According to Harold Rheingold, "Finding a name for something is a way of conjuring its existence." It's a way of "making it possible for people to see a pattern where they didn't see anything before."
Twenty years ago, Rheingold set out to illustrate this point (a version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis) in his book They Have a Word for It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words and Phrases (reprinted in 2000 by Sarabande Books). Drawing on more than 40 languages, Rheingold examined 150 "interesting untranslatable words" to help us "notice the cracks between our own worldview and those of others."
Here are 12 of Rheingold's imported words--all nouns, as it happens. Half of them (linked to entries in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary) have already begun migrating into English. Whether or not these words enable us to see the world any differently, at least one or two should provoke a smile of recognition.
- attaccabottoni (Italian): a sad person who buttonholes people and tells long, pointless stories of misfortune (literally, "a person who attacks your buttons").
- berrieh (Yiddish): an extraordinarily energetic and talented woman.
- cavoli riscaldati (Italian): an attempt to revive an old relationship (literally, "reheated cabbage").
- haragei (Japanese): visceral, indirect, largely nonverbal communication (literally, "belly performance").
- lagniappe (Louisiana French, from American Spanish): an extra or unexpected gift or benefit.
- maya (Sanskrit): the mistaken belief that a symbol is the same as the reality it represents.
- mokita (Kivila language of Papua New Guinea): the truths of certain social situations that everybody knows but nobody talks about.
- potlatch (Haida): the ceremonial act of gaining social respect by giving away wealth.
- schadenfreude (German): the pleasure that one feels as a result of someone else's misfortune.
- talanoa (Hindi): idle talk as a social adhesive. (See phatic communication.)
- tsuris (Yiddish): grief and trouble, especially the kind that only a son or daughter can give.
- Weltschmerz (German): a gloomy, romanticized, world-weary sadness (literally "world-grief").
To expand this list with some imported words that have altered your perceptions, please click on the comments button below. Till then, shalom aleichem.
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Comments
Thanks for this! It’s great to know we can count on you, Richard, to expand our horizons with infomation such as this (which, speaking for myself, I’d probably never see; rarely think about). I’m working on my list…