Words With No English Translation

[{"name":"Sypuchee","meaning":"A solid product that can be poured: sand, gravel, coal, etc.","language":"Russian","tags":["description"]},{"name":"Wei-wu-wei","meaning":"Conscious nonaction. The deliberate and principled decision to do nothing, for a particular reason.","language":"Chinese","tags":["feeling"]},{"name":"Épater les bourgeois","meaning":"To deliberately shock people who have conventional values. Literally “to amaze the middle class”.","language":"French","tags":["action"]},{"name":"Mono no aware","meaning":"Literally “the pathos of things”, also sometimes translated as “an empathy toward things”, or “a sensitivity to ephemera”. It is a term used to describe a state of awareness of the impermanence or transience of things, and the associated feeling of gentle sadness or wistfulness at their passing.","language":"Japanese","tags":["feeling"]},{"name":"Bothántaíocht","meaning":"From ‘bothán’ meaning ‘hut’ or ‘cabin’, the word refers to the act of going around the neighbours’ houses, collecting gossip. ‘Bothánach’ is an adjective describing someone who does this.","language":"Irish","tags":["action"]},{"name":"Tsundoku","meaning":"The act of leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piling it up together with other such unread books.","language":"Japanese","tags":["action"]},{"name":"Avoir le mal de quelqu’un","meaning":"Missing someone so much it literally makes you sick. “Someonesickness” on the model of “seasickness”.","language":"French","tags":["feeling"]},{"name":"Tocayo","meaning":"A Spanish word meaning a person who has the same name as you.","language":"Spanish","tags":["person"]},{"name":"Desenrascanco","meaning":"Literally “to disentangle oneself” from a bad situation, this is the art of slapping together a solution to a problem at the last minute, with no advanced planning, and no resources.  Think “MacGyver”.  An ability highly prized in Portuguese culture.","language":"Portuguese","tags":["action","person"]},{"name":"Nenna","meaning":"The verb “nenna” in Icelandic means a range of phrases from being too lazy to not feeling like participating in a specific activity at this exact moment.","language":"Icelandic","tags":["feeling"]},{"name":"Voetstoots","meaning":"Pronounced as 'foot-st-woots', this basically means 'as is', but refers to something, usually sold, with all its faults and without guarantees. It literally translates into 'foot pushing'.","language":"Afrikaans","tags":["description"]},{"name":"Noon Ooh-Soom “눈 웃음”","meaning":"Literally “eye laugh”. The form one’s eyes take, usually into a semi circle or arch, when they smile or laugh. “n.n”","language":"Korean","tags":["person","description"]},{"name":"Suilk","meaning":"The act of swallowing food with an abnormal amount of noise. A noisy eater.","language":"Scots","tags":["action","description","food"]},{"name":"Teguk","meaning":"To drink from a bottle in huge gulps.","language":"Malay","tags":["action","food"]},{"name":"S’entendre","meaning":"A reflexive verb that literally means “hearing (each other)”; it means to get along with someone in the sense that you understand how they think.","language":"French","tags":["feeling","action"]},{"name":"Cynefin","meaning":"A place where a person or even an animal feels it ought to live. It is where nature around you feels right and welcoming.","language":"Welsh","tags":["place","feeling","description"]},{"name":"Akh","meaning":"The word means “brother,” but may refer to a brother who shares either one or both parents.  The word “Shaqeeq” exclusively refers to a brother who shares both parents.","language":"Arabic","tags":["person"]},{"name":"Pono","meaning":"Part of the Hawaiian state motto, as  first spoken by king Kamehameha III:","language":"Hawaiian","tags":[""]},{"name":"Xenia","meaning":"Xenia is the Greek concept of hospitality shown to those who are far from home. A little more complicated than the ordinary idea of hospitality, it also places some obligations on the guest.","language":"Greek","tags":["feeling","courtesy"]},{"name":"Tokka","meaning":"A grazing, large herd of reindeer.","language":"Finnish","tags":["description"]},{"name":"Chaltura","meaning":"A unambitious (or slightly degrading for the ambitious types) job in a given profession, performed solely for money, e.g. a professional musician performing at a funeral or an art/journalism photographer shooting a wedding.","language":"Polish","tags":["description","job"]},{"name":"Sprachgefühl","meaning":"“Feeling for language” As in, aptitude for it, comfort with it, and talent at learning it.","language":"German","tags":["feeling"]},{"name":"Magtampisaw","meaning":"To walk barefooted through a muddy place.","language":"Tagalog","tags":["action","description"]},{"name":"Friolero","meaning":"Friolero/a: A person who is especially sensitive to cold weather and temperatures.","language":"Spanish","tags":["person","description"]},{"name":"Agent Provocateur","meaning":"Traditionally, an agent provocateur is a person employed by the police or other entity to act undercover to entice or provoke another person to commit an illegal act. More generally, the term may refer to a person or group that seeks to discredit or harm another by provoking them to commit a wrong or rash action.","language":"French","tags":["person"]},{"name":"Luftmensch","meaning":"One who lives on air","language":"Yiddish","tags":["person"]},{"name":"Ohrfeige","meaning":"A slap made from the side with a flat hand in someone’s face. Literally means “ear fig,” presumably because of the swelling that may follow. May also be used figuratively to mean an insult.","language":"German","tags":["person","sound"]},{"name":"Spesenritter","meaning":"Literally translated as an “expense knight”.","language":"German","tags":["money"]},{"name":"Aemulatio","meaning":"A Roman notion of showing respect to one’s literary predecessors by delivering an improved version of their work.  The noun for such a work.","language":"Latin","tags":["respect","description"]},{"name":"Baraka","meaning":"A gift of spiritual energy that can be transferred to others.","language":"Arabic","tags":["gift","energy"]},{"name":"Tinga’","meaning":"Shred, splinter, especially food stuck between teeth","language":"Iban","tags":["food"]},{"name":"Ládramhaíola","meaning":"An Irish language term roughly translated as “wasted day”.","language":"Irish","tags":["time"]},{"name":"Wabi","meaning":"A flawed detail that creates an elegant whole. The word rhymes with “Bobby.”","language":"Japanese","tags":["description","detail"]},{"name":"Jayus","meaning":"A joke so bad or badly told that you just have to laugh at it.","language":"Indonesian","tags":["joke","funny"]},{"name":"Amores Perros","meaning":"Literally means “love is dogs,” and is commonly translated as “love’s a bitch” in English.  The meaning is perhaps closer to “you win some, you lose some.”","language":"Spanish","tags":["love","phrase"]},{"name":"Pana po’o","meaning":"To scratch your head in order to help you to remember something you’ve forgotten.","language":"Hawaiian","tags":["action","memory"]},{"name":"Kia Su","meaning":"Su in Madarin means ‘lose’ and Kia in Hokkian means ‘afraid’.  Kia Su is to describe someone who is afraid of losing and likes to compete with others . In Singapore, if someone jumps into the queue at the train station, he is ‘Kia Su’ for his seat.","language":"Singlish","tags":["person","description","feeling","fear"]},{"name":"Kombinować","meaning":"Working out an unusual solution to a complicated problem, somehow acquiring things that are not available in the process.  Involves a breach of the law or social etiquette.","language":"Polish","tags":["law","description","etiquette"]},{"name":"Zechpreller","meaning":"A person who leaves a restaurant or bar without paying the bill.","language":"German","tags":["person","funny","cheap"]},{"name":"Badkruka","meaning":"Someone who is reluctant to get into the water when swimming outdoors.","language":"Swedish","tags":["person"]},{"name":"Avos","meaning":"Word has almost historical roots and often is used as “russky avos'” (‘Russian Avos’). The rough meaning of a word is hope for something happens without any endeavour.","language":"Russian","tags":["effort"]},{"name":"Litost","meaning":"A state of torment created by the sight of one’s own misery.","language":"Czech","tags":["feeling","sad"]},{"name":"Orka","meaning":"To not have the ability/energy to be able to do [something] any longer.","language":"Swedish","tags":["energy","feeling"]},{"name":"Fond de l’air","meaning":"“Fond de l’air” is used only in the sentence “Le fond de l’air est frais.” Literally “the bottom of the air” (not as in butt, like the bottom of a glass). The expression means it is sunny and you could be tricked into thinking it is summertime, but in fact the air is quite cool (and not in a refreshing and welcome way).  It suggests that the weather is waiting for you to drop your guard so it can give you a nasty cold.","language":"French","tags":["feeling"]},{"name":"Holzsparkunst","meaning":"German for “art of saving wood”; coined in the 17th century.","language":"German","tags":["description"]},{"name":"Xinku","meaning":"An expression of appreciation for and recognition of somebody’s hard work.","language":"Mandarin","tags":["action","appreciation","courtesy"]},{"name":"Tumbao","meaning":"Tumbao is Cuban slang for the ‘innate sexiness manifest in black women’. The closest English equivalent is ‘nubile’ in the sense of Nuba-esque, but with a more explicitly implied intuitive-sense-of-rhythm, lithesome-ness and self-confidence. The word is derived from the traditional Cuban drum-pattern of the same name.","language":"Cuban Spanish","tags":["sex","description"]},{"name":"Po Guan Po Shuai","meaning":"A phrase commonly used in Chinese; literally “smash a jar which already cracked”.  It describes an attitude toward minor failure. When you “Po guan po shuai”, you allow something to become worse. or even make it worse yourself, as a fatalistic reaction towards the failure.","language":"Chinese","tags":["phrase","failure","attitude"]},{"name":"Drekec pekec","meaning":"Refers to a person, object or an act, which is small, unworthy and unimportant. Literally drekec is a diminutive for drek (i.e. shit), but pekec is untranslatable and doesn’t mean anything, it’s just there to rhyme with drekec.","language":"Slovene","tags":["person","unimportant","dung","negative"]},{"name":"Shvitzer","meaning":"Someone who sweats a lot, especially a nervous seducer.","language":"Yiddish","tags":["sweat","person"]},{"name":"Kvetch","meaning":"A person who complains all the time.","language":"Yiddish","tags":["person","complain"]},{"name":"Chuzhbinia","meaning":"Literally translated as “foreigner’s land”. It is anywhere outside of one’s own country. The word is used in place of saying any specific region or area.","language":"Bulgarian","tags":["phrase","land"]},{"name":"Estrenar","meaning":"To wear or use something for the first time.","language":"Spanish","tags":["action","clothing","time"]},{"name":"Qualunquismo","meaning":"A person who really doesn’t care about politics and societal issues. The term comes from an Italian political party that promoted anti-political feelings and mistrust of public organizations.","language":"Italian","tags":["person","politics","negative"]},{"name":"Jibaku","meaning":"The act of unintentionally or inadvertently demolishing your own argument in the process of defending your view.","language":"Japanese","tags":["action","negative","destruction"]},{"name":"Huevón","meaning":"Literally translated as “big heavy eggs”, but it is better translated as “lazy with a whiff of entitlement”.","language":"Spanish","tags":["entitlement","feeling","lazy"]},{"name":"Titchadesh","meaning":"Literally translated as “Be new”. The word is used to comment on something new someone has just acquired such as clothes, or even a new haircut. It is more effectively translated as “enjoy your new thing”.","language":"Hebrew","tags":["new","time"]},{"name":"Malparido","meaning":"Literally means “miscarried” (“malparto” means “miscarriage”), but is often used as an insult.","language":"Spanish","tags":["insult","phrase"]},{"name":"Compromis","meaning":"The word is used in Belgium to indicate that words and actions give the appearance of national co-operation and support, but really conceal the pursuit of a regional agenda.","language":"Flemish/French","tags":["action","negative"]},{"name":"Sasi","meaning":"‘Sasi’ (pronounced “shashi”) is a word used among young people to refer to an unsporting, ageing father who will allow neither late outings nor frequent mobile calls from the opposite sex. (‘Mini’ is its female version).","language":"Malayalam","tags":["love","person","family"]},{"name":"Pole","meaning":"Means ‘I am sorry for your misfortune.’ It is pronounced ‘po-lay.’ It can be used for small or big things, and ‘pole sana’ also exists, where ‘sana’ is an intensifier.","language":"Swahili","tags":["apology","phrase"]},{"name":"Struisvogelpolitiek","meaning":"The literal translation is ostrich politics. It basically means acting like you don’t notice it when something bad occurs and continuing as you normally would.","language":"Dutch","tags":["phrase","negative"]},{"name":"Zhaghzhagh","meaning":"The chattering of teeth from either cold or rage.","language":"Persian","tags":["action","body"]},{"name":"Sobremesa","meaning":"The time spent after lunch or dinner talking to the people you shared the meal with.","language":"Spanish","tags":["food","community","time"]},{"name":"Dépaysement","meaning":"The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country.","language":"French","tags":["feeling","negative"]},{"name":"Ghiqq","meaning":"The sound made by a boiling kettle.","language":"Persian","tags":["sound"]},{"name":"Yichus","meaning":"Means “good blood,” or “well born,” but also implies that the individual has lived up to the promise of his family’s stature.  If he hasn’t, he can’t be said to have it.","language":"Yiddish","tags":["phrase","family"]},{"name":"Eku Ijoko","meaning":"A greeting made to guests who have been seated for a while. A respectful interjection to acknowledge the fact that guests have arrived and are seated in your home.","language":"Yoruba","tags":["greeting","courtesy"]},{"name":"Fucha","meaning":"To use a company’s time and resources for your own personal endeavors.","language":"Polish","tags":["phrase","work"]},{"name":"Shemomedjamo","meaning":"To continue eating food even though you’re already full, just because you like the taste of the food so much.","language":"Georgian","tags":["food"]},{"name":"Alkoholleichen","meaning":"Drunk people wandering home late at night or in the early morning.","language":"German","tags":["food","person"]},{"name":"Nudnik","meaning":"Someone who is annoying, obtuse, and dull.","language":"Yiddish","tags":["person","negative"]},{"name":"Stammtisch","meaning":"A social gathering of friends, specifically at a bar, to talk about life.","language":"German","tags":["community","friends","food"]},{"name":"Kabelsalat","meaning":"Describes very tangled cables and literally translates as “Cable-salad”.","language":"German","tags":["description"]},{"name":"Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine","meaning":"It means “As though you are from those we may not be able to easily make a maker of unsuccessful ones,” and is considered the longest word in the Turkish language.","language":"Turkish","tags":["phrase"]},{"name":"Da net, navernoe","meaning":"‘Da’ means ‘yes’.