Rare Or Specialized Emotions & Words For Them

[Xanatic*]

Hamemakkt doesn't sound scottish to me, it sounds quite germanic.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Hamemakkt doesn't sound scottish to me, it sounds quite germanic.

Danish or Swedish?

 

[Xanatic*]

None of them specifically, just germanic.

 

[Xanatic*]

Basically it sounds like a combination of heim/hjem/hem for home and gemacht/mager for made. I don't think any of the germanic languages would use that phrasing but the words are definitely there.

 

[Ermintruder]

Basically it sounds like a combination of heim/hjem/hem for home and gemacht/mager for made. I don't think any of the germanic languages would use that phrasing but the words are definitely there.

Yes, that's nearly spot-on, but, the more-contemporary 'hamemakkt' (cf hamet) does also include an inference of misty-eyed emotional nostalgia. The original version is much closer to 'heimgemacht'

http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/hamet

Hamet, Hameit, a.[Var. of hameald Hamehald a.]
Home-produced. 1617 Edinb. B. Rec. VI. 169.
Of all hameit guids sic as woll, butter, cheis, lynt, hemp and uther cuntrie wairis;

ps well-done @JamesWhitehead , stick with 'Heimat'....a great production

 

[GerdaWordyer]

silience
n. the kind of unnoticed excellence that carries on around you every day, unremarkably—the hidden talents of friends and coworkers, the fleeting solos of subway buskers, the slapdash eloquence of anonymous users, the unseen portfolios of aspiring artists—which would be renowned as masterpieces if only they’d been appraised by the cartel of popular taste, who assume that brilliance is a rare and precious quality, accidentally overlooking buried jewels that may not be flawless but are still somehow perfect.[/QUOTE]
WHY! Why does this noise pollution exist? Why aren't ambient sounds enough, especially in the spring, when there are birds and breeze and people-watching sounds? Why do all cafes pipe in nasty pop. Why are buskers legal?

 

[uair01]

Do we have this one yet?

Gezelligheid is a Dutch abstract noun which, depending on context, can be translated as convivial, cosy, fun, quaint, or nice atmosphere, but can also connote belonging, time spent with loved ones, the fact of seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness that gives a warm feeling.

The only common trait to all descriptions of gezelligheid is a rather general and abstract sensation of individual well-being that one typically shares with others. All descriptions involve a positive atmosphere, flow or vibe that colors the individual personal experience in a favorable way and in one way or another corresponds to social contexts.

As this is a very vague and abstract notion, the word is considered to be an example of untranslatability, and is one of the hardest words to translate to English. Some consider the word to encompass the heart of Dutch culture.

 

[Ermintruder]

Hmmm...

gezelligheid

...surely this is almost identical in emotional meaning, then, to gemutlichkeit?

A 'gezel', in Dutch/Nederlands/Fres surely must be the source of the English idiom "geezer", an acquintance/person of repute? If 'lig' presumably this is an adjective "ly", and 'heid' surely must be the same as a Scots "heid", for head? So is a 'gezelligheid' a "geezerly-semifriendly-headed-frame-of-mind"?


Out of interest, @uair01 do you find this old Fres/Vlaam Lord's Prayer verse legible to you, as a contemporary Dutch speaker?

Us Heit yn 'e himel,
lit jo namme hillige wurde,
lit jo keninkryk komme,
lit jo wil dien wurde,
op ierde likegoed as yn 'e himel
Jou ús hjoed ús deistich brea.
en ferjou ús ús skulden,
sa't wy ús skuldners ek ferjûn hawwe
en lit ús net yn fersiking komme,
mar ferlos ús fan 'e kweade;
want jowes is it keninkryk,
en de krêft,
en de hearlikheid
oant yn ivichheid. Amen

 

[Xanatic*]

It's legible to me, a person who once lived in the Netherlands. Though if you hadn't told me it was the lord's prayer, I would have been a bit lost.

 

[Graylien]

Why aren't ambient sounds enough, especially in the spring, when there are birds and breeze and people-watching sounds? Why do all cafes pipe in nasty pop. Why are buskers legal?

Also, nearly all buskers seem to be using amplifiers nowadays, or at least the ones in Norwich are. There's a chap who plays classical pieces on a semi-acoustic guitar who's actually pretty good - probably a music student - but the rest of them aren't much to my taste. There's a really annoying skiffle band who seem to think they're 'wacky' and are about as loud as The Who.

 

[dreeness .]

 

[Coal]

Yeah, I've also only met a few people who've talked about the comforting feeling of listening to a storm and being inside ... I'm one of them and so is the missus.

It's even better if you hear someone go running past in the rain getting soaked.

 

[GeorgeP]

Or the sound of someone moaning, F****** **LL, you didnt bring the washing in you tw.....

