An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World
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Average rating4
Here are a few you should add to your personal dictionaries:
gezellig...a positive warm emotion, connoting time spent with loved ones...
meraki...pouring yourself wholeheartedly into something...
fika...gathering to talk and take a break from everyday routines, usually drinking coffee...
hiraeth...a homesickness for somewhere you cannot return to...
ubuntu...”I am what I am because of who we all are”...
luftmensch...a person who is a dreamer...
and, of course...
wabi-sabi...finding beauty in inperfection
I love this concept. The reason it's four stars instead of five is that I longed for a pronunciation guide.
Some words did have an English equivalent, for example trepverter Yiddish for literally staircase words is what we in English would call staircase wit or in French L'esprit de l'escalier.