\n\n‘Net’ means ‘no’.\n\n‘Navernoe’ means ‘maybe’.","language":"Russian","tags":["indecision"]},{"name":"Stam","meaning":"“With no purpose, value or significance.”","language":"Hebrew","tags":["phrase","negative","importance"]},{"name":"Papakata","meaning":"To have one leg shorter than the other.","language":"Cook Islands Maori","tags":["person","description"]},{"name":"Empalagarse","meaning":"The sensation your tongue has after eating too many sweets.  It the feeling you get when you need some milk to go with that chocolate cake.","language":"Spanish","tags":["feeling","body","food"]},{"name":"Merienda","meaning":"A light meal eaten in the late afternoon, halfway between lunch and dinner. It’s considered a meal for children, and adults don’t normally use the term to refer to their own afternoon snacks.","language":"Spanish","tags":["food","time"]},{"name":"Cotisuelto","meaning":"A man who wears his shirt tail outside of the trousers.","language":"Caribbean Spanish","tags":["clothing","person"]},{"name":"Lǎo tóng","meaning":"Lǎo tóng (老同, literally “old-same”) is an archaic Chinese word for form of eternal friendship between “heart sisters”–two women who were closer than husband and wife.","language":"Chinese","tags":["person","love"]},{"name":"Lieko","meaning":"A trunk of tree that has submerged to the bottom of a lake / pond or a bog after absorbing water for some time until it can’t float anymore. This word comes form western dialects but in eastern dialects there is an equivalent word ‘hako’ which means the same. Both words are valid in modern written Finnish, though rarely used.","language":"Finnish","tags":["tree","description"]},{"name":"Qaamch’ip’q’i","meaning":"Literally ‘a filigree metal ornament on the handle of a whip’.  An idiomatic term for someone whose good or kind outward appearance is deceptive.","language":"Ubykh","tags":["person","negative"]},{"name":"Yuugen","meaning":"An awareness of the universe that triggers feelings too deep and mysterious for words.","language":"Japanese","tags":["wonder","feeling"]},{"name":"Enraonar","meaning":"To discuss in a civilised manner, using meticulous reasoning.","language":"Catalan","tags":["person","communicate"]},{"name":"Ayubowan","meaning":"Used as both a greeting and farewell in Sri Lanka. Saying it to someone is the equivalent of saying “May you live a long life”.","language":"Sinhala","tags":["greeting","phrase"]},{"name":"Yuanfen","meaning":"A relationship by fate or destiny. A complex concept drawing on principles of predetermination in Chinese culture, which dictate relationships, encounters and affinities, mostly among lovers and friends.","language":"Chinese","tags":["relationship","fate","love"]},{"name":"Kaval","meaning":"Originally “Kaval” means a flute-like instrument, native to Bulgaria and several other Balkan countries. It is often made of wood. In the last 20 or so years the word “kaval” has gained several other meanings in addition to its original one.","language":"Bulgarian","tags":[""]},{"name":"Pleonexia","meaning":"The insatiable desire to have what rightfully belongs to others.  A ruthless self-seeking and an arrogant assumption that others and things exist for one’s own benefit.","language":"Greek","tags":["feeling","negative"]},{"name":"Fingerspitzengefühl","meaning":"Literally, “finger tip feeling”. It is the ability to think clearly about many individual complex events and treat them as a whole. It was used as a term for military commanders who could maintain extremely accurate mental maps of troop movements and changes in the battlefield. To have a intuitive understanding of something on multiple levels.","language":"German","tags":["feeling","think"]},{"name":"Nakkele","meaning":"A man who licks whatever the food has been served on.","language":"Tulu","tags":["person","food"]},{"name":"Mokusatsu","meaning":"Mokusatsu is when you bargain and you feel the buyer’s offer is very low. Thus, you keep silent. This makes the buyer understand that his offer is not good enough, while enabling him not to lose face.","language":"Japanese","tags":["money","feeling"]},{"name":"Myötähäpeä","meaning":"A shared sense of shame.","language":"Finnish","tags":["feeling","negative"]},{"name":"Rashk","meaning":"Rashk is a versatile word. In principle, ‘envy’ is a broad term for the pain caused by non-possession: the fact that someone else has something that you don’t have but want to have. And ‘jealousy’ is a kind of pain caused by possession: the fear of losing someone or something that you have, to someone else. The word rashk can not only cover both, but can include more general possibilities of ‘grudge, spite, malice’ as well.","language":"Urdu","tags":["feeling","negative"]},{"name":"Razliubit","meaning":"To fall out of love.","language":"Russian","tags":["feeling","negative","love"]},{"name":"Ngaobera","meaning":"A slight inflammation of the throat caused by screaming too much.","language":"Pascuense","tags":["description"]},{"name":"Plimpplampplettere","meaning":"The activity of skimming stones across the water.","language":"Dutch","tags":["action"]},{"name":"Tretår","meaning":"A “tår” (as well as a tear) means a cup of coffee. A “påtår” is a refill of said coffee. A “tretår”, is the second refill, the “threefill”, if you will.","language":"Swedish","tags":["food"]},{"name":"Schilderwald","meaning":"Said when a place or street is crowded with so many unnecessary road signs that you don’t know how to behave, or simply become lost.","language":"German","tags":["phrase","feeling","lost"]},{"name":"Bababa ba","meaning":"Means is “is (it/he/she/they) going down?”","language":"Tagalog","tags":["phrase"]},{"name":"Taarradhin","meaning":"Similar to the English word “compromise”, but does not involve reaching a grudging arrangement via struggle and disagreement.  “Taarradhin” implies a solution that is a definite win for everyone involved.  It suggests a way of reconciling without anyone involved in the dispute losing face.","language":"Arabic","tags":["feeling","community"]},{"name":"Wa’ada","meaning":"Verb meaning “to bury his living daughter”.  It is said to have been a common practice in Pre-Islamic Arab culture, since forbidden by Islam.","language":"Classical Arabic","tags":["action","negative","death"]},{"name":"Resfeber","meaning":"To be jittery before undertaking a journey.","language":"Swedish","tags":["feeling","travel"]},{"name":"Txotx","meaning":"It means literally toothpick, but it’s also said when you tip cider out of a barrel to announce to everybody the barrel is open and they ought to fill their glasses.","language":"Basque","tags":["phrase","greeting"]},{"name":"Backpfeifengesicht","meaning":"“A face badly in need of a fist.”","language":"German","tags":["person","description","negative","violence"]},{"name":"Oodal","meaning":"The sulking or fake anger occurring between lovers after a lovers’ tiff, usually over something inconsequential. This feeling is also recognized to be a facet of love / affection.","language":"Tamil","tags":["action","negative","love"]},{"name":"Erdera","meaning":"Any language that is not Basque.","language":"Basque","tags":["entitlement"]},{"name":"Dolilyts","meaning":"To lie with your face turned down to the ground.","language":"Ukranian","tags":["action","body"]},{"name":"Poronkusema","meaning":"A very old Finnish unit of measurement. It is used to describe the distance a reindeer can travel before having to stop and urinate.","language":"Finnish","tags":["measurement","description"]},{"name":"La Douleur Exquise","meaning":"The excruciating pain experienced when wanting someone you cannot have.  Narrower than “unrequited love,” as it refers specifically to the emotional experience of the one whose love is not being reciprocated.","language":"French","tags":["pain","feeling","love"]},{"name":"Natsukashii","meaning":"Can be used to express a longing for the past. It connotes both happiness for the fondness of that memory and goodness of that time, as well as sadness that it is no longer.  It can also refer to nostalgia for a life or event that one has not experience.","language":"Japanese","tags":["feeling","memory","time","negative"]},{"name":"Moit","meaning":"Pretended indifference/shyness while speaking about a thing one is very keen for.","language":"Scots","tags":["feeling","disguise","positive"]},{"name":"Geram","meaning":"An urge that you struggle to suppress.","language":"Malay","tags":["feeling"]},{"name":"Feierabend","meaning":"“Celebration evening” when you get off of work. You “have” Feierabend, e.g. “Silvia has Feierabend at 11, and then will be down to get some drinks.”","language":"German","tags":["work","food","positive"]},{"name":"Forelsket","meaning":"Literally translated as ‘pre-love’, or ‘over-love’. It’s the word for the euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love.","language":"Norwegian","tags":["phrase","love","positive"]},{"name":"Arbejdsglaede","meaning":"Literally translated as “work happiness.” It is a feeling of joy and satisfaction with one’s work as an employee.","language":"Danish","tags":["work","positive","happiness"]},{"name":"Fisselig","meaning":"Flustered to the point of incompetence – a temporary state of inexactitude and sloppiness elicited by another person’s nagging.","language":"German","tags":["work","positive","happiness"]},{"name":"Makalulon","meaning":"To swallow something accidently.","language":"Tagalog","tags":["action"]},{"name":"Geborgenheit","meaning":"To feel completely safe; like nothing could ever harm you. Usually connected to a particular place or person.","language":"German","tags":["feeling","person","positive"]},{"name":"Tushka","meaning":"Literally “the body of a dead animal”.  Used of an MP or elected official who has party-switched or changed his political affiliation.","language":"Ukrainian","tags":["description","politics"]},{"name":"Eno","meaning":"Your mother’s brother.","language":"Finnish","tags":["description","family"]},{"name":"Chucpe","meaning":"Chucpe – chutzpah, חוצפה – is a Yiddish term meaning shocking, cynical, daring or merciless behavior, which is, however, formally incontestable. The classic example is a child who kills both parents and asks the judge for mercy because he is an orphan now.","language":"Hebrew","tags":["feeling","phrase","negative"]},{"name":"Naco","meaning":"Pronounced NAko.  A noun applied to someone who lacks sophistication and is regarded as having poor taste or being uncouth.","language":"Mexican Spanish","tags":["person","description","negative"]},{"name":"Hikikomori","meaning":"A teenager or 20-something who has withdrawn from social life, often obsessed with TV and video games.","language":"Japanese","tags":["person","community","anti-social"]},{"name":"Mörkrädd","meaning":"Fear of the dark.","language":"Swedish","tags":["feeling","fear"]},{"name":"Mencomot","meaning":"People who steal objects of little value purely for pleasure.","language":"Indonesian","tags":["people","negative","pleasure"]},{"name":"Nito-onna","meaning":"A woman so dedicated to her career that she has no time to iron blouses and so dresses only in knitted tops.","language":"Japanese","tags":["time","person","work"]},{"name":"Koev halev","meaning":"Identifying with the suffering of another so closely that one hurts oneself, that one’s heart aches.","language":"Hebrew","tags":["feeling","community","negative"]},{"name":"Tallabe","meaning":"A Nigerian word for carrying something on your head without using your hands.","language":"Zarma","tags":["description"]},{"name":"Złota Jesień","meaning":"Literally “golden autumn”. Used to refer to comfortably and peacefully reaching old age. Retirement bringing fulfillment.","language":"Polish","tags":["time","description"]},{"name":"Pisan Zapra","meaning":"The amount of time required to eat a banana.","language":"Malay","tags":["time","food"]},{"name":"Le Mot Juste","meaning":"The right word at exactly the right time.","language":"French","tags":["time","phrase"]},{"name":"Přibližovadlo","meaning":"From the verb “přiblížit” (to approach or bring near) comes this clever word for a (usually) 4-wheeled vehicle.  Literally “a device that brings things closer.”","language":"Czech","tags":["phrase","transportation"]},{"name":"Löyly","meaning":"The heat wave you get when you throw water on the hot stones in a sauna.","language":"Finnish","tags":["feeling","heat"]},{"name":"Ohrwurm","meaning":"Literally “ear worm”. Whenever you get a song or tune stuck in your head, it is an Ohrwurm.","language":"German","tags":["description","music"]},{"name":"K’velen","meaning":"To beam with joy, burst with pride, glow with pride and happiness.  Particularly when boasting about the achievements of a family member.","language":"Yiddish","tags":["happiness","feeling","positive","family"]},{"name":"Bon mot","meaning":"Literally: “good word”.  The right word delivered at just the right time.  Often a witty remark.","language":"French","tags":["time","positive"]},{"name":"Sarang","meaning":"Pronounced as “sa-rong”, this is an expression of the wish to be with someone until death.","language":"Korean","tags":["love","death","description"]},{"name":"Panahiyabhadra","meaning":"A person who has lost all the hair on his head after being beaten by shoes. (Panahi== shoes, bhadra==gentleman–bald people are considered to be gentleman.)","language":"Hindi","tags":["person","description","hair"]},{"name":"Gesamtkunstwerk","meaning":"Complete work, an entire body of work.  Coined by Wagner.","language":"German","tags":["work"]},{"name":"Fanaa","meaning":"Pronounced as “fa-naa”, it means to destroy the ego or the self while being physically alive, thereby achieving enlightenment.","language":"Arabic","tags":["wisdom"]},{"name":"Cariño","meaning":"Pronounced “ca-ri-gno”.  Is indicative of feeling love for someone that is different from being in love or infatuated with, as in the love you feel for a family member or friend. Tenerle cariño a alguien = to deeply care for someone. It may also mean to give a caress (hacer cariños).  