I Never Knew There Was a Word For It Read online

  nark (Phorhépecha, Mexico)

  rozhbash (Kurdi, Iraq and Iran)

  samba (Lega, Congo)

  wali-wali (Limbe, Sierra Leone)

  xawaxan (Toltichi Yokuts, California, USA)

  yoga (Ateso, Uganda)

  yoyo (Kwakiutl, Canada)

  But it may not even be a word. In the Gilbert Islands of the Pacific, arou pairi describes the process of rubbing noses in greeting. For the Japanese, bowing is an important part of the process and a sign of respect: ojigi is the act of bowing; eshaku describes a slight bow (of about 15 degrees); keirei, a full bow (of about 45 degrees); while saikeirei is a very low, worshipful type of bow that involves the nose nearly touching the hands. When one meets someone extremely important, one might even consider pekopeko, bowing one’s head repeatedly in a fawning or grovelling manner.

  Just say the word

  Sometimes a single word works hard. In Sri Lanka, for example, the Sinhala word ayubowan means not only ‘good morning’, but also ‘good afternoon’, ‘good evening’, ‘good night’ and ‘goodbye’.

  Expectant

  The frustration of waiting for someone to turn up is beautifully encapsulated in the Inuit word iktsuarpok, meaning ‘to go outside often to see if someone is coming’. As for the frustration of the caller, there’s always the Russian dozvonit’sya which doesn’t simply mean to ring a doorbell, but to ring it until one gets an answer (it’s also used for getting through on the telephone).

  Hey you!

  Once the first encounter is out of the way the correct form of address is important. Most of us know the difference between the intimate French tu and the more impersonal (and polite) vous. A similar distinction exists in Arabic between anta (‘you’ singular) and antum (‘you’ plural) – addressing an important person with anta (anti is the feminine version) rather than antum would be considered impolite.

  In Vietnam there are no fewer than eighteen words for ‘you’, the use of which depends on whom you are addressing, whether a child or a senior citizen, whether formally or informally. And in the Western Australian Aboriginal language of Jiwali there are four words for ‘we’: ngali means ‘we two including you’; ngaliju means ‘we two excluding you’; nganthurru means ‘we all including you’; and nganthurraju means ‘we all excluding you’.

  Cripes!

  Exclamations are generally used to express a sudden reaction: to something frightening, incredible, spectacular, shocking or wonderful. Best not attempted by the visitor, they are better heard from the mouth of the native speaker than read off the page:

  aaberdi (Algerian) a cry used when learning fearful news

  aawwaah (Dardja, Algeria) a shout of doubt or hesitation

  aãx (Karuk, North America) how disgusting!

  aduh (Malay) ouch or wow!

  aduhai (Indonesian) an expression of admiration

  alaih (Ulwa, Nicaragua) gosh! goodness! help!

  alalau (Quechuan, Peru) brrr! (of cold)

  amit-amit (Indonesian) forgive me!

  ammazza (Italian) it’s a killer! wow!

  asshe (Hausa, Nigeria) a cry of grief at distressing news

  bambule (Italian) cheers! (preceding the lighting of a joint)

  cq (Albanian) a negative exclamation of mild disappointment

  hoppla (German) whoops!

  naa (Japanese) that’s great!

  nabocklish (Irish Gaelic) don’t meddle with it!

  oho (Hausa, Nigeria) I don’t care

  oop (Ancient Greek) a cry to make rowers stop pulling

  sa (Afrikaans) catch him!

  savul (Turkish) get out of the way!

  schwupp (German) quick as a flash

  shahbash (Anglo-Indian) well done! (or well bowled!, as said in cricket by a wicket-keeper to the bowler)

  tao (Chinese) that’s the way it goes

  taetae tiria (Cook Islands Maori) throw it away, it’s dirty!

  uf (Danish) ugh! yuk!

  usch då (Swedish) oh, you poor thing!

  y-eazziik (Dardja, Algeria) an expression used exclusively by women to criticize another person’s action

  zut (French) dash it!