 

[Bigphoot2]

It's even better if you hear someone go running past in the rain getting soaked.

When my old boss retired he said the best feeling he ever had was sitting by his window, drinking coffee and watching people go to work on a cold, wet, windy November Monday morning.

 

[Bigphoot2]

pâro
n. the feeling that no matter what you do is always somehow wrong—that any attempt to make your way comfortably through the world will only end up crossing some invisible taboo—as if there’s some obvious way forward that everybody else can see but you, each of them leaning back in their chair and calling out helpfully, colder, colder, colder.

Sounds like living with my ex

 

[Bigphoot2]

Also, nearly all buskers seem to be using amplifiers nowadays, or at least the ones in Norwich are. There's a chap who plays classical pieces on a semi-acoustic guitar who's actually pretty good - probably a music student - but the rest of them aren't much to my taste. There's a really annoying skiffle band who seem to think they're 'wacky' and are about as loud as The Who.

The worst busker I saw was playing "Johnny B Goode" on a kazoo - BLASPHEMY!!!!

 

[Xanatic*]

I think what your old boss experienced is more like schadenfreude.

 

[Bigphoot2]

I think what your old boss experienced is more like schadenfreude.

More like malicious glee

 

[Simon]

Sonder / Silience - two sides of the same coin.

Also - 'dictionary of obscure sorrows' - what a beautiful phrase. I hope Simple Minds write a song with that title, and release it as a double-A side with 'The Book Of Brilliant Things'!

 

[Ulalume]

More like malicious glee

Sounds like some kind of emotional sadism, certainly. I'm quite the opposite; I can't stand to feel other people's discomfort. That pano thing, I have in spades. A punitive super-ego, I call it. Ugh.

One emotion that I used to assume was a common, everyday thing was what I called "feeling haunted". Bear with me a moment while I try to describe it. I don't mean as in being haunted by a ghost. More like being haunted by memories. Like those moments in soap operas (or at least, American soap operas in the 80's ) when a character would remember something sad, and the picture would go fuzzy and there would be this sorrowful yet slightly ominous music while the character reminisced about their lost love or whatever. I would go around for days or weeks at a time with this feeling, without a real understanding of why or what brought it on. I thought this feeling "haunted" was part of the usual range of emotions a person might feel from day to day.

Eventually I realized that most people didn't feel this way. For ages, I tried to track down what this feeling was, with no real luck. It's only been quite recently that I was put on to the answer by someone with a similar background. The feeling is grief! Imagine, all these years and not linking the feeling to the proper terminology.

So I could explain the feeling, but didn't know what to call it.

 

[Yithian]

According to a Twitter user:
'Kveis' is the Viking word for 'uneasiness after debauchery'.

 

[Zeke Newbold]

That was a brave and refreshing post by Xanatic above (#18) , concerning having doubts about the existence of romantic love.

I too have not experienced it. Truckloads of lust, yes, and sometimes, more rarely, a curious kind of tenderness, and, even more rarely an admixture of both. The romantic love as referred to, not just in pop songs, but in the great plays and novels of the world, however,- never. (Perhaps we need words for the `not-feeling` of a supposed common emotions, rather than new words for supposedly new feelings....).

But, I have some of my own to add too. The O.P mentioned `Kenopsia`: the eerie sadness of abandoned places. Well, I believe a sort of reverse version of this feeling also exists. Many years ago I used to work as a `floating` security guard This meant that I was posted to different kinds of workplaces - factories and offices etc - to guard them overnight. I would turn up roughly as the workforce were leaving. This meant that I would experience the mass vacation of areas normally full of people.

Let me tell you that there was something quite pleasant about seeing people go off into the twilight, and then being in an empty building alone. Something rather sweet, but beyond easy explanation.

Perhaps a bit like this is another feeling that lacks a label: the enjoyment of being alone in a crowd. One of my hobbies, if you like, is to go into a bar on my own and slowly sip a beer while basking in the chatter around me. There's something about being with people, but not being a part of them, that is really quite enjoyable.

It only works, though, if I'm not required to interact with anybody. Should some kind-hearted guy come and strike up conversation with me, then the whole effect is ruined - then I have to make my excuses and find another bar....

(In case any of the foregoing makes me sound like a Right Miserable Old Git, then let me add that I also like: the laughter of little children, puppy dogs, boxes of chocolates, and clowns - well, maybe not clowns...).

 

[Mythopoeika]

(In case any of the foregoing makes me sound like a Right Miserable Old Git, then let me add that I also like: the laughter of little children, puppy dogs, boxes of chocolates, and clowns - well, maybe not clowns...).

That's the bit I like.

 

[Xanatic*]

I do wonder how many others don't feel love and just fake it. People don't seem to pick up on it when I do.