The noun cariñoso  is to be loving or tender, showing affection.","language":"Spanish","tags":["feeling","love","action"]},{"name":"Belum","meaning":"Belum translates to Not Yet, but with positive, optimistic connotations. It is used for tasks/events not yet undertaken or experienced, yet that are hoped to be. Due to the Indonesian people’s undying optimism, it’s used in response to questions where the answer in English would be “No, I haven’t”, or “No, I will never” just so the chance of that event happening isn’t ruled out. e.g. “Have you eaten dinner?” right through to “Have you climbed Mount Everest?”","language":"Indonesian","tags":["time","positive","optimism"]},{"name":"Cwtch","meaning":"To hug or cuddle but also a safe place.","language":"Welsh","tags":["action","love"]},{"name":"Karelu","meaning":"The mark left on the skin by wearing anything tight.","language":"TuluIndian","tags":["description","body"]},{"name":"Tumiwisizm","meaning":"Tumiwisizm (too-me-vii-ɕi-sm) is a noun derived from the sentence ‘Wisi mi to’ (‘I don’t give a damn’). It describes an attitude which could be compared to ‘not being bothered about’, that means lack of engagement and caring, mostly connected with lack of passion for one’s actions because of feeling cocky or overconfident rather than depression or resignation.","language":"Polish","tags":["phrase","unconcern"]},{"name":"Janteloven","meaning":"It is a way of thinking that looks down upon individual achievement and promotes the belief of a collective effort in regards to success. It is a mindset that someone may be good at what they do, but they are no better than the rest of us. In short, don’t think you are special or better than anyone else.","language":"Danish","tags":["feeling","mindset","community"]},{"name":"Erlebnis","meaning":"An experience one feels deeply, and, in a sense, ‘lives through’.","language":"German","tags":["feeling"]},{"name":"Scunner","meaning":"Expresses annoyance or disappointment.","language":"Scots","tags":["action","disappointment"]},{"name":"Me Yia","meaning":"Said to someone when they buy something new, usually applied to large purchases such as jewelry or a car or new home, Me Yia means “with joy.” You are essentially wishing that their new purchase brings them joy and that they enjoy it.","language":"Greek","tags":["time","happiness","greeting"]},{"name":"Fernweh","meaning":"A strong longing to be away, to go somewhere.","language":"German","tags":["desire","feeling","travel"]},{"name":"Okazu","meaning":"A side dish that goes with rice.","language":"Japanese","tags":["food"]},{"name":"Kehrwoche","meaning":"Literally translated as “sweep week”. It is the week when it is your turn to clean the communal areas. Also used to describe the week when it is your turn to sweep the street in front of your building.","language":"German","tags":["description","community"]},{"name":"Vrtičkar","meaning":"An elderly person, usually living in the city, who owns a tiny piece of land in the country or on the outskirts of the city–these pieces of land are usually remnants of “common land” from the communist era.  On his land he will have built a small hut and be growing small amounts of beans, lettuce and other vegetables for his own use; but the main purpose of such establishments now is to permit the vrtičkar to spend weekends there drinking beer and socializing with other vrtičkars whose huts and fields are nearby.","language":"Slovene","tags":["person","community"]},{"name":"Dona","meaning":"To take lice from a person’s head and squash them between one’s teeth.","language":"Yamana,Chile","tags":["action","hair"]},{"name":"Xibipíío","meaning":"It means “to go in or out of the boundaries of experience”.","language":"Pirahã","tags":["feeling","wild"]},{"name":"Tingo","meaning":"To borrow from a friend until he has nothing left.","language":"Pascuense","tags":["community","friendship","money"]},{"name":"Pesamenteiro","meaning":"It is someone who goes to a funeral, or the house of the mourning family, for the food and drink that is expected to be served instead of to offer their condolences.","language":"Portuguese","tags":["person","description","negative","death"]},{"name":"Alaláw","meaning":"An exclamation that people say when they feel cold. It is pretty close to “brrr!” though it’s more fun to say and more expressive. Also, people say it when they hear someone describe a cold place, even if they are not cold at that moment themselves.","language":"Quechua","tags":["phrase","temperature"]},{"name":"Atolondrar","meaning":"To become so overwhelmed by something that you get scatter-brained and do something careless. For example, if you are being bombarded by emails, phone calls, text messages, etc, all at the same time, while trying to write an email, that you become so overwhelmed that you send it without an attachment. It has a connotation of being so overwhelmed that you get ahead of yourself.","language":"Spanish","tags":["feeling","overwhelm"]},{"name":"Janteloven","meaning":"A set of rules (“The Law of Jante”) which discourage individualism within communities.","language":"Danish/Norwegian","tags":["law","community"]},{"name":"Wanktok","meaning":"In this creole language of Papua New Guinea, wanktok refers to people who speak the same language as you do and “have some claim on you.” It translates literally as “one talk” and usually includes people of your family, village, clan or larger geographic area.","language":"TokPisin","tags":["people","community"]},{"name":"Gretchenfrage","meaning":"Composed of “Gretchen” (Name, short for Margarete) and “Frage” (Question).","language":"German"},{"name":"Yutta-Hey","meaning":"Yutta-hey is translated to “it is a good day to die.” The Cherokee Indians would shout this just before charging into battle. It is not a wish to die, but rather a complete content feeling of life at the moment.","language":"Cherokee","tags":["violence","war","phrase","contentment","death"]},{"name":"Ttonkolenyo","meaning":"A person who spends all his time devising and setting up devious schemes from which he might benefit, usually at the expense of others.","language":"Amharic","tags":["person","negative"]},{"name":"Neidbau","meaning":"A building (often of little or no value to the proprietor) constructed with the sole purpose of harassing or inconveniencing his neighbor in some way, i.e. by blocking the sunlight, the view, direct egress, etc.","language":"German","tags":["building"]},{"name":"Al punto de cajeta","meaning":"A Spanish phrase which means “a liquid thickened to the point at which a spoon drawn through the liquid reveals the bottom of the pot in which it is being cooked”.","language":"Spanish","tags":["phrase","food"]},{"name":"Kæk","meaning":"Cocky, adventurous, with a gung-ho spirit. Unlike the English word “cocky,” it usually has a positive connotation.","language":"Danish","tags":["description","person","confident","positive"]},{"name":"Nubie Yom","meaning":"Literally translated as “finger farm”. The home, business, or especially the farm of a person who never finishes projects but rather points out (hence, finger) where he or she intends to start new projects and where things will go in the future.","language":"Swahili","tags":["place","person","work"]},{"name":"Baise-en-ville","meaning":"A “baise-en-ville” literally “shag-in-town” is a small case containing the few items necessary to spend the night out of one’s home.","language":"French","tags":["travel"]},{"name":"Ptydepe","meaning":"In Czech, the word has become widely used to mean incomprehensible bureaucratic jargon, or Orwellian newspeak intending to hide its true meaning. Often found in academic texts or management reports.","language":"Czech","tags":["politics","meaning"]},{"name":"Takallouf","meaning":"Takallouf can be loosely translated as “formality,” and it often refers to the prodigious amount of preparation put into hosting a tea or dinner. However, it can also have a deeper, more culturally constructed meaning in which it refers to a form of tongue-typing formality, a social restraint so extreme as to make it impossible for the victim to express what he or she really means, a species of compulsory irony which insists, for the sake of good form, on being taken literally.","language":"Urdu","tags":["community","courtesy"]},{"name":"Belit","meaning":"This is a really funny word, that is used on the farms to describe a sexually exhausted horse. I’ve heard it used in other contexts as well- like to insult someone and call them “useless.” However, I don’t know that too many people would recognize it as that.","language":"Romanian","tags":["sex","description","farm"]},{"name":"Suaimhneas croi","meaning":"A bursting happiness and peace encountered after a task has been finished and there is nothing left to be done.","language":"Irish","tags":["happiness","work"]},{"name":"Privezti","meaning":"To bring something somewhere using some kind of transportational device (not on foot).","language":"Russian","tags":["transportation"]},{"name":"Arriviste","meaning":"A person who uses any means available to realize his or her desires. One who attains sudden success through shady means. A person who quickly achieved success but still lacks respect.","language":"French","tags":["person","negative","respect"]},{"name":"Saudade","meaning":"A vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist, for something other than the present, which indicates a mental turning toward the past or toward the future.  It is not an active discontent or poignant sadness but an indolent, dreaming wistfulness. One can actually have ‘saudades’ of someone with whom one is. In this case it would indicate a feeling of loss projected towards the past or the future.","language":"Portuguese","tags":["feeling","time","loss","sad"]},{"name":"Utepils","meaning":"To sit outside on a sunny day enjoying a beer.","language":"Norwegian","tags":["action","food"]},{"name":"Hiraeth","meaning":"A feeling of longing associated with displacement, but not necessarily displacement from one’s original home.  An intense yearning to be somewhere you are not.","language":"Welsh","tags":["longing","feeling"]},{"name":"Fensterln","meaning":"Climbing through a window to avoid someone’s parents in order to have sex with the someone without the parents knowing.","language":"German","tags":["sex","action"]},{"name":"Hanyauku","meaning":"The act of walking on tiptoes across warm sand.","language":"Rukwangali,Namibia","tags":["act","walking"]},{"name":"Girbutz","meaning":"Girbutz – גירבוץ – is the Hebrew word for scratching one’s own crotch, though it is literally the combination of the Hebrew words for ‘scratching’ and ‘balls’ (testicles). It can also mean to sit idly by and do nothing, be lazy. As in ‘sitting around all day scratching your balls’.","language":"Hebrew","tags":["act","laziness"]},{"name":"Pohmelyatsya","meaning":"Taking a shot in the morning to help make your hangover go away.","language":"Russian","tags":["food"]},{"name":"Nekama","meaning":"A male pretending to be female on the Internet. It is an abbreviation of the Japanese words for ‘Internet’ and ‘male crossdresser’.","language":"Japanese","tags":["person","gender"]},{"name":"Aufheben","meaning":"“Aufheben” has several contradictory meanings, including “to lift up”, “to abolish”, and “to sublate”.  It can also mean either “preserve,” or “transcend,” depending on context.","language":"German"},{"name":"Botellón","meaning":"A gathering in which youths meet in a street or a public area in order to consume alcohol. People bring their own alcohol which is bought from the stores, making it a cheap alternative to going to bars or night clubs. Literally means “big bottle.”","language":"Spanish","tags":["community","food","money"]},{"name":"Wintercearig","meaning":"Literally “winter-care” or “winter-sorrow”.  The feeling of sadness equatable to the cold of winter.","language":"Old English","tags":["sadness","winter"]},{"name":"Setja upp gestaspjót","meaning":"Verbal idiom, lit. put up a guest-spear.  A cat “setur upp gestaspjót” when washing itself, when it curls itself into a tight ring with one hind leg sticking straight up in the air.","language":"Icelandic","tags":["action"]},{"name":"Pochemuchka","meaning":"A person who is asking “why?” all the time. Alternatively, it is a person who is always asking questions.","language":"Russian","tags":["person","question"]},{"name":"Yoisho","meaning":"Yoisho is a Japanese word that has no real meaning at all – it’s what Japanese people say when they flop into a chair after a hard day at work, where others might just exhale or grunt loudly.","language":"Japanese","tags":["meaning","phrase"]},{"name":"Aderblauen","meaning":"Literally: “vein-blue”.","language":"German","tags":["description","color"]},{"name":"Zastóy","meaning":"Intellectual stagnation.","language":"Russian","tags":["wisdom","intelligence"]},{"name":"Brav","meaning":"An adjective most commonly used to commend children.  It describes several positive qualities in a child: they listen to their parents, know how to behave themselves, are well brought up overall, are pleasant and easy to take care of, do not cause trouble at home or at school, and study for school by themselves without needing further encouragement.","language":"German","tags":["community","children","description"]},{"name":"Feest der herkenning","meaning":"An experience that is enjoyable because it evokes a feeling of recognition, such as a faithful cinematic adaptation of a beloved novel. Literally, “feast of recognition”.","language":"Dutch","tags":["experience","positive"]},{"name":"Yahrzeit","meaning":"It is the one year anniversary of the death of a family member.","language":"Yiddish","tags":["time","death"]},{"name":"Inshallah","meaning":"While it can be translated literally as “if Allah wills,” the meaning of this phrase differs depending on the speaker’s tone of voice.","language":"Arabic","tags":["religion","phrase"]},{"name":"Yaourter","meaning":"Literally “to yogurt”: attempting to speak or sing in a foreign language that one doesn’t know very well; it often involves throwing in nonsense sounds or words when one needs to fill in the blanks.","language":"French","tags":["phrase","understanding"]},{"name":"Maya","meaning":"The belief–often unfortunate–that the symbol of a thing is the same as the thing itself.","language":"Sanskrit","tags":["belief"]},{"name":"Desbundar","meaning":"To shed your inhibitions and self-restraint and have fun like there’s no tomorrow, causing wonder and surprise with your atypical behaviour.","language":"Brazilian Portuguese","tags":["wonder","behavior","wild"]},{"name":"Dhvani","meaning":"“‘Dhvani’ is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘sound’ or ‘echo’ literally. It is also a technical term in Sanskrit literary criticism, with a very beautiful, Better-than-English-worthy meaning: It refers to  ‘allusion’ or ‘implied meaning’, best defined as: Dhvani is the feature of a poem/line of having a hidden meaning that strikes you in the second or further readings, but not the first.”","language":"Sanskrit","tags":["sound","meaning"]},{"name":"Kefi","meaning":"The spirit of joy, passion, enthusiasm, high spirits, or frenzy.  