  Chinwag

  The niceties of what in English is baldly known as ‘conversation’ are well caught in other languages:

  ho’oponopono (Hawaiian) solving a problem by talking it out

  samir (Persian) one who converses at night by moonlight

  begadang (Indonesian) to stay up all night talking

  glossalgos (Ancient Greek) talking till one’s tongue aches

  Breakdown in communication

  Whether the person you are talking to suffers from latah (Indonesian), the uncontrollable habit of saying embarrassing things, or from chenyin (Chinese), hesitating and muttering to oneself, conversation may not always be quite as we’d like it:

  catra patra (Turkish) the speaking of a language incorrectly and brokenly

  nyelonong (Indonesian) to interrupt without apology

  akkisuitok (Inuit) never to answer

  dui niu tanqin (Chinese) to talk over someone’s head or address the wrong audience (literally, to play the lute to a cow)

  ’a’ama (Hawaiian) someone who speaks rapidly, hiding their meaning from one person whilst communicating it to another

  dakat’ (Russian) to keep saying yes

  dialogue de sourds (French) a discussion in which neither party listens to the other (literally, dialogue of the deaf)

  mokita (Kiriwana, Papua New Guinea) the truth that all know but no one talks about

  Tittle-tattle

  Gossip – perhaps more accurately encapsulated in the Cook Island Maori word ’o’onitua, ‘to speak evil of someone in their absence’ – is a pretty universal curse. But it’s not always unjustified. In Rapa Nui (Easter Island) anga-anga denotes the thought, perhaps groundless, that one is being gossiped about, but it also carries the sense that this may have arisen from one’s own feeling of guilt. A more gentle form of gossip is to be found in Jamaica, where the patois word labrish means not only gossip and jokes, but also songs and nostalgic memories of school.

  False friends

  Those who learn languages other than their own will sometimes come across words which look or sound the same as English, but mean very different things. Though a possible source of confusion, these false friends (as linguists call them) are much more likely to provide humour – as any Englishwoman who says ‘bless’ to her new Icelandic boyfriend will soon discover:

  hubbi (Arabic) friendly

  kill (Arabic) good friend

  bless (Icelandic) goodbye

  no (Andean Sabela) correct

  aye (Amharic, Ethiopia) no

  fart (Turkish) talking nonsense

  machete (Aukan, Suriname) how

  The unspeakable …

  Cursing and swearing are practised worldwide, and they generally involve using the local version of a small set of words describing an even smaller set of taboos that surround God, the family, sex and the more unpleasant bodily functions. Occasionally, apparently inoffensive words acquire a darker overtone, such as the Chinese wang bah dahn, which literally means a turtle egg but is used as an insult for politicians. And offensive phrases can often be beguilingly inventive:

  zolst farliren aleh tseyner achitz eynm, un dos zol dir vey ton (Yiddish) may you lose all your teeth but one and may that one ache

  así te tragues un pavo y todas las plumas se conviertan en cuchillas de afeitar (Spanish) may all your turkey’s feathers turn into razor blades

  … the unmentionable

  Taboo subjects, relating to local threats or fears, are often quirky in the extreme. Albanians, for example, never use the word for ‘wolf’. They say instead mbyllizogojen, a contraction of a sentence meaning ‘may God close his mouth’. Another Albanian taboo-contraction is the word for fairy, shtozovalle, which means may ‘God increase their round-dances’. Similarly, in the Sami language of Northern Scandinavia and the Yakuts language of Russia, the
original name for bear is replaced by a word meaning ‘our lord’ or ‘good father’. In Russian itself, for similar reasons, a bear is called a medved’ or ‘honey-eater’.

  … and the unutterable

  In Masai the name of a dead child, woman or warrior is not spoken again and, if their name is also a word used every day, then it is no longer used by the bereaved family. The Sakalavas of Madagascar do not tell their own name or that of their village to strangers to prevent any mischievous use. The Todas of Southern India dislike uttering their own name and, if asked, will get someone else to say it.

  Shocking soundalikes

  The French invented the word ordinateur, supposedly in order to avoid using the first two syllables of the word computer (con is slang for vagina and pute for whore). Creek Indians in America avoid their native words for earth (fakki) and meat (apiswa) because of their resemblance to rude English words.

  In Japan, four (shi) and nine (ku) are unlucky numbers, because the words sound the same as those for ‘death’ and ‘pain or worry’ respectively. As a result, some hospitals don’t have the numbers 4, 9, 14, 19, or 42 for any of their rooms. Forty-two (shi-ni) means to die, 420 (shi-ni-rei) means a dead spirit and 24 (ni-shi) is double death. Nor do some hospitals use the number 43 (shi-zan), especially in the maternity ward, as it means stillbirth.

  Fare well

  Many expressions for goodbye offer the hope that the other person will travel or fare well. But it is not always said. Yerdengh-nga is a Wagiman word from Australia, meaning ‘to clear off without telling anyone where you are going’. Similarly, in Indonesia, minggat means ‘to leave home for good without saying goodbye’.

