Seventeen untranslatable words to inspire your writing

Words like hyppytyynytyydytys evoke rich images

Photograph by Nathan Dumlao

Dear hopeful reader,

When I think of words, I think of connections. Us connecting through shared and personal experiences through communication through words. English is full of rich and enriching words, some of which are loanwords—a testament of how multicultural our world is, around us.

Certain words from different nations with different cultures are untranslatable in English, and other languages. If they were translatable, I wonder, would their meaning be lost in translation? To fully understand them, you have to live and breathe them.

The following words are evocative, inspiring, and reflective. They make us think about what they mean to those who use them in individual and collective contexts. They make us wonder how they began, how they evolved. They make us feel closer to others, feel empathy for them. They make us imagine being there in that precious moment.

These words were defined as close as possible to their true meaning. But I’m certain the definitions in English don’t completely capture their soul. Yet the knowledge that they exist makes our world more vibrant and vast. And maybe a poem or story will come out of it for you.

Also read: Fifteen evocative words to inspire your creativity

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#1: Gökotta (Swedish)

Meaning:

The act of waking up before sunrise to listen to the morning birds sing.

#2: Tsundoku (Japanese)

Meaning:

The habit of acquiring books and piling them up without reading them.

Also the book pile itself.

Prompt:

You’re literally a book worm, crawling amongst piles of books, with more books piling on. Do you find a way out? Or do you stay and read a book? And if you do stay, how does the story begin? What words stand out to you the most? Maybe in your adventure you could even collect these words and make a ladder with them.

#3: Frühjahrsmüdigkeit (German)

Meaning:

Fatigue brought on by the arrival of spring.

#4: Hanyauku (Rukwangali)

Meaning:

Walking on tiptoes on warm or hot sand.

#5: Ilunga (Tshiluba)

Meaning:

Someone who forgives anything, such as abuse, a first time, tolerates it a second time, but never a third time.

#6: Sobremesa (Spanish)

Meaning:

Hispanic and Latin American tradition of spending time with your loved ones at the table post-meal, just relaxing, digesting, and talking, enjoying each other’s company without rushing, drinking coffee or digestive liquor.

Also something sweet like a dessert.

Prompt:

A family sits at the table. They talk about the good old days, imagine how the world would be 100 years from now, miss the moments yet to come and moments that never happened. Their words come alive before their eyes.

#7: Ya’aburnee (Arabic)

Meaning:

The hope of your dearly loved outliving you so you could be spared of the pain of living without them.

#8: Gigil (Tagalog)

Meaning:

Trembling or gritting of your teeth following a situation that tests your self-control.

Often an uncontrollable urge to squeeze, pinch, touch, or hug something cute, like an adorable puppy or a gorgeous person.

#9: Seigneur-terraces (French)

Meaning:

Those who sit in a café all day spending little money.

Also read: Fifteen vivid words to inspire a poem in you

#10: Akihi (Hawaiian)

Meaning:

After receiving directions, walking off and immediately forgetting them.

#11: Iktsuarpok (Inuktitut)

Meaning:

Anticipation, impatience, or frustration awaiting someone, occasionally looking out the window or going outside to see if they arrived.

#12: Meriggiare (Italian)

Meaning:

Resting in the shade, like under a tree, after lunch.

Also, cattle or farm animals resting in the shade in the afternoon.

Prompt:

On one side of the farm, a farmer sleeps under a tree. On the other side, sheep slumber in a shade. The farmer dreams a dream. The sheep dream their own dream. And then they dream about each other.

#13: Gluggaveður (Icelandic)

Meaning:

Weather that looks warm from inside looking out but is actually cold outside.

In other words, window weather.

#14: Dugnad (Norwegian)

Meaning:

Norwegian tradition of voluntary communal help followed by refreshments or meal. Usually outdoors, involving manual work such as cleanup, painting, roofing, construction, et cetera.

Nowadays, dugnad is unpaid, voluntary work done as a group for a cause.

#15: Hyppytyynytyydytys (Finnish)

Meaning:

Not a typo caused by your cat jumping on the keyboard.

Satisfaction from sitting on a bouncy cushion or comfortable chair.

#16: Jayus (Indonesian)

Meaning:

A joke that’s either unfunny or poorly told that you can’t help but laugh.

Likewise, it’s humor that’s absurd, incomprehensible, without a punchline. But it’s the delivery and audience reaction that makes it funny. It can be surrealistic and have wordplay, making it intriguing and even addicting.

(The Room by Tommy Wiseau is one big accidental jayus if you ask me.)

#17: Yuputka (Ulwa)

Meaning:

Phantom feeling of something crawling on your skin, particularly when you’re walking in the woods at night.

Prompt:

You’re a ghost walking alone in the woods at night. And you feel a strange sensation, a tingling. Is it fear? Or delight? A living being passes by you, or rather through you. How rude. What do you do next?

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Do you speak another language other than English? Are there words in your mother tongue that are untranslatable? Do share them with me.

Yours hopefully,

Nadia

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