 

[gattino]

Thinking about it I think that romantic love is actually a term used for a connected sequence of three simpler emotions.. longing, joy and loss. The longing to be with an individual through attraction, the joy felt in achieving that goal and the painful sense of loss, a return to longing, upon losing them in any sense. When a person feels all three of these emotional states for a given individual they call it being in love. In short, its a syndrome

 

[Ulalume]

That was a brave and refreshing post by Xanatic above (#18) , concerning having doubts about the existence of romantic love.

I too have not experienced it. Truckloads of lust, yes, and sometimes, more rarely, a curious kind of tenderness, and, even more rarely an admixture of both. The romantic love as referred to, not just in pop songs, but in the great plays and novels of the world, however,- never. (Perhaps we need words for the `not-feeling` of a supposed common emotions, rather than new words for supposedly new feelings....).

But, I have some of my own to add too. The O.P mentioned `Kenopsia`: the eerie sadness of abandoned places. Well, I believe a sort of reverse version of this feeling also exists. Many years ago I used to work as a `floating` security guard This meant that I was posted to different kinds of workplaces - factories and offices etc - to guard them overnight. I would turn up roughly as the workforce were leaving. This meant that I would experience the mass vacation of areas normally full of people.

Let me tell you that there was something quite pleasant about seeing people go off into the twilight, and then being in an empty building alone. Something rather sweet, but beyond easy explanation.

Perhaps a bit like this is another feeling that lacks a label: the enjoyment of being alone in a crowd. One of my hobbies, if you like, is to go into a bar on my own and slowly sip a beer while basking in the chatter around me. There's something about being with people, but not being a part of them, that is really quite enjoyable.

It only works, though, if I'm not required to interact with anybody. Should some kind-hearted guy come and strike up conversation with me, then the whole effect is ruined - then I have to make my excuses and find another bar....

(In case any of the foregoing makes me sound like a Right Miserable Old Git, then let me add that I also like: the laughter of little children, puppy dogs, boxes of chocolates, and clowns - well, maybe not clowns...).

Good post, Zeke.

While I have experienced romantic love (indeed, my relationship with my OH was a love at first sight - or even a love at first half-glance situation for both of us) I also know the pleasant, lonely feelings you describe above.

When I was quite young, I didn't like being left - seeing friends go home and the like. It felt sad to be left behind. Yet as I grew older, that changed and I began to enjoy that odd, quiet feeling of being the last one left. As you say, it doesn't have an easy explanation (or an easy description, either.)

One event that stands out in my memory was during the approach of hurricane Rita, when the city was under a mandatory evacuation order. We were living in an apartment complex at that time, and as the tenants stowed their belongings and boarded up their windows, they were trickling away one by one. We had to stay longer because of my spouse's job, so as the place emptied we helped the maintenance man finish all the boarding and taping. There was that feeling of quiet in the nearly empty place that was kind of sweetly-sad, as if so much energy was left behind, but the people it had belonged to were gone.

Some years later, there was a mandatory evacuation for hurricane Ike, but by that time we were living in a house and the feeling of emptiness in the neighborhood wasn't quite so noticable. So I suspect it has to do (for me anyway) with the exodus of large numbers of people in close proximity, or people with whom one has a personal relationship.

Also, living in an apartment complex, the residents would move in and out quite frequently. While I missed quite a few of them when they left, I would get that same feeling. I guess, on one hand, I felt they were they were moving on to a new life and was excited for them, and on the other, felt that one chapter had come to an end and another one was about to start. That's the best description I can give.

 

[McAvennie]

15 is a bizarre one, and while I'd hate to lose everything in a fire I can definitely say there have been times - usually when in a big city - when I've experienced a slight thrill at the idea of something big happening while I was there and surviving it with a story to tell.

 

[Xanatic*]

Going back to what I said about not experiencing romantic love, I've also never been high. I've smoked and eaten hash with no effect, I've never tried runner's high or gotten euphoric from eating chocolate. Perhaps those things are connected and my brain chemistry is just lacking something.

 

[Zeke Newbold]

I'm afraid I have to blow that theory out of the water, Xanatic. I am quite capable of getting `high` - well, reaching a state of mild euphoria - through having a few glasses of German Pilsner or Czech lager-beer, and have sometimes experienced something similar through intense exercise such as (yes) running, or weight-training.

My take on the `love` thing is that its such an intense experience for those that do go through it (maybe a small majority of people) that they go around making a big hullabaloo about it. Then the rest of us sort of go: `Ah...that. Er....yeah, right. That. Of course`.

 

[EnolaGaia]

I've no idea if these are genuine words, but you'll all recognise the feelings...
The source is given as the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig. ...

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows can be accessed at:

https://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/