The custom of smashing plates is considered an expression of kefi, when the soul and body are overwhelmed with an exuberance that must find an outlet.","language":"Greek","tags":["happiness","feeling"]},{"name":"Won","meaning":"The reluctance on a person’s part to let go of an illusion","language":"Korean","tags":["feeling","person"]},{"name":"Aigoo","meaning":"Word said while sighing, or wanting to sigh.  Expresses frustration, pain and resignation.  Roughly equivalent to “FML,” or “jeez”.","language":"Korean","tags":["pain","phrase"]},{"name":"Sahar","meaning":"Staying up late for enjoyment, usually with different forms of entertainment (singing, music, drinking, etc.) or in the company of friends.","language":"Arabic","tags":["community","time","friendship"]},{"name":"Jaksaa","meaning":"The word ‘Jaksaa’ is a verb meaning something similar to ‘have energy’ as well as ‘want to’. It’s a versatile word that can be used in many contexts.","language":"Finnish","tags":["energy’"]},{"name":"Talkin","meaning":"To whisper instructions to the dying.","language":"Indonesian","tags":["death","instructions"]},{"name":"Helal","meaning":"Giving someone helal is giving someone what is rightfully theirs. Since they deserve what you have given them they owe you nothing in return.","language":"Turkish","tags":["law"]},{"name":"Latah","meaning":"Uncontrollable habit of saying embarrassing things.","language":"Indonesian","tags":["habit","embarrassment","speech"]},{"name":"Tatemae and Honne","meaning":"What you pretend you think and what you actually think, respectively.","language":"Japanese","tags":["think"]},{"name":"Naches","meaning":"The pleasure and satisfaction a parent gets from their child’s accomplishments.","language":"Yiddish","tags":["happiness","family"]},{"name":"Amagami","meaning":"To pretend-bite someone.","language":"Japanese","tags":["action"]},{"name":"Atang","meaning":"At a feast, it is food put aside for the souls of the departed.","language":"Ilokano","tags":["food","death","community"]},{"name":"Sankocha","meaning":"The feeling of embarrassment due to receiving an inordinately and perhaps inappropriately large or extravagant gift or favor, that makes you feel obliged to return the favor when you can’t. Example: Coming over only to chat, and being made to stay for tea and then dinner.","language":"Kannada","tags":["embarrassment","community"]},{"name":"Máfán","meaning":"Trouble relating to government bureaucracy.","language":"Chinese","tags":["politics","trouble"]},{"name":"Pretoogjes","meaning":"Literally, ‘fun-eyes’. The eyes of a chuckling person who is up to benign mischief.","language":"Dutch","tags":["person","description"]},{"name":"Magari","meaning":"Loosely translated as “maybe” but used for many other expressions as well. For example: ‘even so’, ‘perhaps’, ‘in my dreams’, ‘if only’.  Expressing hope, wish or regret.\n\nAlso used in a comparison of preference expressed by a coordinate adversative with phrasal value “perhaps, probably”.","language":"Italian","tags":["indecision"]},{"name":"Fenstertag","meaning":"Fenstertag, also called Brückentag or Zwickeltag (in Austria) is the Friday or Monday between the weekend and a national holiday.","language":"German","tags":["time"]},{"name":"Dugnad","meaning":"A social activity where a group of friends or neighbors get together to perform a large task. Similar to the old practice of barn raising in North America except it can be any task, not just building a barn.","language":"Norwegian","tags":["community"]},{"name":"Chai-pani","meaning":"Although it literally means “tea and water,” one way to describe this compound word is as the money and favors given to someone, often a bureaucratic worker, to get things done.","language":"Hindi-Urdu","tags":["politics","food"]},{"name":"Schnappszahl","meaning":"Literally: “liquor number”. A number with all identical digits, e.g. 111, 99, 7777. Origin of this may have come from a German card game where scores are written down after every round and if a player has a score of 111, 222, 333, etc. then they have to buy liquor or beer for the group. It is sometimes used ironically as a lucky number since the “lucky” person would have to buy a round of drinks.","language":"German","tags":["food","number","game"]},{"name":"Gurfa","meaning":"The amount of water that can be scooped up in one hand.","language":"Arabic","tags":["measurement"]},{"name":"Seigneur-terraces","meaning":"Café customers who spend a lot of time at a table but little money.","language":"French","tags":["food","cheap","person"]},{"name":"Gadje","meaning":"A word used by the Roma to describe anyone who is non-Roma.","language":"Romany","tags":["description","people"]},{"name":"Cúbóg","meaning":"A collective noun for Easter eggs.","language":"Irish","tags":["holiday"]},{"name":"Jugaad","meaning":"A way of managing things by minimal resources.  Consider your driver who has to pick your son from his school and at the same time has to drop your wife to beauty parlor. He would say, “Don’t worry Sir, Jugaad would be done”.  A way making things happen “by hook or crook”.","language":"Hindi","tags":["method"]},{"name":"Pälvi","meaning":"A snowless patch of ground in otherwise snow-covered terrain.","language":"Finnish","tags":["weather"]},{"name":"Madárlátta","meaning":"This adjective literally means “bird-seen”: it refers to some packed food you took along to a hike, an outing, a picnic, or some other trip, but then you took it home intact without eating it. The birds may have seen it in your backpack.","language":"Hungarian","tags":["food"]},{"name":"Virago","meaning":"A relentlessly scolding woman with a loud voice.  A fearless, aggressive woman.","language":"Old English","tags":["gender","negative"]},{"name":"Lagom","meaning":"Lagom is a Swedish word which means not too much, but not too little; not too many, not too few–just the right amount.","language":"Swedish","tags":["measurement"]},{"name":"Lucu","meaning":"Literally means funny and cute. It is customarily used to describe something like a clumsy puppy, falling over and making a fool of itself — it’s simultaneously cute and funny!","language":"Bahasa Indonesia","tags":["funny","description","positive"]},{"name":"Gunnen","meaning":"To allow someone to have a positive experience, especially if that means you won’t have it (always with an element of sympathy).","language":"Dutch","tags":["action","positive","sympathy"]},{"name":"Tuko pamoja","meaning":"“We are together.” Denotes a shared sense of purpose and motivation in a group. It transcends mere agreement, and implies empathetic understanding among the members of the group.","language":"Swahili","tags":["community","positive"]},{"name":"Sigurista","meaning":"A person who is particularly concerned that everything goes as planned. The kind of person who will not initiate a particular action unless he feels 100% sure that the desired result would be obtained.","language":"Tagalog","tags":["person"]},{"name":"Abbiocco","meaning":"The drowsiness experienced after eating a big meal.","language":"Italian","tags":["feeling","food"]},{"name":"Fiambre","meaning":"Food prepared for the dead/spirits.","language":"Spanish","tags":["food","dead"]},{"name":"Lingam","meaning":"“The symbol of the erect penis as an object of veneration”.","language":"Sanskrit","tags":["sex","symbol"]},{"name":"Narguer","meaning":"Verb used to describe mocking someone when you have the advantage over them. “Narguer” would be for example bragging to your friends about having your holidays start early, implying particularly that they don’t.","language":"French","tags":["description","person","community"]},{"name":"Nakama","meaning":"Used to refer to a friend who one considers family.  He’s not your friend, but he’ll stand by you no matter what. He’s not your ally, but he’ll fight by your side. He’s not your boyfriend, but he loves you dearly.  His is a pure and platonic love, untainted by sexual feeling.","language":"Japanese","tags":["love","friendship","family"]},{"name":"Ikigai","meaning":"Ikigai is a Japanese word meaning “reason for being.” On the island of Okinawa, it is thought of as “a reason to get up in the morning,” a philosophy which has been linked to the longevity of the people there.","language":"Japanese","tags":["meaning","existence"]},{"name":"Viraag","meaning":"The emotional pain caused by separation from a loved one.","language":"Hindi","tags":["pain","feeling","love","family"]},{"name":"Cacharpaya","meaning":"Cacharpaya is roughly translated as “party for somebody who is going away”. It is also the name given to music played at such parties.","language":"Spanish","tags":["party","community","music"]},{"name":"Hygge","meaning":"Spending a calm, comfortable time with good friends or loved ones, often while enjoying good food, snacks and something to drink.","language":"Danish","tags":["food","positive","family"]},{"name":"Toyi-toyi","meaning":"Pronounced and alternatively spelled as “toy-toy”, this refers to a form of protest that involves dancing and singing, commonly practised in Southern Africa.","language":"Ndebele","tags":["politics","dance","music"]},{"name":"Mutterseelinallein","meaning":"Literally “mother-soul alone,” it means “a feeling of devastating loneliness–so lonely that it is as if your mother’s soul has left you.” Pronounced “mut-tare-zay-lin-uh-line” (the first syllable rhymes with “put”).","language":"German","tags":["feeling","lonelinessn"]},{"name":"Empacho","meaning":"Abdominal pain and distension with much discomfort. This is what happens after eating too much, it is not indigestion nor food poisoning but can result in gastro symptoms i.e: vomiting, diarrhoea, bloating, flatulence.  It is the result of being a glutton rather than an infection.","language":"Mexican Spanish","tags":["feeling","pain","food"]},{"name":"Bezzeg","meaning":"It means something like “of course,” “sure enough,” “needless to say,” or “there you go (again).” Apart from the sharp contrast, it often implies dissatisfaction or indignation (sometimes envy). It can refer to a positive counter-example, e.g. a “bezzeg” child is one often mentioned to other children that they should behave like him/her. A “bezzeg” country is one where they can seemingly manage things properly (wishing if only one’s own country could do the same). It can also refer to some unfair difference in one’s treatment.","language":"Hungarian","tags":["negative","phrase"]},{"name":"Casus belli","meaning":"An act justifying war.","language":"Latin","tags":["war"]},{"name":"Tíma","meaning":"The verb “tíma” in Icelandic means not being ready to spend money (or anything else of value) on a specific thing despite being able to afford it.","language":"Icelandic","tags":["money"]},{"name":"Uitbuiken","meaning":"Literally translated as “to expand the stomach”. It’s taking your time during a meal, relaxing in between courses.","language":"Dutch","tags":["food","time","phrase"]},{"name":"Masaka","meaning":"A common expression of surprise or disbelief. Can also indicate doubt or suspicion.","language":"Japanese","tags":["feeling","surprise"]},{"name":"Concuño","meaning":"It is the relationship between two men that marry sisters (or two women that marry brothers). It describes a familial relationship that is important even if it is not that common.","language":"Spanish","tags":["relationship","family","gender"]},{"name":"Eislaufmutter","meaning":"Literally translated “the mother of an ice skater”. A mother who is overambitious for her children and pushes them to their absolute limits.","language":"German","tags":["family","ambition"]},{"name":"Nu","meaning":"Word expressing indifference or confusion about learning irrelevant information.  Often translated as “so what?”","language":"Yiddish","tags":["indifference","feeling","phrase"]},{"name":"Fýrgebræc","meaning":"Old English word meaning “the crackling sound made by a fire”.","language":"Old English","tags":["sound","fire"]},{"name":"Yoko meshi","meaning":"Literally, “horizontal rice” or “a meal eaten sideways.” This is how the Japanese define the peculiar stress induced by speaking a foreign language: yoko is a humorous reference to the fact that Japanese is normally written vertically, whereas most foreign languages are written horizontally.","language":"Japanese","tags":["stress","language"]},{"name":"Fägnäscht","meaning":"It describes someone who always moves or jerks while sleeping or while they try to fall asleep.","language":"Swiss German","tags":["description","person","sleep"]},{"name":"Gökotta","meaning":"To wake up early in the morning with the purpose of going outside to hear the first birds sing.","language":"Swedish","tags":["time","early"]},{"name":"Ikibari","meaning":"Literally, a “lively needle”.  Used to describe a man who is willing but under-endowed.","language":"Japanese","tags":["person","sex","gender","body"]},{"name":"Ayurnamat","meaning":"A word describing the philosophy that there is no point in worrying about events that cannot be changed.","language":"Inuit","tags":["feeling"]},{"name":"Backpfeifengesicht","meaning":"A face in need of slapping.","language":"German","tags":["violence","body"]},{"name":"Torschlusspanik","meaning":"Literally translated as a “gate-closing panic”. It is sense of anxiety or fear that one’s life is passing them by and that their future opportunities are diminishing.","language":"German","tags":["anxiety","death"]},{"name":"Mahj","meaning":"Looking beautiful after having a disease.","language":"Persian","tags":["health","appearance","description"]},{"name":"Plaatsvervangende schaamte","meaning":"Literally “place-replacing shame”. Feeling a sense of shame on behalf of someone else, usually for someone who seems oblivious to his failure or act of stupidity.","language":"Dutch","tags":["feeling","shame","community"]},{"name":"Mamihlapinatapai","meaning":"A look shared between two people where each person is wishing that the other will initiate something they both desire but which neither one wants to start.","language":"Yaghan","tags":["love","community"]},{"name":"Qarrtsiluni","meaning":"“Sitting together in the darkness, waiting for something to burst.”","language":"Iñupiaq","tags":["love","community"]},{"name":"Kyoikumama","meaning":"Literally translated as “education mother”.  Refers to the stereotypical Japanese mother who pushes her children far too hard with schoolwork.","language":"Japanese","tags":["education","family","expectations"]},{"name":"Kupu-kupu malam","meaning":"Literal meaning: night butterfly.