Are there unique words in your language?

gadaboutry   Thu Oct 27, 2005 3:35 pm GMT
<<In Hungarian we have a word which I think is unigue: "jöttment" (literally: "come-and-gone") It is a rather derogatory reference to a person whose background is unknown or dubious, or who comes to a certain neighbourhood from another, unknown surrounding, and is therefore considered as not to be fully trusted until "checked out." It is similar to "stranger", but the latter is rather neutral in comparison. It can also be used in a similar sense as "Tom, Dick and Harry" in English, but again, it is not completely the same.

Do you have anything similar in your own language? >>

A drifter.
Mohammed   Thu Nov 10, 2005 3:16 am GMT
nice info, thx!
Bianca   Wed May 10, 2006 7:43 pm GMT
hmm.. In Romanian we have "dor" and "jale" which are feelings.. "dor" is like "to miss" only it is a noun, kind of hard to explain, "jale" is like grief mixed with pain and "dor"..
Gringo   Wed May 10, 2006 10:37 pm GMT
««"jale" is like grief mixed with pain and "dor".»»

I think it means te same as the Portuguese words "saudade" and "soidade".
Viri Amaoro   Wed May 10, 2006 11:19 pm GMT
Some untranslatable words in Portuguese:

Trampolineiro

Morcão

Pachacha

Carapins

Guante

Calcantes
Rui   Thu May 11, 2006 1:47 pm GMT
Hmm... Vir, are you sure the concept of pachacha is unique in Portuguese? After all it activates men's fantasy all over the world. Think the quantity and diversity of its sinonims just in Portuguese (my favorite is crica).

And morcão is specific from Porto, it probably needs translation into more widespread sinonims in other places (tanso, caramelo, tótó, pamonha, toni, otário...).
Fredrik from Norway   Thu May 11, 2006 5:39 pm GMT
Today I realized that English has a very special word:
soft-spoken.
I don't know about other languages, but as far as I know there is no equivalent in Norwegian
Ed   Thu May 11, 2006 8:00 pm GMT
> A personal favorite of mine is "pampiervampier," which literally translated from Afrikaans is a "paper vampire," or stapler.

This should be 'papiervampier' as paper is 'papier' in Afrikaans. Another name for a stapler is 'draaddrukkertjie' which literally means 'little wire pusher'.
Jav   Thu May 11, 2006 8:26 pm GMT
In Dutch that would be "nieter", the Dutch word for "staple" is "niet(je).
These 2 words in Afrikaans, although I'm quite known with the language (I speak and write it at an advanced leve) would sound childish in the ears of many Dutchspeakers.
Rui   Fri May 12, 2006 8:18 am GMT
Quoting Fredrik : «Today I realized that English has a very special word:
soft-spoken.
I don't know about other languages, but as far as I know there is no equivalent in Norwegian.»

In Portuguese : falinhas-mansas (literally : soft-little talks).
Ed   Fri May 12, 2006 10:52 am GMT
> In Dutch that would be "nieter", the Dutch word for "staple" is "niet(je).
These 2 words in Afrikaans, although I'm quite known with the language (I speak and write it at an advanced leve) would sound childish in the ears of many Dutchspeakers.

This is one of the things I like about the Afrikaans language, that often words were created from long-existing roots where in English we would use a word of Latin or French origin, thus giving the language a purer Germanic feel.

A few that come to mind are:

agenda - sakelys (literally 'business list' or 'affairs list')
architecture - boukuns (literally 'building art')
computer - rekenaar (of the same root as English 'reckon')
chameleon - verkleurmannetjie (literally 'little coloured man')