The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

You are here: Home / Forum / What’s your favourite foreign word?

What’s your favourite foreign word?

by 84 Comments

I rather like ‘khalas’ an Arabic word which translates a number of ways. That’s it, there ya go, enough, that’s ok, proven, no more discussion … usually comes with a waving hand gesture.

Yanni is another good Arabic word … like, so, errr, so it is, … it’s a sort of filler word, feels like it just means ummm at times.

0

Comments

  1. There’s a Bolognese Emilian word umarèl (standard Italian: umarell) which means an old bloke who hangs around outside construction sites, hands clasped behind his back, offering unwanted advice to the site workers. Hilarious.
    Apparently, it’s now a loan word that’s also used in Swedish, although I can’t say I’ve seen too many umarèls in Stockholm….

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umarell

  3. Khalas and yanni pretty much the sum total of my spoken Arabic, but you’re right, both wonderful words that can between them, just about get you through most genial exchanges.

  5. I have two.

    Cajones, which is Spanish for drawers, the kind you find in a desk, not your in undercrackers.

    Cojones, the Spanish slang term for testicles.

    Cajón, which is a box drum.

    When I did the sound at a village fete, two teenage lads played. One had a ukulele, the other played the box drum. The vicar’s wife came over to ask me what the box drum was called. Much hilarity ensued.

    Krankenhaus, German for Hospital. It sounds like an Australian word “he’s crank, get him to the cranko.”

  6. I like the Italian word “scarpetta”. Not for its sound but for its meaning. And not for its literal meaning (“little shoe”) but for its use in the phrase “fare la scarpetta”, which means to take a piece of bread and wipe all the remaining sauce from your plate (in order to savour the last remnants of the dish).

    Yet they have no single word for “hangover”.

    My favourite Italian phrase is the translation of “You can’t have your cake and eat it” (which is nonsense. Of course you can. It should be “you can’t keep your cake and eat it”. Anyway, the Italian version is much better: “non puoi avere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca”. Literally: You can’t have a full barrel and a drunk wife”.

      • I was trying to remember the Swedish word for kiss which I thought was pus-pus which I also like but looking it up I couldn’t seem to find it. I did smile at the Kök Bar I saw in Goteborg as well but in the same childish way that the German word for exhaust pipe makes me laugh (Auspuf).

        Whilst a library in Sweden sounds great, thèque is far more flamboyant the tek.

        • The word you’re looking for is puss (if you say it twice you’re probably either saying goodbye to a loved one on the phone, or doing the cheek-kissing thing without actually doing the cheek-kissing). But the word kyss is also used, and implies a deeper, more adult version of kissing.

          The street sign I see that makes english speakers giggle the most is infart.
          meaning entrance/approach or driveway. Fart in itself means speed.
          Sure; the q is always more spectacular – Swedish barely use it at all anymore, it got the boot in the big spelling reform (a long time ago).

          • Is Einfart exit? I do remember giggling at that?

            Yes Puss. It’s was explained to me as an appropriate for kissing the kids goodnight at bedtime. Hopefully that’s correct. Thanks for helping me remember.

  10. I was listening to Radio 4 during a tedious journey last week and on the panel game, the phrase L’esprit de l’escalier was mentioned, which means staircase wit, the act of thinking of the cutting retort after one has left the scene and it’s too late to use it.

  12. The Spanish word ‘Ojala”, which is used to say “hopefully”. It literally means “if Allah sees it” (ojo is spanish word for eye) and as you can imagine it dates from the time of the Moors. It’s obviously closely related to the Arabic “Inshallah”, which means “god willing”. You can use it to build rapport in a conversation, and it’s a great word to say out loud (the final a has an accent so it’s “Oja-lah!”).

  13. One that is dear to my heart – the Japanese word, Tsundoku, which describes the accumulation buying of books and letting them pile up unread.

    There’s also “Kuchisabishī” which I believe literally translates to “your mouth is lonely” – i.e eat because your bored.

  14. I’ve always been delighted by Backpfeifengesicht – the German word for ‘an eminently punchable or slapable face’ ( a la Michael Gove).
    I also love the specificity of the Japanese word Aoye – meaning ‘revenge bedtime procrastination’ .
    The context is the self defeating notion of staying up too late at night doing stuff you want to that your daytime job doesn’t allow you to do. Inevitably, this causes extra fatigue the next morning & a sense of resentment at one’s lack of agency. This then prompts the whole cycle to repeat itself as infinitum. Been there.

  16. Habibi sounds very appealing

    German words? Don’t get me started. People often say “if only there was an English word for Schadenfreude”. There is. It’s gloating. The opposite is pretty good – Freudenschade, for which the English equivalent would be ‘We hate it when our friends become successful’

  17. Not foreign to me but probably is for many of youse lot is the Welsh word Cwtch. It’s a word my wife directed at me on cold winter evenings when she felt in need of my warm loving embrace. Then there is Hiraeth which is something I have felt every day for almost ten years because my cwtch services are no longer required.

  21. Two of my favourites are both German:

    Augenblick – moment

    Klapperschlange – rattlesnake

    My wife’s favourite German aunt every time she came to the UK and they went to Scotland they went through Ecclefechan a town in the borders. She loved that word but curiously I think it sounds more German than British.

  22. Some good Spanish choices already. But guiri is also good. A somewhat pejorative term for foreigners in Spain, particularly the kind of Brit who lives here and sees themselves as an ex-pat rather than an immigrant. I feel I am reclaiming the term for the emigrants and immigrants amongst us.

    Other nominations. Chungo – you’ll basically say it in the same way you’d say ‘pants’, or ‘bollocks’ if you put a bit more emphasis on it. And cachivache which is more or less thingummyjig.

    • My favourite Swedish expression is Hörrududu (hör-du-du-du), with the literal meaning “Hear-you-you-you” and actual meaning sort of “Hey you – watch it!” It’s mostly used in a joking way, when someone says something disrespectful or insulting in joking banter, but it can also be used in a more threatening way if someone acts badly, followed by a reprimand.
      The accents and tone is very important to get across exactly how annoyed you are, or if it’s said in jest.

  28. Having spent a fair bit of time in Malta, favourite word simply has to be “Mela” which litters most conversations. Means lots of different things depending on context and inflection, such that non-Maltese speakers generally use it incorrectly.

  29. Currently, it’s the French for ‘never mind’

    Quel dommage.

    Used it once or twice on recent work calls. It does sound very wanky but I like it. Some of the techies I work with look at me blankly and have the temerity to jokingly ask me to speak English – which is the heaviest of ironies given half my work time is spent translating the jargon filled cobblers they speak into plain English for the rest of us to understand.

  32. My dad was only 8 when his family emigrated to Australia from Italy, so his conversations with my grandfather were peppered with English words that either had no translation or that were outside his Italian vocabulary. Accordingly, my favourite Italian words were ‘screwdriver’ and ‘Flushcombe Road’.

  34. Some words have to be heard to be fully appreciated. Here’s one that I’ll never forget from my childhood holidays in Dyfed – Pembrokeshire.

    When my Welsh aunties said Ych a fi after i had trod in a cowpat, no translation was needed.

    Another fave is the Arabic word for apricots: mish mish.

Leave a Reply