there’s no stopping that can’t-think-straight, smiling-for-no-reason, spine-tingling feeling that starts somewhere deep inside the walls of your stomach.
Luftmensch (Yiddish): Refers to someone who is a bit of a dreamer; literally means “air person”
Your head is in the clouds and you aren’t coming down anytime soon. You’re living in a dream world—the 9-to-5 has no place here and paperwork doesn’t exist at this attitude. So it’s out with reality and in with the impractical.
Tsundoku (Japanese): Leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piled up together with other unread books
The tsundoku scale can range from just one unread book to a serious hoard, so you are most likely guilty of it. As intellectual as you may look tripping over an unread copy of Great Expectations on your way to the front door, those pages probably deserve to see the daylight.
Lost in Translation
The charming book Lost in Translation shows you the poetry and beauty of the world’s languages, with illustrated definitions of more than 50 words that do not have direct English translations.
