The “Strong Eater” B-Bomb and the “Picky Crybaby” Yukwon.
Top 10 Relationship Words Not Translatable into English
Compiled by Pamela Haag at BigThink:
- Mamihlapinatapei (Yagan, an indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego): The wordless yet meaningful look shared by two people who desire to initiate something, but are both reluctant to start.
Oh yes, this is an exquisite word, compressing a thrilling and scary relationship moment. It’s that delicious, cusp-y moment of imminent seduction. Neither of you has mustered the courage to make a move, yet. Hands haven’t been placed on knees; you’ve not kissed. But you’ve both conveyed enough to know that it will happen soon… very soon.- Yuanfen(Chinese): A relationship by fate or destiny. This is a complex concept. It draws on principles of predetermination in Chinese culture, which dictate relationships, encounters and affinities, mostly among lovers and friends.From what I glean, in common usage yuanfen means the “binding force” that links two people together in any relationship.
But interestingly, “fate” isn’t the same thing as “destiny.” Even if lovers are fated to find each other they may not end up together. The proverb, “have fate without destiny,” describes couples who meet, but who don’t stay together, for whatever reason. It’s interesting, to distinguish in love between the fated and the destined. Romantic comedies, of course, confound the two.- Cafuné (Brazilian Portuguese): The act of tenderly running your fingers through someone’s hair.
- Retrouvailles (French): The happiness of meeting again after a long time. This is such a basic concept, and so familiar to the growing ranks of commuter relationships, or to a relationship of lovers, who see each other only periodically for intense bursts of pleasure. I’m surprised we don’t have any equivalent word for this subset of relationship bliss. It’s a handy one for modern life.
- Ilunga (Bantu): A person who is willing to forgive abuse the first time; tolerate it the second time, but never a third time.
Apparently, in 2004, this word won the award as the world’s most difficult to translate. Although at first, I thought it did have a clear phrase equivalent in English: It’s the “three strikes and you’re out” policy. But ilunga conveys a subtler concept, because the feelings are different with each “strike.” The word elegantly conveys the progression toward intolerance, and the different shades of emotion that we feel at each stop along the way.
Ilunga captures what I’ve described as the shade of gray complexity in marriages—Not abusive marriages, but marriages that involve infidelity, for example. We’ve got tolerance, within reason, and we’ve got gradations of tolerance, and for different reasons. And then, we have our limit. The English language to describe this state of limits and tolerance flattens out the complexity into black and white, or binary code. You put up with it, or you don’t. You “stick it out,” or not.
Ilunga restores the gray scale, where many of us at least occasionally find ourselves in relationships, trying to love imperfect people who’ve failed us and whom we ourselves have failed.- La Douleur Exquise (French): The heart-wrenching pain of wanting someone you can’t have.
When I came across this word I thought of “unrequited” love. It’s not quite the same, though. “Unrequited love” describes a relationship state, but not a state of mind. Unrequited love encompasses the lover who isn’t reciprocating, as well as the lover who desires. La douleur exquise gets at the emotional heartache, specifically, of being the one whose love is unreciprocated.- Koi No Yokan (Japanese): The sense upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall into love.
This is different than “love at first sight,” since it implies that you might have a sense of imminent love, somewhere down the road, without yet feeling it. The term captures the intimation of inevitable love in the future, rather than the instant attraction implied by love at first sight.- Ya’aburnee(Arabic): “You bury me.” It’s a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person, because of how difficult it would be to live without them.
The online dictionary that lists this word calls it “morbid and beautiful.” It’s the “How Could I Live Without You?” slickly insincere cliché of dating, polished into a more earnest, poetic term.- Forelsket: (Norwegian): The euphoria you experience when you’re first falling in love.
This is a wonderful term for that blissful state, when all your senses are acute for the beloved, the pins and needles thrill of the novelty. There’s a phrase in English for this, but it’s clunky. It’s “New Relationship Energy,” or NRE.- Saudade (Portuguese): The feeling of longing for someone that you love and is lost. Another linguist describes it as a “vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist.”
It’s interesting that saudade accommodates in one word the haunting desire for a lost love, or for an imaginary, impossible, never-to-be-experienced love. Whether the object has been lost or will never exist, it feels the same to the seeker, and leaves her in the same place: She has a desire with no future. Saudade doesn’t distinguish between a ghost, and a fantasy. Nor do our broken hearts, much of the time.Rebloggung again because I find languages fascinating.
These words make English seem stupid.
Retrouvailles (French): The happiness of meeting again after a long time. This is such a basic concept, and so familiar to the growing ranks of commuter relationships, or to a relationship of lovers, who see each other only periodically for intense bursts of pleasure. I’m surprised we don’t have any equivalent word for this subset of relationship bliss. It’s a handy one for modern life.
Koi No Yokan (Japanese): The sense upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall into love.
This is different than “love at first sight,” since it implies that you might have a sense of imminent love, somewhere down the road, without yet feeling it. The term captures the intimation of inevitable love in the future, rather than the instant attraction implied by love at first sight.
