MetaChat - Jaunums: Wordy Wednesday - What are your favorite words in other languages?

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06 February 2008

Jaunums: Wordy Wednesday - What are your favorite words in other languages? →[More:]

I'm lucky enough to speak a few different languages relatively well, and I know heaps and heaps of words in languages I don't really speak. But I have some favorites:

French: Pamplemousse (grapefruit) is up there, as is ralentisseur (speed bump, but literally (I think!), thing-that-makes-you-slow-down). My super-favorite, though, is embouteillage (traffic jam, seemingly coming from something like "bottling-up")! I also love when my friend Nat speeds past some pedestrians on her bike with a jingle of her bell and a crisp "Attention, velo!"

Indonesian: Polisi tidur (speed bump, but literally, this is "sleeping policeman!")

Latvian: The word jaunums (pronounced with the j making a y-as-in-yak sound; the word means "new") demands to be shouted from the rooftops. JAUNUMS!

What are yours? And should "Wordy Wednesday" be an institution here at MetaChat? Discuss!

post by: mdonley at: 09:07 | 17 comments

Aichaku (Japanese)- defined by the linked site as "the emotional patina that we develop with objects that we use."

posted by BoringPostcards 06 February | 09:24

There are tons of Yiddish words that are fun to say. Farshluggineh, plotz, mishpucheh, meshugeneh, mishugah. I wish I could speak Yiddish.

posted by amro 06 February | 09:26

A phrase not a word, but déformation professionnelle both sounds good and seems useful.

posted by TheophileEscargot 06 February | 09:30

Farshluggineh - crazy
plotz - burst
mishpucheh - family
meshugeneh - crazy

posted by amro 06 February | 09:31

Tjenestajenta!

I've likely spelt that wrong. It's Norwegian for "housekeeper" (or someone along those lines) and it sounds great in a singsongy voice.

posted by divabat 06 February | 09:58

Not one I like for the sound, but I love the 'yes said as a response to a question that expects the answer no' which in French is 'si' and in German is 'doch'. No single-word English equivalent that I know of.

posted by altolinguistic 06 February | 10:16

In Swedish I like the words for grandmother: mormor ‘mothermother’ & farmor ‘fathermother’; and for grandfather: morfar ‘motherfather’ & farfar ‘fatherfather’. Similarly, the word for grandchild: barnbarn is cute too.

posted by misteraitch 06 February | 10:22

I've always been partial to vaffanculo.

Also, I love the way that avocado and lawyer are the same word in French: avocat. You have to figure it out from the context and I occasionally amuse myself by figuring out sentences or whole paragraphs that could go right along confusing people.

posted by mygothlaundry 06 February | 10:45

My favorite word in Spanish has to be albondiga, which means meatball, but is really fun to say. A decade or so back there was a reggaeton song whose chorus repeated it several times. I'm assuming that like most words in Spanish that begin with al-, it's probably derived from Arabic.

It took me forever to learn how to pronounce smoothly, but embottellamiento is another favorite, mainly because it's got seven syllables. It means traffic jam.

posted by ufez 06 February | 10:53

ooh, yes, ufez, that's 'embouteillage' in French, similarly hard to pronounce but satisfying when you get it right. See also 'grenouille', 'fauteuil' and 'écureuil' (frog, armchair and squirrel).

posted by altolinguistic 06 February | 11:00

I love that hello in Finnish is 'hey' and goodbye is 'hey hey'. I have to stop myself from typing exclamation marks after them - they always sound so happy.

My boyfriend was born and grew up in in Papua New Guinea, and his first language was Tok Pisin. We use it a lot, particularly for the rude parts of the body - 'susu' is so much better sounding than tits (unless tits is actually what you mean). String bags are 'bilums' and youse/ya'll is 'yumitupela' He calls me 'nais meri bilong mi' - my beautiful woman.

I love some of the Scot phrases - the 'wee bairns' and 'dinnae ken'.

posted by goo 06 February | 12:57

Hawaiian produces a lot of my favorite words. I love Makai and Mauka for the concepts they contain: Makai means "toward the ocean," and "Mauka" means "away from the ocean" or "toward the mountains." What other directions would you need on an island?

You can't help but fall in love with the names for two types of lava: a'a and pahoehoe.

posted by Miko 06 February | 13:04

I like the way "fenestra" sounds in Latin. It's just a very pretty word, and it helped me enormously on, say, the SATs.

In German, my favorite word is "Schokolade," because I think it sounds nicer than "chocolate."

And in Korean, I'm quite fond of "gay-sekki," which is more like "hkeh-sekki." It's a dirty word that basically means "son of a bitch" in English. When I was in 9th grade, I told my obnoxious Latin teacher it was a respectful term for "teacher," and he believed me. ::snort::

posted by brina 06 February | 13:55

I love the way that avocado and lawyer are the same word in French: avocat.

Similarly, pomegranate and grenade. Send lawyers, guns, and money! The fruit has hit the fan.

posted by tangerine 06 February | 15:28

Lorca's favorite word in Spanish was "caracol" snail. Mine is Gaviota- seagull.
in German Zukunft-future.
In Irish, Uaigneas (oo-aig-nus) - loneliness. Portuguese- Cardoso, Miguel (do I need to translate? ;)
Catalan qualsevol, whatever, whichever, especially with that round vol at the end where you say it as if you havd a giant plum in your mouth.
I've always loved Tedeschi (German)in Italian simply because it just doesn't sound Italian to me!
French, I love the way they pronounce jade.
I'll leave it there I think

posted by Wilder 06 February | 15:29

pretty much all my favorite words are Japanese.

doki doki! is an onomatopoeia for "my heart is pounding" used to express surprise and/or enthusiasm.
mushi mushi is the standard "hello" greeting when one picks up the phone.

Another great onomatopoeia is gatchopon, referring to little toys you get from vending machines, by the sound the machine makes when dispensing them.

And then there's all the imported words. Basu baru (baseball) appuru pieyu (apple pie), necku tieyu (necktie) etc.

posted by pieisexactlythree 06 February | 16:29

I love the way that avocado and lawyer are the same word in French: avocat.

Similarly, pomegranate and grenade. Send lawyers, guns, and money! The fruit has hit the fan.

In Danish, "hugs and kisses" (knuse & kram) also means "smash and crash".

posted by divabat 19 February | 02:31

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