\n\nReal meaning: prostitute.","language":"Indonesian","tags":["sex"]},{"name":"Koyaanisqatsi","meaning":"This Native American word means “nature out of balance” or a “way of life that is so crazy it calls for a new way of living”.","language":"Hopi","tags":["feeling","life"]},{"name":"Attaccabottoni","meaning":"A boring person who corners people and tells long, sad tales.","language":"Italian","tags":["person","boring","description"]},{"name":"Pied-a-terre","meaning":"Literally: foot on the ground. A secondary residence for occasional use, often work-related.","language":"French","tags":["place","work"]},{"name":"Pulang","meaning":"“To go home”. A very commonly used word in Indonesia.","language":"Indonesian","tags":["home","action"]},{"name":"Scelleraggine / Scellerataggine","meaning":"Describes the act of a very wicked or evil person; a mean, cowardly, infamous and shameful act (which in Italian could be also described as ‘atto nefando’ another phrase that is quite difficult to translate).","language":"Italian","tags":["person","action","negative"]},{"name":"Denize girse kurutur","meaning":"A person who can’t do anything right.","language":"Turkish","tags":["person","description","negative"]},{"name":"Viitsima","meaning":"A mild feeling of laziness and disinclination towards being “bothered” by anything.  One doesn’t want to work, go anywhere, or do anything specific.","language":"Estonian","tags":["feeling","laziness","work"]},{"name":"Swadge","meaning":"The rest in between courses or during a meal to let your food digest and create space to continue eating.","language":"Orcadian","tags":["food","time"]},{"name":"Razbliuto","meaning":"The sentimental feeling you have about someone you once loved but no longer do.","language":"Russian","tags":["feeling","love","time"]},{"name":"Að Nenna","meaning":"Icelandic. To be in the mood for or willing to do something, usually a tedious task.","language":"Icelandic","tags":["feeling","work","effort"]},{"name":"Sunao","meaning":"A word that is often translated as “meek,” “docile,” “obedient,” or even “submissive.” But all those words have a slightly negative connotation, and sunao is regarded as a positive characteristic.","language":"Japanese","tags":["positive","description","obedient"]},{"name":"κάτι τρέχει στα γύφτικα","meaning":"It communicates the meaning ‘who cares?,’ but the literal translation of the phrase is ‘there is trouble in the gypsy village’.","language":"Greek","tags":["unconcern","effort"]},{"name":"Sprezzatura","meaning":"Sprezzatura (Italian pronunciation: [sprettsaˈtura]) is an Italian word originating from Baldassare Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier, where it is defined by the author as “a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it”.","language":"Italian","tags":["effort","fashion"]},{"name":"Ajeno","meaning":"Something that belongs to someone else.","language":"Spanish","tags":["community"]},{"name":"Uovo di Colombo","meaning":"Literally: “Egg of Colombus”.  A simple, obvious, idea that doesn’t occur to the person whom it would most benefit.","language":"Italian","tags":["idea","wisdom"]},{"name":"Oppholdsvær","meaning":"A word used to describe weather.  It means that it is not raining or snowing.","language":"Norwegian","tags":["weather"]},{"name":"Elmë","meaning":"Elmë means ‘we’, but it is a ‘we’ meaning a person, someone else, and the speaker, but specifically not including the person he is addressing.","language":"Quenya","tags":["community"]},{"name":"Trennungsagentur","meaning":"Someone hired by a woman to tell her boyfriend he has been dumped.","language":"German","tags":["work","love"]},{"name":"Koi No Yokan","meaning":"The sense one can have upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall in love.  Differs from “love at first sight” as it does not imply that the feeling of love exists, only the knowledge that a future love is inevitable.","language":"Japanese","tags":["love","fate"]},{"name":"Xingfu","meaning":"A sort of happiness or contentedness felt through having everything you want in life and/or not having any looming worries. It describes a long-term feeling about one’s life situation rather than a happiness achieved through a singular outcome or situation.","language":"Chinese","tags":["happiness","life","positive"]},{"name":"Orenda","meaning":"The power of human will to change the world. Set up as an opposing force to fate or destiny. If powerful forces beyond your control are trying to force a particular outcomes, orenda is a kind of vocalised summoning of personal strength to change this.","language":"Huron","tags":["fate","will"]},{"name":"Stiob","meaning":"A form of parody requiring such a degree of over-identification with the subject being parodied that it becomes impossible to tell where the love for that subject ends and the parody begins.","language":"Russian","tags":["funny","affection"]},{"name":"Le’hashmia","meaning":"“To show” someone something is to present him or her with a visual experience; this word is the auditory equivalent. e.g. I would like to ___ you a song. In some cases you “play” a song for someone, but this term is more specific.","language":"Hebrew","tags":["community"]},{"name":"Astre","meaning":"Means “celestial body,” which also has a literal equivalent in French: “corps celeste”.","language":"French","tags":["space"]},{"name":"Barsa","meaning":"Refers to a person who does not respect others and who acts in a shamelessly cocky and annoying manner towards strangers.  The kind of person who walks into your home uninvited and immediately opens the fridge and starts eating.","language":"Chilean Spanish","tags":["confident","person","negative"]},{"name":"Kyoikumama","meaning":"A mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement.","language":"Japanese","tags":["family","expectations"]},{"name":"Sungkem","meaning":"This word from an Indonesian regional language means a salute given to parents or older people during special occasions, or in a royal presence, by clasping both hands together, aligning the thumb with the nose, turning one’s face downwards and bowing deeply, bending from the knees.","language":"Javanese","tags":["greeting","respect"]},{"name":"Eshtaneya","meaning":"A word used when asking “what number in a series?”, to be answered by ordinals like “First”, “Second” or “Hundredth”. You could use this word when asking a person what number they were of their parent’s children. Asking if they were the first, second, or third child in their family, etc.","language":"Kannada","tags":["measurement"]},{"name":"Skadeglädje","meaning":"The joy or happiness you feel because someone else is unhappy.","language":"Swedish","tags":["happiness","description","community"]},{"name":"Poshlost","meaning":"Poshlost is the Russian version of banality, with a characteristic national flavoring of metaphysics and high morality, and a peculiar conjunction of the sexual and the spiritual. This one word encompasses triviality, vulgarity, sexual promiscuity, and a lack of spirituality. The war against “poshlost” was a cultural obsession of the Russian and Soviet intelligentsia from the 1860s to 1960s.","language":"Russian","tags":["unconcern","sex","religion"]},{"name":"Verschlimmbesserung","meaning":"A supposed improvement that makes things worse.","language":"German","tags":["negative","phrase"]},{"name":"Dii-KOYNA","meaning":"To destroy one’s own property in anger.","language":"Ndebele,SouthAfrica","tags":["violence","land"]},{"name":"Mendokusai","meaning":"It means something is too much of a hassle. A way of saying you can’t be bothered to do whatever task it is.","language":"Japanese","tags":["unconcern","work"]},{"name":"Golpista","meaning":"One who participates in a military coup.","language":"Spanish","tags":["law","politics"]},{"name":"Mana","meaning":"In Polynesian culture (the word “mana” is a cognate in many Oceanic languages), mana is a spiritual quality of supernatural origin—a sacred impersonal force existing in the universe. To have mana is to have influence, authority, and power to perform in a given situation. Mana is not limited to human application: governments, places and inanimate objects can also possess mana. People and objects that have mana are accorded respect because their mana gives them authority, power, and prestige.","language":"Samoan","tags":["religion","power"]},{"name":"Zanshin","meaning":"A state of relaxed mental alertness in the face of danger.","language":"Japanese","tags":["feeling","relaxation"]},{"name":"Ashrag","meaning":"Noun used to refer to a male animal that has one testicle larger than the other.","language":"Hebrew","tags":["sex","gender"]},{"name":"Chindogu","meaning":"Something that solves a particular common problem, but is useless otherwise.","language":"Japanese","tags":[""]},{"name":"Arlésienne","meaning":"L'”Arlésienne” (pronounced “arr-lay-zi-enn”) was originally the name of a play where a character, l’Arlésienne (litt. “the girl from Arles”, a French town), is spoken of for the whole play but never actually appears on stage.","language":"French","tags":[""]},{"name":"Vorgestern and Übermorgen","meaning":"“The day before yesterday” and “the day after tomorrow,” respectively.","language":"German","tags":["time"]},{"name":"Duende","meaning":"A climactic show of spirit in a performance or work of art, often applied to flamenco dancing or bull-fighting.","language":"Spanish","tags":["feeling"]},{"name":"Pålegg","meaning":"Means anything you can put on a slice of bread. (condiments, cheese, ham, nugatti, pj, anything and everything you could fit on a slice of bread).","language":"Norwegian","tags":["food"]},{"name":"Poudrerie","meaning":"A word that refers to the wind blowing freshly fallen, powdery snow across streets and highways.","language":"Quebecois French","tags":["weather","description"]},{"name":"Schadenfreude","meaning":"Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. Literally ‘Shame-joy’.","language":"German","tags":["feeling","pleasure"]},{"name":"Khristosovatsya","meaning":"To kiss three times as part of an Easter ritual.","language":"Russian","tags":["love","religion"]},{"name":"Farpotshket","meaning":"Something that is all fouled up, especially as the result of attempts to fix it–repeatedly making something worse while trying to fix it.","language":"Yiddish","tags":["negative"]},{"name":"Che palle","meaning":"Literally “what balls”. Used to express frustration, annoyance, and a general “ugh”.  Its English meaning is close to “this sucks“.","language":"Italian","tags":["frustration"]},{"name":"Vovohe Tahtsenaotse","meaning":"To prepare the mouth before speaking by moving or licking one’s lips.","language":"Cheyenne","tags":["body"]},{"name":"Toska","meaning":"Vladmir Nabokov describes it best: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”","language":"Russian","tags":["pain","negative"]},{"name":"Kokusaijin","meaning":"This noun has a literal translation as “an international person”","language":"Japanese","tags":["person"]},{"name":"Pechvogel","meaning":"A German word for a chronically unlucky person.","language":"German","tags":["person","description","negative"]},{"name":"Davka","meaning":"Emphasis on first vowel.\n\nA word with several meanings:\n\n1. Done on purpose/done in spite.\nExample: “Jon pushed that kid davka.” (This means he did it on purpose, not by mistake)\n\n2. On the contrary/actually.\nExample:\n“I thought you didn’t like basketball.”\n“What do you mean? I davka ADORE basketball.”","language":"Hebrew","tags":[""]},{"name":"Putzfimmel","meaning":"A mania for cleaning.","language":"German","tags":["cleaning"]},{"name":"Chán","meaning":"The feeling of wanting to eat but not being hungry–not as a result of drug usage.","language":"Mandarin","tags":["food"]},{"name":"Gigil","meaning":"The irresistible urge to pinch someone because the object/person is well liked/loved.","language":"Tagalog","tags":["action"]},{"name":"Weltschmerz","meaning":"Similar to world-weariness, but particularly applied to privileged young people.","language":"German","tags":["description"]},{"name":"Iktsuarpok","meaning":"A person who goes outside often to see if anyone is coming.","language":"Inuit","tags":["person","description"]},{"name":"Bakku-shan","meaning":"A woman who “seems pretty when seen from behind but not from the front.”","language":"Japanese","tags":["person","gender","attraction"]},{"name":"Zuò Yuè Zi","meaning":"Literally “sitting the month”.  A Chinese custom where a woman spends a month in bed post-childbirth, traditionally being looked after by her mother-in-law (though in modern times she may stay at one of the “baby hotels” that have become popular).  The woman is only permitted to eat and drink certain foods and liquids, must be kept warm at all times, and is not allowed to wash her hair, amongst other requirements.","language":"Chinese","tags":["custom","community","gender"]},{"name":"Taarof","meaning":"This noun means accepting someone’s hospitality, particularly food and drink, but it also refers to showing the proper level of social respect in different situations.","language":"Persian","tags":["community","food","respect"]},{"name":"Shlimazl","meaning":"A chronically unlucky person.","language":"Yiddish","tags":["person","luck","negative"]},{"name":"Kalpa","meaning":"The passing of time on a grand, cosmological scale.","language":"Sanskrit","tags":["time"]},{"name":"Gesichtsbremse","meaning":"Literally “facebrake”.","language":"German","tags":["violence"]},{"name":"La petite mort","meaning":"Literally “the little death”; a metaphor for orgasm.  More widely, it can refer to the spiritual release that comes with orgasm, or a short period of melancholy or transcendence, as a result of the expenditure of the “life force”.","language":"French","tags":["death","sex"]},{"name":"Verstehen","meaning":"It roughly translates to “Meaningful Understanding” or putting yourself in the shoes of others in order to see things from their perspective.","language":"German","tags":["perspective","thinking"]},{"name":"Aiiyoh","meaning":"Said when a person cannot understand what is happening and is confounded or confused. The last syllable “Yoh” is often extended with the pitch and volume increasing relative to how frustrated the person is.","language":"Tamil","tags":["thinking"]},{"name":"Guanxi","meaning":"In traditional Chinese society, you would build up good guanxi by giving gifts to people, taking them to dinner, or doing them a favour, but you can also use up your gianxi by asking for a favour to be repaid. A form of social karma.","language":"Mandarin","tags":["community","karma"]},{"name":"Biao","meaning":"Pronounced “by-oww”.  