7 DAYS WITHOUT FAKEBOOK: POST 5

The limits of speaking one language.  This blog post is - unwittingly to her - inspired by my younger sister, Lucy, who is currently learning German.  Over the last few weeks, she has been sharing some words/concepts which don't exist in English or at least, not in exactly the same way.

e.g.  Drachenfutter - Literal translation is 'dragon food' but it is a peacekeeping gift a husband must bring his wife after pissing her off.

e.g. Kummerspeck - Literal translation is 'grief bacon' but refers to excess weight gained by emotional over-eating.  

For me, language is the doorway to culture and one of the ways this is best demonstrated is by the discovery of words which don't exist in other languages.  

I stumbled across the following word about three years ago and immediately fell in love with it.  

Mamihlapinatapai.

It is from the Yaghan language from Tierra del Fuego (Chile - near the Southern most tip of South America). 

It's often described as the most succinct word in the history of language and one of the most difficult to translate.

It's meaning?  As defined, by the sometimes academically dubious but extremely useful site, Wikipedia, mamihlapinatapai refers to  "a look shared by two people, each wishing that the other will offer something that they both desire but are unwilling to suggest or offer themselves."

Wow.

If you have a fascination with words and language as I do, I'll leave you with a few other unusual words but that actually exist in English:

Entomophilous - Adaptation for pollination by insects.
Apodysophilia - A feverish desire to undress.  
Boustrophedon - Alternating writing left to right, then right to left.
...for more visit here.

And...

A brilliant infographic:  Untranslatable Emotions in Other Languages other than English vs. Parrot's Emotion Classification.

Click the above link for the full view.  Here is just a teaser:

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References:
First image in blog post modified from:  http://www.adinnerguest.com/60-minutes/why-mamihlapinatapai-is-your-new-favorite-word/