Reblog if you’re shorter than 5’8.
5’6 and a half
5’2”
I’m a shortie. :D
5’1” c:
exactly 5’
I AM 5”8. c:<
5’5” here~
4’11” :>
27 years old, and FIVE FOOT ONE.
No. You had sex with a girl when you were a child. It ended in pregnancy. You are attacking the morality of a 14 year old girl who terminated a pregnancy that would have resulted in a child that neither you or her had the capacity to care for. A girl that preserved your and her own youth, and stopped a child being raised in circumstances that are not fit for any child. You really should be assessing your own morality. What kind of 14 year old boy fucks a 14 year old girl, without protection, gets her pregnant and then runs an online smear campaign against her for doing what was best for her, her family and you? What? You think you had the capacity to raise a child at age 14/15? How would you feed it or look after it? You wouldn’t. You were going to dump it on her or your own parents, live like the carefree little shit you are and occasionally play with the child when you could be bothered and think “Wow, what a good, brave young father I am.” You made the mistake, she went through the trauma of saving your youth for you. You owe her so much better than this. You absolutely disgust me. Less than forward-slash three, you’re real fucking remorseful. That’s poetry that is. You’re breaking my heart kid. That girl should have every right to decide what she wants to do to her body. The idea that you should take responsibility and give birth implies that you are responsible to this fetus and you owe it something. A pregnant person does not owe a fetus anything any more than they owe you an apology for being alive. Try again, pro lifers. Pro-Choice.
Yes. Because young parents are ALWAYS irresponsible and bad! Let me tell you a little story. My younger sister got pregnant when she was 16. She decided to keep the baby, with the full support of the father. Eventually, they got married. They are about to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary in fact, but i’m getting off track. My sister and brother in law RARELY asked my parents or his for help, continued with school, got jobs, manned the fuck up, and took care of their child. Today, my niece is being SKIPPED AHEAD IN SCHOOL, is beautiful, well adjusted, and amazing. She’s ALWAYS been provided for, and put first by her parents, despite their age, and a few rough spots in their relationship. Even though they were young, they stepped up to the plate, and are/were better parents than most adults. Am I saying i’m Pro-Life? No. Against abortion. No. It’s the reasoning of this whole thing I take issue with. The way that it implies that any young mom should abort just because she’s young and would miss out on her childhood/ be a bad mother. Hell, my own mother had me when she was 15, and she was one of the IRRESPONSIBLE ones. But do you know who stepped up to the plate to fill her shoes? HER 13 YEAR OLD BROTHER. I was raised by my Grandmother and my 13 year old Uncle. I wouldn’t trade my relationship with either of them for the world. You know what? My Uncle has never told me that I ruined his childhood, either. Maybe I should apologize for that. According to this, anyway.
Even though I myself stayed up late nights with my niece (By my own choice, my sister didn’t ‘pawn’ her baby off on me!) I wouldn’t change one tiny thing. Never. I have a beautiful, close relationship with her, just like my Uncle has with me. I would gladly sacrifice parties and superficial things for a bond like that.
I’m so grateful to my sister and my brother in law for raising this beautiful girl. On their own. Even when it was hard.
I’m done.
Body Bakery: Bread imitating Gore by Kittiwat Unarrom
This brings weird to a whole new level. Thai Fine Art student and artist Kittiwat Unarrom is the son of a baker. All that baking exposure growing up has been a clear influence, but his artistic need to see things a little differently definitely flared up as he created the tacitly named “Body Bakery” – brutally, gruesomely, almost unbelievably realistic looking sculptures of dismembered human body parts sculpted entirely from bread.
With a master in Fine Arts Kittiwat Unarrom creates sculpture in bread. Not just normal sculpture but horror, dark art, gore, something I don’t know if I could actually eat. Located in Ratchaburi, Thailand Kittiwat creates feet, hands, heads, and internal organs among other body parts all entirely edible and for sale at his family’s bakery. He skillfully paints each piece to look terrifying to the observer/customer.
Reblogging this again because I really want my Boyfriend to ‘take me to meet his family’ in Thailand. By that I mean go to this bakery. But that other part, too. But mostly this.
“Before our white brothers arrived to make us civilized men, we didn’t have any kind of prison. Because of this, we had no delinquents. Without a prison, there can be no delinquents. We had no locks nor keys and therefore among us there were no thieves.When someone was so poor that he couldn’t afford a horse, a tent or a blanket, he would, in that case, receive it all as a gift. We were too uncivilized to give great importance to private property. We didn’t know any kind of money and consequently, the value of a human being was not determined by his wealth. We had no written laws laid down, no lawyers, no politicians, therefore we were not able to cheat and swindle one another.We were really in bad shape before the white men arrived and I don’t know how to explain how we were able to manage without these fundamental things that (so they tell us) are so necessary for a civilized society.” — John (Fire) Lame Deer, Sioux Lakota, 1903-1976.