Transitive verb, “to hang upon someone’s arm while walking in a way that restricts their movement.”","language":"Mandarin","tags":["body","action"]},{"name":"Genki","meaning":"“O-genki desu ka?” (“Are you genki?”) is the usual translation for the English phrase “How are you?” You answer it in the positive by saying, simply, “Genki desu.” But genki means more than simply “well” or “fine.” It also carries meanings of “healthy,” “energetic,” and “full of life.” Describing someone as genki often means that they are a positive, peppy person.","language":"Japanese","tags":["greeting","positive"]},{"name":"Zaida","meaning":"An alien, one who came from the outside.  A foreign invader","language":"Ukrainian","tags":["community","description"]},{"name":"Kummerspeck","meaning":"Excess weight gained due to emotion-caused overeating.","language":"German","tags":["body","weight"]},{"name":"Njuta","meaning":"Njuta (pronunciation: nyu-tah) – much more than “joy,” to have a deep appreciation of something, to have a profound experience of appreciation and gratitude, incorporates bliss and the gaining of something positive from your experience.","language":"Swedish","tags":["happiness","joy"]},{"name":"Hankikanto","meaning":"A frozen layer on top of snow that is hard enough to walk on.","language":"Finnish","tags":["weather","snow"]},{"name":"Voorpret","meaning":"Literally “pre-fun”. The sense of enjoyment we feel before an event actually takes places. I have “voorpret” when looking through brochures for the trip I’m about to take.","language":"Dutch","tags":["fun","happiness","pleasure"]},{"name":"Nunchi","meaning":"Literally translated as “eye-measure”. It is an important part of Korean communication. During certain social situations it is the ability to respond in a way that allows the other person to save face or not be embarrassed.","language":"Korean","tags":["embarrassment","community"]},{"name":"Meinichi","meaning":"Literally “Day of Honor.”  Word used to describe the anniversary of someone’s death.","language":"Japanese","tags":["honor","death"]},{"name":"Ubuntu","meaning":"“I am what I am because of who we all are.” (from a translation offered by Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee)","language":"Bantu languages,South Africa","tags":["community","description"]},{"name":"Sisu","meaning":"Sisu is a Finnish term loosely translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. However, the word is widely considered to lack a proper translation into any language. Sisu has been described as being integral to understanding Finnish culture. The literal meaning is equivalent in English to “having guts”, and the word derives from sisus, which means something inner or interior. However sisu is defined by a long-term element in it; it is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain an action against the odds. Deciding on a course of action and then sticking to that decision against repeated failures is sisu.","language":"Finnish","tags":["determination","will","desire"]},{"name":"Sgiomlaireachd","meaning":"When people rudely interrupt you at meal time.","language":"Scottish Gaelic","tags":["food"]},{"name":"Xenos","meaning":"Can be translated as both “foreigner” as well as a “foreigner or traveler brought into a relationship of long distance friendship”. Xenos can also be used simply to assert that someone is not a member of your community, that is, simply “foreigner” and with no implication of reciprocity or relationship.","language":"Greek","tags":["community","travel"]},{"name":"Kaelling","meaning":"A woman who stands on her doorstep yelling obscenities at her kids.","language":"Danish","tags":["gender","description","family"]},{"name":"Dostoprimechatelnost","meaning":"A place you can take notice of a hundred times. It is generally translated as a “point of interest”, but it means much more.","language":"Russian","tags":["place","description"]},{"name":"Aplaventrisme","meaning":"In French, “aplaventrisme” is the tendency of someone (or a nation) to bow before authority without a fight.","language":"French","tags":["person","cowardice"]},{"name":"Shinrin-yoku","meaning":"Forest bathing, or a visit to the forest for relaxation and breathing in tree oils to improve one’s health.","language":"Japanese","tags":["forest","description","nature"]},{"name":"Madrugada","meaning":"The period between “the dead of night” and “early morning”.  Roughly 1am-4am.","language":"Spanish","tags":["time"]},{"name":"Goya","meaning":"A contemplative “as-if” which nonetheless feels like reality.  The transporting suspension of disbelief that can occur, for example, in good storytelling.","language":"Urdu","tags":["belief","thinking"]},{"name":"Ukiyo","meaning":"Pronounced as “oo-ki-yo”, this means the “floating world”; a place of fleeting beauty and living in the moment, detached from the bothers of life.","language":"Japanese","tags":["life","death","description"]},{"name":"Wanderjahr","meaning":"A year or period of travel, especially following one’s schooling.","language":"German","tags":["travel","time"]},{"name":"Naz","meaning":"The word means “pride/arrogance”, but of a special sort. A quote from Salt and Saffron by Kamila Shamsie describes it perfectly. Naz is “the pride, the assurance that arises from knowing you are loved. From knowing that no matter what you do, you will always be loved”.","language":"Urdu","tags":["pride"]},{"name":"Anschlußtreffer","meaning":"Literally ‘connection hit’; it means, in football, the goal that reduces a team’s deficit from 2 goals to 1 goal.","language":"German","tags":["action"]},{"name":"Sabsung","meaning":"When you’re bored or have had a long day, it’s the thing that brings you back to life or livens up your day. Whatever it is that makes you happy to be alive.","language":"Thai","tags":["feeling","happiness"]},{"name":"Retrouvailles","meaning":"The joy experienced after meeting again after being a long time apart.","language":"French","tags":["happiness","joy","relationship","community"]},{"name":"Jieyu","meaning":"To break into jail in order to rescue a prisoner.","language":"Chinese","tags":["jail","description"]},{"name":"Doček","meaning":"A gathering organized due to someone’s arrival.  Similar to the English words “greeting” or “welcome,” but a doček does not have to be positive.","language":"Serbian","tags":["greeting","travel"]},{"name":"Enmadrarse","meaning":"For a child who becomes attached excessively to her mother.","language":"Spanish","tags":["person","family"]},{"name":"Waldeinsamkeit","meaning":"The feeling of being alone in the woods.","language":"German","tags":["solitude","nature"]},{"name":"Queesting","meaning":"To allow a lover access to one’s bed for chitchat.","language":"Dutch","tags":["love","sex","communication"]},{"name":"Ponte","meaning":"While it literally means “bridge,” this word also refers to an extra day off taken to make a national holiday falling on a Tuesday or Thursday into a four-day vacation.","language":"Italian","tags":["time","holiday"]},{"name":"Swaffelen/Zwaffelen","meaning":"To repeatedly hit something with one’s penis.","language":"Dutch","tags":["sex","action"]},{"name":"Mokita","meaning":"A word for something that everyone knows but no one ever talks about.","language":"Kivila","tags":["communication","description"]},{"name":"Kaizen","meaning":"Small incremental changes that add up to large improvements over time.","language":"Japanese","tags":["improvement","time"]},{"name":"Donaldkacsázás","meaning":"Literally means “Donald Duck-ing”.  Wearing a shirt but no pants nor underpants at home.","language":"Hungarian","tags":["clothing","home"]},{"name":"아쉬움","meaning":"It’s the feeling you get when you fail an exam by 1%. Or what you experience when you’ve probably eaten enough, but feel like there’s a little something missing. When you say ‘That’s a shame’, “If only this had(n’t) happened!” or ‘Oh well, I guess there’s nothing to be done…’, you are feeling 아쉬움.","language":"Korean","tags":["failure","negative"]},{"name":"Traktir","meaning":"To treat your friend(s) (usually to a restaurant or a karaoke) on some special occasion, such as birthday or any other happy moments (acceptance to college, etc).","language":"Russian","tags":["friendship","holiday","celebration"]},{"name":"Přizabít se","meaning":"Literally it means “to nearly kill oneself” and it is often used in colloquial Czech when referring to a situation in which someone was very close to getting seriously hurt, but surprisingly managed to survive without any severe harm. This distinguishes “přizabít se” from actual “nearly killing oneself”.","language":"Czech","tags":["violence","fear","hurt"]},{"name":"Okuri-okami","meaning":"A man who feigns thoughtfulness by offering to see a girl home only to try to molest her once he gets in the door – literally, a “see-you-home wolf”","language":"Japanese","tags":["sex","violence","negative"]},{"name":"Potlatch","meaning":"An opulent ceremonial feast among certain North American Indian peoples of the north-west coast at which possessions are given away or destroyed to display wealth or enhance prestige.","language":"Chinook jargon","tags":["food","communication","destruction"]},{"name":"Firgun","meaning":"An act of saying nice things or doing nice things to another person without any other purpose, but to make the other feel good about what he is or what he does.","language":"Hebrew","tags":["happiness","communication"]},{"name":"De doofpot","meaning":"Literally translated as “the extinguisher”.","language":"Dutch","tags":["description"]},{"name":"Betsubara","meaning":"Loosely translates to “extra stomach”. It is generally used to describe a female who always has room for dessert.","language":"Japanese","tags":["food","dessert"]},{"name":"Sitzpinkler","meaning":"Slang for “wimp,” literally translated as “a man who sits to pee”.","language":"German","tags":["negative","insult"]},{"name":"Mise en abyme","meaning":"“Mise en abyme” is the process of making an image that contains itself with infinite recursion (for example, as observed while standing between two mirrors). It can be used metaphorically to describe infinite nesting (a dream within a dream, a story within a story) or self-referential discourse (a book or a movie whose content refers to itself).","language":"French","tags":["self-reference","awareness"]},{"name":"Aşermek","meaning":"Noun, a pregnant woman who is craving for a particular food.","language":"Turkish","tags":["person","gender","pregnancy","food"]},{"name":"Meraki","meaning":"The word may be quite close to “ardor,” but is exclusively used when referring to one’s own creations. For example, when making a piece of furniture or cooking a dish, and really loving what you do, putting all your effort and creativity into it, you can be said to be doing it with “meraki”.","language":"Greek","tags":["creation","happiness"]},{"name":"Kilig","meaning":"That feeling you get from having interacted with a person you love or find attractive – butterflies in your stomach, blushing, giggling/smiling uncontrollably.","language":"Tagalog","tags":["happiness"]},{"name":"Kijkersfile","meaning":"Literally ‘watchers-jam,’ a traffic jam caused by people on the opposite side of a motorway slowing down to look at the accident that caused the original traffic jam on the other side.","language":"Dutch","tags":["description","traffic"]},{"name":"Szimpatikus","meaning":"“I often find I need to say this word to an English person but can never find the right one to describe it.  It describes the feeling you get when you meet a person for the first time and your intuition tells you he is a good person.  You say this person’s “szimpatikus”.  They seem like a decent, friendly human being.  You get a ‘good vibe’ from them.”","language":"Hungarian","tags":["happiness","feeling"]},{"name":"Pilkunnussija","meaning":"Literally: a comma fucker. A pedant; a person who corrects trivial or meaningless things.","language":"Finnish","tags":["trivial","person","description"]},{"name":"Karoshi","meaning":"Death from overwork.","language":"Japanese","tags":["death","work","negative"]},{"name":"Komorebi","meaning":"The sort of scattered, dappled light effect that happens when sunlight shines in through tree leaves.","language":"Japanese","tags":["light","nature","description"]},{"name":"Krevatomourmoura","meaning":"Compound word κρεβάτι (bed) + μουρμούρα (murmur). When one (especially woman) keeps complaining about something or everything late at night in bed while the other (usually husband) is trying to sleep. “I haven’t slept at all; her krevatomourmoura lasted all night long…”","language":"Greek","tags":["person","sleep","complaint"]},{"name":"Dygn","meaning":"24 hours.  Instead of “day” which is just a part of a “dygn”. A dygn includes the morning, afternoon, evening and night.","language":"Swedish","tags":["time"]},{"name":"Vernichtungsschmerz","meaning":"Literally “pain of annihiliation”.  A medical term describing the horrendous amount of pain some patients with serious diseases feel.","language":"German","tags":["pain","pathos","feeling"]},{"name":"Yakamoz","meaning":"The bioluminescent light that a certain sea creature emits, resulting in a light show on the sea surface.","language":"Turkish","tags":["light","animal","ocean"]},{"name":"Dozywocie","meaning":"Many cultures share this concept, but Polish sums it up in a single word. “Parental contract with children guaranteeing lifelong support”","language":"Polish","tags":["community","family","support"]},{"name":"Eigengrau","meaning":"Lit. meaning “intrinsic gray”, but also refers to the dark grey colour seen by the eyes in perfect darkness, as a result of signals from the optic nerves.","language":"German","tags":["color","darkness"]},{"name":"Nivroku","meaning":"Not bad, suitable, right, good, appropriate.  Used to express the wish not to bring unhappiness, especially via the evil eye.","language":"Ukrainian","tags":["wish","positive"]},{"name":"Bêtise","meaning":"A small or silly act of naughtiness by a child.  These are minor annoyances that do not generally warrant punishment by themselves.  Several bêtises will probably warrant disciplinarian action.","language":"French","tags":["action","silly","child"]},{"name":"Engili","meaning":"The state of food when a person has taken/tasted a bite or morsel out of it. It is mildly taboo for Hindus to eat another person’s ‘engili’.","language":"Telugu","tags":["food","action"]},{"name":"La course à l’échalotte","meaning":"To hold somebody by the collar and by the bottom of the pants and force him to run.","language":"French","tags":["action","violence"]},{"name":"Łonaczyć","meaning":"(Hard to pronounce in English, close to something like: wo-natchy-ć, where the “ć” is a sound appearing in slavic languages) is a word from the  Silesian dialect that can mean basically everything. One can use it as a verb or as a noun (by changing its form to “łonaczydło”) and it is still correct. It is used when someone does not know how to call some activity or object but still wants to refer to it.","language":"Silesian","tags":["description"]},{"name":"Kintsugi","meaning":"“To repair broken pottery with gold”.","language":"Japanese","tags":["repair","broken"]},{"name":"Paasa","meaning":"A person who leads someone on (intentionally or not).  