Friday, July 29, 2011

20 awesomely untranslatable words ...

I have tartled before, and I will tartle again.

7 comments:

Esteve said...

Perhaps some Republican voters will get a little "Ilunga" (#8 at the link) by the next election and move on from these weak kneed compromisers that are supposed to be our leaders.

Anonymous said...

1. 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.”
English = blueballs
Lt. Col. Gen. Tailgunner dick

Anonymous said...

Not really asking you to give away trade secrets, in other words, it's a rhetorical question, but how the hell do you find stuff like the above?

I could cruise the web continuously for days and never run across this excellent piece of trivia.

jd

Anonymous said...

I agree with Lt. Col. Gen. Tailgunner dick's disputation of the lack of translatability of Toska and add to his translation: "Socialism"

Anonymous said...

I think Toska sounds like depression. I developed a fascination with words when I discovered the meaning of codpiece.
Tim

JMcD said...

I love language and a favorite finding of mine was when I read that German immigrants to America using the word "ausgetzeichnet" were probably the source or the slang expression "out of sight".
The German word means "outstanding".
Kewl no?

JMcD said...

Oops!.... ausgezeichnet

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