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Untranslatable & Indefinable Words

Spudrick68 said:
Bob Le Ponge movie, which somehow made me chuckle.
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Well, in fairness, that is the overall intention. Even if I do see what you mean.

How does the undersea village name of 'Bikini Bottom' translate en Française? Maybe Plas du Slip Bas?
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If it is a marquê of high-clarss sophistication for a British baker's shop to name itself a "craft boulangerie", does this work in reverse en Paris?

Do avant garde boulangerie Parisienne have to rename themselves as 'Bakers', so as to be Luňdon cooəl-ah?
 
Wotan Mjolnir said:
There was little to no mention of pantalones, cuadrados or otherwise.
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I find this non-anglophone disregard for my hero's trousers, nay, pants, to be incompatible with my beliefs and standards.

I wonder if they disrespect The Patrick? For he is a Star.

And what about Squidward? Oh no, I can't take any more of this...
http://spongebob.wikia.com/wiki/International_Squidward_Tentacles

Calamardo Tentáculos
Lula Molusco
Octo Tentakels
Thaddäus Tentakel
Carlo Tentacule
 
Found one in a book I am reading about Rudolf Steiner.

"He remarked on one occasion that Austria was the country where pedantry was always mitigated by schlamperei, an untranslatable Austrian word, meaning a rather amiable lack of efficiency, go-as-you-please, letting things take their course."

I think I manage a bit of schlamperei now and again!
 
min_bannister said:
I think I manage a bit of schlamperei now and again!
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I find this word vaguely-familiar...is there possibly a slang British English word that sounds generally the same? <thinks> Where have I heard this before??

EDIT- I think it's Keith Lemon...if I'm right, he's used the word shlamper as an alternative to slapper. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shlamper (totally-different meaning, just a soundalike)
 
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Yes, possibly, see my post above. If you don't know who Keith Lemon is, probably best keeping it that way....
 
Just come across an Italian example in The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi.

You see Douglas, an Italian must always appear to be furbo. You don't have an English equivalent for that marvelous word. It means a person who is wily and cunning, who knows which way the wind is blowing, who can fool you but never be fooled himself. Everyone in Italy wants to believe the worst of others so they don't end up looking gullible. Above all, they want to be seen as furbo.
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Totally love it. Many thanks.

But...

You see Douglas, an Italian must always appear to be furbo. You don't have an English equivalent for that marvelous word.
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What about (well, sort-of, anyway)...
  • savvy ;
  • shrewd ;
  • cool ;
  • canny (not the Scots version) ;
  • astute ;
  • street-smart (cheating, two words)
Anyway, I do like the word 'furbo' (I am actually quite a furbo person, sometimes, anyway).

And would be even more so, if I could stop all this damn getting old and being tired.
 
Spudrick68 said:
In Paris a couple of years ago we saw an advert for the Bob Le Ponge movie, which somehow made me chuckle.
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*cough* er, it's "Bob l'éponge", actually. As you were...

Anyway, for some reason, the topic of this thread reminds me of Richard Attenborough's pompous character Probert in Only Two Can Play. At one point, he says something along the lines of (and forgive me, I can't find the exact quote):

"I'm toying with the idea of translating Kafka into Welsh... but how do you translate his values?"

In context, an utterly pretentious remark, but probably some truth there as well! I really must re-watch that old film some time. One quote I can find, which I share here just for its humour, certainly not for its relevance to this thread:

Probert: How are you, Lewis? Still peddling trash to the masses?

John Lewis: Yes, that's true, yes... How 'bout you, still writing it?
 
Ermintruder said:
Totally love it. Many thanks.

But...



What about (well, sort-of, anyway)...
  • savvy ;
  • shrewd ;
  • cool ;
  • canny (not the Scots version) ;
  • astute ;
  • street-smart (cheating, two words)
Anyway, I do like the word 'furbo' (I am actually quite a furbo person, sometimes, anyway).

And would be even more so, if I could stop all this damn getting old and being tired.
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Yes I think those words are getting there but I more got the impression that he was describing a sort of national state of mind. I do like the idea of an entire country full of people who are each trying to give the impression they know more than they are letting on! And it is a cool word.:cool2:
 
Being as someone mentioned Welsh: have "Hiraeth".

Many nationalist types would simply translate it as pride in Welsh history, but (the native Mrs_Hazuki assures me) it's far subtler than that. Think of bittersweet homesickness, wistful belonging, the warm sense of home and family, and mournful regret, all stirred into one.

You could also have "Mynadd", which can be an exclamation when something is giving you too much trouble, but also doubles up as a noun conveying a weird combination of patience and motivation.
Or various forms of the verb "Moedrodd", mostly heard as "moider", which in turn begat "mither" in northern english, but doesn't quite mean the same thing....
 
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Here is a nice article of "10 awesome words". I hope it is okay to copy the whole article. Rosetta Stone is probably a fairly stable website but you never know! I think the Iranian word T'aarof is my favourite. And I have gökotta as well. Sorry about the giant link, I don't know how to close it.