Appearing as if they are genuinely interested romantically when they aren’t.","language":"Tagalog","tags":["person","description","love","relationships"]},{"name":"Plotka-macher","meaning":"A gossipy troublemaker; the person who can’t wait to tell nasty tales about other people. Far worse than a mere yenta, the malicious plotka-macher takes pleasure in stirring up a wasp’s nest, causing bad feelings among people, being the bearer of scandalous news. They are not above telling lies to foment ill-feelings and break up relationships.  The kind of woman who never outgrew her 8th grade “mean girl” status.","language":"Yiddish","tags":["person","gossip","trouble","pleasure","negative"]},{"name":"Bausünde","meaning":"An architectural eyesore (literally: “construction sin”).","language":"German","tags":["description","architecture"]},{"name":"Cafuné","meaning":"To repeatedly run your fingers through someone’s hair. Usually done in a soft and affectionate manner.","language":"Portuguese","tags":["action","affection"]},{"name":"Age-tori","meaning":"To look worse after a haircut.","language":"Japanese","tags":["hair","appearance"]},{"name":"L’esprit d’escalier","meaning":"The feeling you get after leaving a conversation, when you think of all the things you should have said. Literally translate to “the spirit of the staircase”.","language":"French","tags":["feeling","communication","relationships","thinking"]},{"name":"Gadrii Nombor Shulen Jongu","meaning":"Giving an answer that is unrelated to the question, literally “to give a green answer to a blue question”.","language":"Tibetan","tags":["answer","communication"]},{"name":"Rhwe","meaning":"To fall asleep on the floor without a mat while drunk and naked.","language":"Tsonga,South Africa","tags":["sleep","food"]},{"name":"Inat","meaning":"An attitude of proud defiance, stubbornness and self-preservation to the detriment of everyone else.","language":"Serbian","tags":["proud","attitude"]},{"name":"Zapoi","meaning":"Two or more days of drunkenness usually involving a journey or waking up in an unexpected place.","language":"Russian","tags":["food","drink"]},{"name":"Rire dans sa barbe","meaning":"Literally, “to laugh in your beard”.  To laugh to oneself quietly while thinking about something that happened in the past.","language":"French","tags":["laugh","action","time"]},{"name":"Consuegro","meaning":"The relationship between two men (or women) whose children are married to each other. i.e. My father and my father-in-law are consuegros.","language":"Spanish","tags":["family","relationships","community"]},{"name":"Ulykkesbilen","meaning":"An “ill-fated car.”","language":"Danish","tags":["travel","negative"]},{"name":"Layogenic","meaning":"A person who is only good-looking from a distance.","language":"Tagalog","tags":["person","attraction","description"]},{"name":"Hallux","meaning":"“Hallux” (more rightly “hallex,” pronounced /’hal-lεks/) is a rare instance in Indo-European language of a single word for “big toe.” To put it in perspective, consider the more verbose Russian: большой палец ноги (pronounced /bʌl-‘ʃoj ‘pa-lᶦits nʌ-‘gi/, which means “big digit of the foot”.","language":"Latin","tags":["body"]},{"name":"Bricoleur du dimanche","meaning":"A person who starts building without clear plans, adding bits on the fly.  Someone who cobbles something together while madly improvising.","language":"French","tags":["person","improvisation"]},{"name":"Fremdscham","meaning":"Embarrassment felt on behalf of someone else (often someone so ignorant to what they have done that they don’t know that they should be embarrassed for themselves); vicarious embarrassment.","language":"German","tags":["embarrassment","relationships"]},{"name":"Culaccino","meaning":"The mark left on a table by a moist glass.","language":"Italian","tags":["description","table"]},{"name":"Cavoli Riscaldati","meaning":"An attempt to revive a dead love affair. Literally translated, it means “reheated cabbage.”","language":"Italian","tags":["love"]},{"name":"Kaapshljmurslis","meaning":"A person who is cramped while riding public transportation. If you’ve ever been on a bus or subway during rush hour then you know the feeling.","language":"Latvian","tags":["person","travel"]},{"name":"Házisárkány","meaning":"Literally translated as “home-dragon”.  A derogatory term for an impatient or ill-natured spouse.","language":"Hungarian","tags":["family","home","relationships","marriage"]},{"name":"Jhali","meaning":"A girl who is stubborn and silly but not mean. Generally used as an insult, but can also be used endearingly.","language":"Hindi","tags":["female","insult"]},{"name":"Pelinti","meaning":"To move very hot food around inside one’s mouth.","language":"Buli","tags":["food","temperature"]},{"name":"Parea","meaning":"Used to describe a group of friends that gather together purely for the enjoyment of each other’s company. The time between visits does not matter, the spirit between them is the same.","language":"Greek","tags":["friendship","feeling"]},{"name":"L’appel du vide","meaning":"Translates literally as “call of the void”. The urge some people get to jump from high places when they encounter them, for example when close to the edge of cliffs.","language":"French","tags":["pathos","feeling"]},{"name":"Pena Ajena","meaning":"Shame experienced on behalf of another person, even though that person may not experience shame.","language":"Spanish","tags":["feeling","embarrassment"]},{"name":"Jung","meaning":"A special feeling that is stronger than mere ‘love’ and can only often be proved by having survived a huge argument with someone.","language":"Korean","tags":["love","relationships"]},{"name":"Varen","meaning":"‘Varen’ in Dutch simply means to move in a vessel on the water – regardless of whether it’s a motor, sail or other-powered vessel.","language":"Dutch","tags":["travel","water"]},{"name":"Pihentagyú","meaning":"This adjective literally means “ of/with a relaxed brain” and it’s used to describe people who like to come up with very sophisticated jokes, too tiring and complicated for most other people (and which presumably require a rather too relaxed brain).","language":"Hungarian","tags":["describe","person","intelligence"]},{"name":"Geisterfahrer","meaning":"Literally “ghost driver”.  One who drives the wrong way up a motorway.","language":"German","tags":["travel"]},{"name":"Ondinnonk","meaning":"A word from the Iroquois tribes of North America referring to the soul’s innermost desires and its angelic nature. To follow one’s ondinnonk is thought to often lead to positive and kindly acts.","language":"Iroquoian","tags":["desire","positive"]},{"name":"Warmduschen","meaning":"Literally “hot shower”.  An insult used to refer to someone who is a wuss–afraid of taking a cold shower.","language":"German","tags":["insult","person"]},{"name":"Mbuki-mvuki","meaning":"To shuck off one’s clothes in order to dance.","language":"Bantu","tags":["clothing","community","dance"]},{"name":"Koro","meaning":"The belief that one’s penis is shrinking and will eventually disappear.","language":"Chinese","tags":["sex","body","negative"]},{"name":"Ahimsa","meaning":"Literally: the avoidance of violence.  A belief in the avoidance of violence or the killing of living creatures.","language":"Sanskrit","tags":["violence","negative"]},{"name":"Glasnost","meaning":"An open and frank discussion. Any process of justice of governance that is conducted transparently, in the open.","language":"Russian","tags":["communication","law"]},{"name":"Prozvonit","meaning":"To call someone but only let it ring once so that the other person will call you back.","language":"Czech","tags":["communication"]},{"name":"Dépayser","meaning":"The feeling of not being in one’s home country. Disorientation due to experience of unfamiliar surroundings. A sense in which one is “a fish out of water”.","language":"French","tags":["feeling","disorientation"]},{"name":"Morgenfrisk","meaning":"Feeling rested after a good night’s sleep.","language":"Danish","tags":["feeling","sleep"]},{"name":"Kibbitzer","meaning":"A person who gives unwanted advice. Also used to describe a person who keeps trying to talk to you while you are working.","language":"Yiddish","tags":["person","description","communication"]},{"name":"Amakudari","meaning":"Refers to a person employed by a firm in an industry he previously, as a government bureaucrat, was involved in regulating. Literally means “descent from heaven”.","language":"Japanese","tags":["work","politics","negative"]},{"name":"Glaikit","meaning":"Scots word that translates as stupid or foolish, but refers specifically to the facial expression which suggests there’s not much going on inside someone’s head or they don’t understand; like a stupid person, or a confused drunk.","language":"Scots","tags":["negative","body","thinking"]},{"name":"Mistimanchachi","meaning":"A light drizzle. This literally means “something that frightens Spanish-speaking urban people.” The people who speak Quechua are indigenous to the mountains of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, and are mostly rural. When a light drizzle starts, they just keep planting potatoes or herding sheep or walking wherever they are going, but the townspeople–mestizos–run for shelter.","language":"Quechua","tags":[""]},{"name":"Kamaki","meaning":"Greek men who frequent touristy areas looking for female tourists to court.","language":"Greek","tags":["attraction","person","relationships"]},{"name":"Riq","meaning":"An Arabic word that means ” on an empty stomach”.   For example: “this medicine is to be taken on a riq”.","language":"Arabic","tags":["food","body"]},{"name":"Dérive","meaning":"An aimless walk through the city streets.","language":"French","tags":["travel","aimless","direction"]},{"name":"Che","meaning":"An expression used very frequently in South America (especially Argentina and Uruguy). It is used to make a person or a group aware you want to talk to him/them or have something to say. It does not have a meaning in itself.","language":"Spanish","tags":["communication","awareness"]},{"name":"Amigovia/o","meaning":"A friend with benefits; a combination of amiga/o and novia/o. Also “un amiga/o con derechos a roce” (a friend with the rights to rub against–where “roce” is from the verb “rozar” to rub against, to touch lightly).","language":"Spanish","tags":["sex","relationships","person"]},{"name":"Lebensmüde sein","meaning":"Lit. ‘being lifetired’, possibly meaning that you either did something extremely dangerous (“Bist du lebensmüde?” / Are you lifetired?) or used to accuse someone of having lost all their joy in living.","language":"German","tags":["danger","insult","life"]},{"name":"Oka/SHETE","meaning":"Urination difficulties caused by eating frogs before the rain has duly fallen.","language":"Ndonga,Nigeria","tags":["body","action"]},{"name":"Zalatwic","meaning":"Can mean the same thing in English as “to do a cash job,” but the Polish term carries broader and more subtle inferences. It may refer to the use of friends, bribes, personal charm or connections to get something accomplished. Particularly useful under communism, as it was usually easier to get something you wanted by guile than through official channels.","language":"Polish","tags":["friends","politics","communication"]},{"name":"Mazhalai","meaning":"The way that toddlers and very young children speak – with an inability both to create clear sentences and to pronounce certain words (either because of difficult pronunciation/unfamiliarity with the word/wrong intention/etc…)","language":"Tamil","tags":["communication","children"]},{"name":"Hitzefrei","meaning":"Literally, “free of heat”. To be given the day off due to excessive temperatures.","language":"German","tags":["work","temperature"]},{"name":"Commuovere","meaning":"Commuovere is a word usually lost in translation that comes close to meaning “heartwarming”, but in the sense that it directly relates to a story that has moved you to affectionate tears.","language":"Italian","tags":["affection","communication","positive"]},{"name":"Nakakahinayang","meaning":"A feeling of regret for not having used something or not having take advantage of a situation.  Can be translated as “what a waste,” but it addressed more directly the feeling of encountering something you ought to preserve or keep but are afraid to take the risk of doing so, in fear of the regret you may experience later.","language":"Tagalog","tags":["negative","regret","description"]},{"name":"Nezabarom","meaning":"Communicates the meaning “not a very long time ago,” but means literally, “not far away from the pub”.","language":"Ukrainian","tags":["time","food"]},{"name":"Amerissage","meaning":"The event of landing an aircraft on water.","language":"French","tags":["travel","water"]},{"name":"Nostalgie de la boue","meaning":"Nostalgie de la boue: literally, yearning for mud. Used to describe the feeling of being attracted to that which is depraved or below one’s stations.","language":"French","tags":["relationships","attraction"]},{"name":"Eomchina","meaning":"Eomchina (엄친아) is a hilarious Korean word that is a contraction of the phrase “Mom’s friend’s son” (엄마친구아들). Korean mothers are often very competitive and compare their children against the offspring of their friends. This word is used to describe a person who is more successful or skilled than you – the kind of person your mother would compare you to in a negative light so as to motivate you to study harder.","language":"Korean","tags":["family","communication","competition"]},{"name":"Gagung","meaning":"Literally meaning “bare branches,” this word is used to talk about men who have little chance to get married or start families due to China’s one-child policy and its results: an excess of marriageable males as compared to females.","language":"Cantonese","tags":["gender","attraction","community","negative"]},{"name":"Bepasikiškiakopūsteliaudamas","meaning":"“While one was picking wood sorrel”, with “s” in the ending removed if “one” refers to a female, and with “s” if “one” refers to a male. Wood sorrel, actually, is literally referred to as “rabbit’s cabbage”. It is also the longest word in the Lithuanian language. Needless to say, it is rarely used.","language":"Lithuanian","tags":[""]},{"name":"Bagstiv","meaning":"This word is best translated as “waking up in the morning still drunk from the night before. Either a little or a lot, but generally instead of having a nasty hangover.","language":"Danish","tags":["drink","sleep"]},{"name":"Yugen","meaning":"An awareness of the universe that triggers emotional responses too deep and mysterious to be described.","language":"Japanese","tags":["feeling","pathos"]},{"name":"Qiang jingtou","meaning":"When referring to a photographer it means a fight to get in a better position to take a picture. When not referring to a photographer, but to a person in general, it means someone who steals the spotlight.","language":"Chinese","tags":["person","awareness","description"]},{"name":"Xiang","meaning":"Xiang means aromatic, delicious, rich, and succulent. Xiang is used to describe something loaded with flavor, as when butter is used in cooking. Or if something smells very nice, it is described as Xiang.","language":"Chinese","tags":["food","positive"]},{"name":"Wat","meaning":"Pronounced “whaaat” (it’s a long ‘a’ sound).  