Here are some words that get enshrined within you only when you become part of that culture. They refuse to be obfuscated by globalized approximations and moral common-grounds. They bear the weight of their origin, their speakers and their abiders.
Arabic
- ya'aburnee: "may you bury me"; a hope that you die before someone, because you can't live without them
Bantu
- bilita mpash: "the opposite of a nightmare"; an amazing, blissful dream
- ubuntu: "I am because we are"; the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity
Buli (Ghana)
- pelinti: to move hot food around in your mouth
Czech
- litost: torment caused by the sudden sight of one's misery
Danish
- hygge: pleasure derived from sitting around a fire in the winter with close friends
French
- l'esprit de l'escalier: "stairwell wit"; a witty retort discovered only after it's too late for a comeback. Also, treppenwitz (German).
Georgian
- shemomedjamo: "I accidentally ate the whole thing"
- zeg: day after tomorrow. Also torshu (Bengali), overmorrow (dated).
German
- backpfeifengesicht: a face badly in need of a punch/slap
- kummerspeck: "grief bacon"; refers to excess weight gained from emotional overeating
- schadenfreude: pleasure derived from someone else's misfortune
- waldeinsamkeit: the feeling of being alone in a forest
Indonesian
- jayus: a joke so bad that it's funny
- mencolek: to trick someone by tapping them on the opposite shoulder from behind
Inuktitut
- iktsuarpok: feeling of anticipation when waiting for someone to arrive, causing you to keep looking outside to see if they are coming
Italian
- cavoli riscaldati: "reheated cabbage"; the result of attempting to revive an unworkable relationship
Japanese
- boketto: gazing vacantly into the distance
- ikigai: a motivating force; something or someone that gives a person a sense of purpose or a reason for living
- koi no yokan: "premonition of love", "love at second sight"; the foreknowledge of eventual love for someone upon first meeting them
- wabi-sabi: finding beauty in imperfection and impermanence
Persian
- mush bokhoradet: "may a mouse eat you"; an expression to mean someone is really cute
- zhaghzhagh: the clattering of teeth from cold or rage
Portugese
- cafune: tenderly running your fingers through your lover's hair
- saudade: a deep feeling of longing or nostalgia for an absent person or thing
Russian
- razbliuto: the sentiment for someone once loved but now no more
- toska: a deep, melancholic longing or spiritual anguish that often has no specific cause
Samoan
- faamiti: to squeak by sucking air past the lips to attract a dog or child
Sanskrit
- obhiman: a temporary displeasure towards a loved one that stems from feeling slighted, insulted, or hurt, but where the person also sees a valid point in the other's actions
Scottish
- tartle: the hesitation in introducing yourself to someone
Spanish
- sobremesa: time spent at the table after eating
Swedish
- uffda: an interjection of sympathy for somebody that hurt themselves. Also ahare! (Bengali)
Tagalog
- kilig: the feeling of butterflies in one's stomach
Ulwa (Nicaragua & Papua New Guinea)
- yuputka: the unsettling, phantom sensation of something crawling on your skin, especially when walking in the woods at night
Welsh
- hiraeth: a deep, nostalgic longing for a home, place, or time that is gone or may never have existed.
Yaghan (Tierra del Fuego archipelago, South America)
- mamihlapinatapai: a glance between two people, both of whom want the other person to initiate something they desire, both unwilling to start themselves (Most Succint Word, Guiness Book of World Records)
Yiddish
- luftmencsh: "air person"; an absent minded impractical person with his head in the clouds
- schlemiel/schlimazel: "coffee spiller/spillee"; prone to bad luck
They don't have proper English translations.
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