  1. Téng (疼) is a special term for love in [URL='http://www.rosettastone.co.uk/learn-chinese/?Cid=sm-bl']Chinese
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  1. . It’s the same character as “to hurt” (as in “my stomach hurts”), and so it is love mixed with an ache or pain. It is really only used from a parent to a child.
  2. You know that stretch you do when you wake up in the morning? Ungdayee in the Hindi word for it. Almost shocking this word isn’t universal across languages, right?
  3. Concolón is the Ecuadorian Spanish (and perhaps other dialects of Spanish too) for that crispy, almost-burnt-but-not-quite rice that remains at the bottom of the pan after you cook it. That’s the stuff that’s so yummy, you’re elbowing your way to the pot to get a taste.
  4. Ever had that experience when something is so damn cute (think puppy, or adorable baby if you like kids) you can’t control yourself, and you grit your teeth, maybe bite your lip or cheek, and have the irrepressible urge to squeeze the thing? Gigil is the brilliant Tagalog word for that: a situation that overwhelms your self-control because of cute overkill.
  5. Firgun is the amazing Hebrew concept for taking pleasure in someone else’s success, with a good heart and without jealousy. The opposite is the German Schadenfreude, when you take joy in someone else’s misfortune.
  6. T’aarof is the Farsi word for a standard of etiquette that runs deep in Iranian culture, a concept that captures both the symbolism and elusiveness embedded in the language. A host must offer a guest anything they desire, even if the offer is not genuine, but then the guest must also refuse. This exchange repeats itself many times (which would be lost on someone outside the culture), until the host and guest are able to somehow determine whether both the offer and refusal are genuine or just polite.
  7. Dor in Romanian is similar to the Portuguese saudade—the longing of missing someone.
  8. Kreislaufstörung in German is directly translated as a circulatory disturbance or circulation disorder. It’s the reason your German coworkers are calling in sick even though you drag yourself to work with a fever and a box of handkerchiefs. It refers to feeling weak, tired and having low blood pressure. A German friend joked, “It does not exist in the English language, therefore only Germans suffer from it. Ha ha!”
  9. Have you ever gotten up early to hear the birds sing? Ok, me neither, but it sounds like a nice idea. Well, apparently a fair amount of Swedes must because there’s a word for it in Swedish: gökotta—to go outside early in the morning to hear the birds or appreciate nature.
  10. I love the smell of the earth after it rains and Tamil has a word for it: mannvaasanai, the smell of wet earth when the first rain of the season hits the ground.
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Ermintruder said:
Oh? I understood it could also be used such as in phrases like 'das zimmer is sehr gemutlich'.

@chicorea, also: synonyms, as parallel loan-words.View attachment 4828
View attachment 4829
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The Norman French/Old English names were once explained to me as representative of the relative status of the two groups in post-Conquest society, i.e. all of the words for animals - sheep, cow, pig etc. - are Old English; all of the words for their meat are Norman - mutton, beef, pork.

It strongly suggests which group was mucking out and feeding the beasts, and which group was getting to eat them.

maximus otter
 
I wonder if there's a word for the smell of the air just before it starts raining? Weirdly, I've met several people who seem utterly unable to detect it, and thought I was slightly unhinged when I tried to explain it to them (I am slightly unhinged, but that fact doesn't affect my sense of smell at all).
 
A propos Preluge ™ ©....

RyoHazuki said:
Excellent! I shall start dropping it into conversation forthwith.
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I also shall do so.

@David Plankton you must arrange to have it made copyright, and please specifically try to ensure that it can't be used as a name for:
  • A rock (or any genre) band
  • A courier delivery service
  • A cosmetic creme
  • An incontinence pharmaceutical
  • A before-event social gathering attended by Olympic bobsleigh afficionados
 
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Min Bannister said:
Just come across an Italian example in The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi.
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Just come across another example of a word describing national character from Insight Guides (Finland)

Sisu is a word synonymous with the Finnish character, implying self-reliance, determination and tenacity, and it is applied to the country's men and women equally.
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I adore words that have no English equivalent. Wonderful, often onomatopoeic terms like the Spanish "susurraba", one who whispers, often maliciously or deviously, or the French "serein", rain from a cloudless sky. Or the sheer beauty of Pidgins and Creoles: Prince Charles is "Number One fella him bilong Missus Kwin" in Pidgin English, but the best ever has to be the phrase for an eclipse "Paraffin lamp him bilong Jesus gone buggerup".

Anyway..
Min Bannister said:
Found one in a book I am reading about Rudolf Steiner.

"He remarked on one occasion that Austria was the country where pedantry was always mitigated by schlamperei, an untranslatable Austrian word, meaning a rather amiable lack of efficiency, go-as-you-please, letting things take their course."

I think I manage a bit of schlamperei now and again!
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A bit late to the table, I know, but I was reading about Peter Altenberg, the late 19th /early 20th Century Viennese wit who exemplified schlamperei. A kind of early Jeffrey Bernard, Altenberg was a debt-ridden, drunken, lecherous sofa-surfer who redeemed himself with great charm, sparkling wit and a magnificent turn of phrase:

"There are only two things that can destroy a healthy man: love trouble, ambition, and financial catastrophe. And that's already three things, and there are a lot more."

Back on thread (sort of), I've always used an awful lot of commandeered foreign phrases, especially in writing, but in speech only rarely these days, mainly as to many they come over as a) incomprehensible, b) pretentious or c) both. I only ever use them when they are the absolute best fit, and likely to be understood as such. I'd never use "fin de siecle" in speech, for example.
 
I've thought that one of the problems in English is that it only has one word for love. Hence a lot of today's confusion.
 
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