Used to describe fish that is fresh and so perfectly cooked that it flakes easily into large pieces.","language":"Cantonese","tags":["food","description"]},{"name":"Lagniappe","meaning":"It means an unexpected extra. The word is often used in reference to an item given gratis at a store, bar, or restaurant.","language":"Louisiana Creole","tags":["food","surplus"]},{"name":"Istiqâra","meaning":"A request to receive spiritual or practical assistance in the form of a dream.","language":"Arabic","tags":["religion","sleep","dream"]},{"name":"Lekker","meaning":"An adjective that means everything from “tasty” to “sexy” to “feeling good, comfortable, relaxed, happy, and healthy.”","language":"Dutch","tags":["sex","description","happiness","feeling"]},{"name":"Fika","meaning":"Swedish word meaning meeting at a café, or at home, to drink coffee and eat pastries. But the focus is on the socialising and the fact that a ‘fika’ can go on for hours. A typical activity to suggest to someone when they want to catch up.","language":"Swedish","tags":["food","drink","action","communication","community"]},{"name":"Frotteur","meaning":"Individuals who get their jollies by rubbing their crotches against the buttocks of women in crowds.","language":"French","tags":["gender","sex","person","description"]},{"name":"Bilita Mpash","meaning":"The opposite of a nightmare.  Not merely a “good” dream, but a “legendary, blissful state where all is forgiven and forgotten”.","language":"Bantu","tags":["sleep","dream","description","positive"]},{"name":"Kilkanascie","meaning":"A word meaning “a number between 11 and 19”.  Formed from the Polish word for “a few” and the word referencing the “teen” part of 13, 14, et cetera.  Sometimes translated as “a dozen or so”.","language":"Polish","tags":["number","measurement"]},{"name":"Fungee","meaning":"This is said at a meal when someone is so hungry that they are too distracted to notice who is seated at the communal bowl to eat, and only after taking a few bites do they ask, where’s so and so? Everyone at the bowl then laughs and says “a fungee” to the hungry person.","language":"Pulaar","tags":["food","hunger"]},{"name":"Kjæreste","meaning":"A gender neutral term for girlfriend or boyfriend. It literally translates as “dearest”, and can be used in similar constructions (for example, “kjæreste minne” means “dearest memory”).","language":"Norwegian","tags":["gender","relationships"]},{"name":"Les Postillons","meaning":"The droplets of spittle that come out of people’s mouths as they talk to you.","language":"French","tags":["body","communication"]},{"name":"Wabi-sabi","meaning":"Finding beauty in something considered imperfect, like the crack in the liberty bell, or the Venus de Milo’s lack of arms.","language":"Japanese","tags":["beauty","description","positive"]},{"name":"Shamozzle","meaning":"A disagreement between a group of men that can involve shoving but not as serious as one that involves punching or kicking.","language":"Irish","tags":["violence","disagreement"]},{"name":"Gâchis","meaning":"A good opportunity wasted by staggering levels of incompetence (from multiple sources) evidenced in its implementation.","language":"French","tags":["negative","opportunity","regret"]},{"name":"Räkkä","meaning":"1. Mosquito season, beginning around mid-June.\n\n2. A plague of mosquitoes.","language":"Finnish","tags":["time","animal"]},{"name":"Drachenfutter","meaning":"Literally translated as dragon’s food. It is a gift that a husband brings to his wife after pissing her off.","language":"German","tags":["food","relationships","spouse"]},{"name":"Stubenhocker","meaning":"Composed of “Stube” (older word for living room) and “hocker” (usually a chair without a backrest)\n\nIt describes a “stay-at-home”, a person who doesn’t meet anyone or leaves the house.","language":"German","tags":["person","home"]},{"name":"Bacheque","meaning":"Although the closest English translation of this African noun would be “con artist,”","language":"Lingala","tags":["person","negative"]},{"name":"Boh","meaning":"“I don’t know”.  Used to express uncertainty/doubt.","language":"Italian","tags":["doubt","communication"]},{"name":"Istories me arkoudes","meaning":"Literally “stories with bears”. Refers to narrated events so wild and crazy it seems that they can’t possibly be true.","language":"Greek","tags":["event","stories"]},{"name":"Kreng Jai","meaning":"Literally “deferential heart”. The desire not to see a friend go to any special trouble on your behalf.","language":"Thai","tags":["desire","friendship"]},{"name":"Bon Vivant","meaning":"A bon vivant is a person who is living the good life. Someone who lives luxuriously and enjoys good food and drink.","language":"French","tags":["life","positive","description","person"]},{"name":"Gattara","meaning":"A woman, often old and lonely, who devotes herself to stray cats.","language":"Italian","tags":["person","woman","gender","relationships"]},{"name":"Epibreren","meaning":"To go off and engage in unspecified, usually bureaucratic or administrative, activities that seem highly important but, in fact, are not, or nonexistent. First published by a Dutch author in 1954 referring to a bureaucratic excuse, the word was quickly adopted into Dutch to mean doing absolutely nothing while making it seem like you are immensely busy doing something important, or doing something vague, nonspecific and ultimately fruitless with an inquirer’s letter/complaint/request.","language":"Dutch","tags":["politics","negative"]},{"name":"Cazzimma","meaning":"Opportunistic cunning and ruthlessness; the resolute attitude of those who are shrewd and confident that they know how to get by, and are happy to harm others in order to do so.  People who will always act to their own advantage.","language":"Italian,Neapolitan dialect","tags":["confident","attitude","negative"]},{"name":"Radfahrer","meaning":"One who flatters superiors and browbeats subordinates.","language":"German","tags":["description","person","negative"]},{"name":"Ganbaru","meaning":"Usually translated as “to do one’s best.” To try as hard as you possibly can. To persist and persevere until you succeed. To hang in there. In the imperative (ie, “ganbatte,” “ganbare”), it can mean “Go for it!” or “Good luck!”","language":"Japanese","tags":["work","perseverance"]},{"name":"O-negai shimasu","meaning":"“If I may please ask of you to do this for me”.","language":"Japanese","tags":["phrase"]},{"name":"Bewwiel","meaning":"A bed-wetter. Strangely, it is most often used as a gruff term of affection.","language":"Maltese","tags":["affection","body"]},{"name":"Chantepleurer","meaning":"Singing and crying at the same time.","language":"French","tags":["feeling","sadness","action"]},{"name":"Beloruchka","meaning":"Literally translated as a “person with white hands”. It is a person who tends to avoid doing any dirty work.","language":"Russian","tags":["work","body","person"]},{"name":"Snorker","meaning":"A person who gets into others’ business.","language":"Early English","tags":["person","negative","description"]},{"name":"Khalas","meaning":"A term used to mean that something is completely and irrevocably done, finished, and over.","language":"Arabic","tags":["work","description"]},{"name":"Ganas","meaning":"Literally “urges”. To have ganas is to feel like doing…. I have ganas to eat Spanish ham!","language":"Spanish","tags":["desire"]},{"name":"Volta","meaning":"At sundown, the leisurely walk or stroll along the main street or seaside, to meet friends or neighbours.","language":"Greek","tags":["time","community"]},{"name":"Gula","meaning":"The feeling of wanting to eat just because of the taste, not because of hunger.","language":"Spanish","tags":["food","feeling","eating"]},{"name":"Conmoción","meaning":"Emotion held in common by a group or gathering.","language":"Spanish","tags":["community","emotion"]},{"name":"Uitwaaien","meaning":"To take a walk and get some fresh air. Also translated as to walk in the wind for fun.","language":"Dutch","tags":["walking","travel","positive"]},{"word":"Entrecejo","meaning":"The space between your eyebrows","language":"Spanish","tags":["description","body"]},{"word":"Concuñado","meaning":"Your brother s brother-in-law","language":"Spanish","tags":["family"]},{"word":"Merendar","meaning":"An afternoon snack — not a mid-morning one","language":"Spanish","tags":["time","food"]},{"word":"Friolento","meaning":"A person that is cold all the time","language":"Spanish","tags":["person","temperature"]},{"word":"Desvelado","meaning":"What you are the day after you didn't get any sleep","language":"Spanish","tags":["person","sleep"]},{"word":"Anteayer","meaning":"The day before yesterday","language":"Spanish","tags":["time"]},{"word":"Kuddelmiddel","meaning":"An unstructured mess","language":"German","tags":["mess"]},{"word":"Zugzwang","meaning":"Feeling pressure to make a strategic move when you would rather do nothing","language":"German","tags":["feeling","pressure"]},{"word":"Verschlimmbessern","meaning":"To make something worse in the very act of trying to improve it","language":"German","tags":["action","negative"]},{"word":"Kopfkino","meaning":"The act of playing out an entire scenario in your mind. Literally, head cinema","language":"German","tags":["thinking"]},{"word":"Fremdschaemen","meaning":"The feeling of being ashamed on someone else s behalf","language":"German","tags":["embarrassment"]},{"word":"Sehnsucht","meaning":"An intense yearning for something far-off and indefinable","language":"German","tags":["pathos","longing"]},{"word":"Frühjahrsmüdigkeit","meaning":"A sense of litlessness brought on by the coming of Spring","language":"German","tags":["longing"]},{"word":"Luftschloss","meaning":"An unrealistic dream. Literally an air castle","language":"German","tags":["dream","thinking"]},{"word":"Utepils","meaning":"To sit outside on a sunny day enjoying a beer","language":"Norwegian","tags":["description","drink","weather"]},{"name":"Mångata","meaning":"The glimmering, roadlike reflection that the moon creates on water","language":"Swedish","tags":["description","water"]},{"name":"Tartle","meaning":"The act of hesitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name.","language":"Scottish","tags":["action","communication","negative"]},{"name":"Empêchement","meaning":" An unexpected last-minute change of plans. A great excuse without having to be specific.","language":"French","tags":["excuse","time"]},{"name":"Glas wen","meaning":"A smile that is insincere or mocking. Literally, a blue smile.","language":"Welsh","tags":["insincerity","negative"]},{"name":"Vybafnout","meaning":"A word tailor-made for annoying older brothers-- it means to jump out and say boo.","language":"Czech","tags":["action","phrase","fear"]},{"name":"Slampadato","meaning":"Addicted to the infra-red glow of tanning salons? This word describes you.","language":"Italian","tags":["person"]},{"word":"Te Quiero","meaning":"When you more than like someone, but not quite love them — it s complicated, and doesn't literally translate to I desire you'","language":"Spanish","tags":["affection","love","desire"]},{"word":"Treppenwitz","meaning":"Things you should have said. Literally a staircase joke- w witty comeback you thought of too late","language":"German","tags":["communication","regret"]},{"word":"Yuputka","meaning":"A word made for walking in the woods at night, it’s the phantom sensation of something crawling on your skin.","language":"Ulwa","tags":["body","negative","feeling"]},{"word":"Gumusservi","meaning":"Meteorologists can be poets in Turkey with words like this at their disposal. It means moonlight shining on water.","language":"Turkish","tags":["light","water","description"]},{"word":"Mencolek","meaning":"You know that old trick where you tap someone lightly on the opposite shoulder from behind to fool them? The Indonesians have a word for it.","language":"Indonesian","tags":["trick","action","mischief"]},{"word":"Faamiti","meaning":"To make a squeaking sound by sucking air past the lips in order to gain the attention of a dog or child","language":"Samoan","tags":["sound","communication"]},{"word":"Boketto","meaning":"the act of gazing vacantly into the distance without thinking to give it a name.","language":"Japanese","tags":["pathos"]},{"word":"Esprit d escalier","meaning":"The literal translation is  staircase wit , but it means to think of a comeback when it's too late.","language":"French","tags":["communication","regret"]},{"word":"Mamihlapinatapei","meaning":"The wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start","language":"Yagan","tags":["love","affection","longing","relationships"]},{"word":"Ilunga","meaning":"the stature of a person who is ready to forgive and forget any first abuse, tolerate it the second time, but never forgive nor tolerate on the third offense.","language":"Bantu","tags":["person","forgiveness"]},{"word":"Ya aburnee","meaning":"Both morbid and beautiful at once, this incantatory word means “You bury me,” a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person because of how difficult it would be to live without them.","language":"Arabic","tags":["love","death","phrase"]},{"word":"Biritululo","meaning":"What do you normally do when you have a dispute? Do you talk things over? Go to court? Well, in New Guinea, to settle disputes, the people rely on biritululo. Biritululo is the act of comparing yams (and I am hoping that is meant in the literal sense) to settle a dispute.","language":"New Guinea","tags":["dispute"]},{"word":"Naamgenoot","meaning":"People with the same name","language":"Dutch","tags":["person","name"]},{"word":"Gezelligheid","meaning":"Comfort and coziness of being at home, with friends, with loved ones, or general togetherness","language":"Dutch","tags":["community","warmth","happiness","relationships"]},{"word":"Mahmihlapinatapai","meaning":"A look shared by two people, each wishing that the other will offer something that they both desire but are unwilling to suggest or offer themselves","language":"Yaghan","tags":["description","longing","desire","relationships"]}]