  On reflection

  Snobs and chauffeurs

  Words don’t necessarily keep the same meaning. Simple descriptive words such as ‘rain’ or ‘water’ are clear and necessary enough to be unlikely to change. Other more complex words have often come on quite a journey since they were first coined:

  al-kuhul (Arabic) originally, powder to darken the eyelids; then taken up by alchemists to refer to any fine powder; then applied in chemistry to any refined liquid obtained by distillation or purification, especially to alcohol of wine, which then was shortened to alcohol

  chauffer (French) to heat; then meant the driver of an early steam-powered car; subsequently growing to chauffeur

  hashhashin (Arabic) one who smokes or chews hashish; came to mean assassin

  manu operare (Latin) to work by hand; then narrowed to the act of cultivating; then to the dressing that was added to the soil, manure

  prestige (French) conjuror’s trick; the sense of illusion gave way to that of glamour which was then interpreted more narrowly as social standing or wealth

  sine nobilitate (Latin) without nobility; originally referred to any member of the lower classes; then to somebody who despised their own class and aspired to membership of a higher one; thus snob

  theriake (Greek) an antidote against a poisonous bite; came to mean the practice of giving medicine in sugar syrup to disguise its taste; thus treacle

  An Arabian goodbye

  In Syrian Arabic, goodbye is generally a three-part sequence: a) bxatrak, by your leave; b) ma’assalama, with peace; c) ’allaysallmak, God keep you. If a) is said first, then b) is the reply and then c) may be used. If b) is said first, then c) is obligatory.

  From Top to Toe

  chi non ha cervello abbia gambe (Italian)

  he who has not got a good brain ought to have good legs

  Use your onion …

  English-speakers are not the only ones to use food metaphors –bean, loaf, noodle, etc. – to describe the head. The Spanish cebolla means both ‘head’ and ‘onion’, while the Portuguese expression

  cabeça d’alho xoxo literally means ‘he has a head of rotten garlic’ (in other words, ‘he is crazy’). Moving from vegetables to fruit, the French for ‘to rack your brains’ is se presser le citron – ‘to squeeze the lemon’.

  … or use your nut

  In Hawaii, a different item of food takes centre stage. The word puniu means ‘the skull of a man which resembles a coconut’. Hawaiian has also given the world the verb pana po’o, ‘to scratch your head in order to help you remember something you’ve forgotten’.

  Pulling faces

  The Arabic sabaha bi-wajhi means to begin the day by seeing someone’s face. Depending on their expression, this can be a good or bad omen:

  sgean (Scottish Gaelic) a wild look of fear on the face

  kao kara hi ga deru (Japanese) a blush (literally, a flame comes out of one’s face)

  verheult (German) puffy-faced and red-eyed from crying

  Backpfeifengesicht (German) a face that cries out for a fist in it

  Greek face-slapping

  There are several vivid Greek words for being slapped in the face, including sfaliara, hastouki, fappa, xestrefti, boufla, karpasia and sulta’meremet (‘the Sultan will put you right’). Batsos means both ‘a slap in the face’ and ‘a policeman’ (from the American use of the word ‘cop’ to mean ‘swipe’). Anapothi describes a backhanded slap, while tha fas bouketo, ‘you will eat a bunch of flowers’, is very definitely not an invitation to an unusual meal.

  Windows of the soul

  Eyes can be our most revealing feature, though the way others see them may not always be quite what we’d hoped for:

  makahakahaka (Hawaiian) deep-set eyeballs

  mata ego (Rapa Nui, Easter Island) eyes that reveal that a person has been crying

  ablaq-chashm (Persian) having intensely black and white eyes

  jegil (Malay) to stare with bulging eyes

  melotot (Indonesian) to stare in annoyance with widened eyes

  All ears

  English is not terribly helpful when it comes to characterizing ears, unlike, say, Albanian, in which people distinguish between veshok (‘small ones’) or veshak (‘ones that stick out’). Other languages are similarly versatile:

  tapawising (Ulwa, Nicaragua) pointed ears

  a suentola (Italian) flappy ears

  mboboyo (Bemba, Congo and Zambia) sore ears

  Indonesian offers two useful verbs: nylentik, ‘to flick someone with the middle finger on the ear’, and menjewer, ‘to pull someone by the ear’. While the Russian for ‘to pull someone’s leg’ is veshat’ lapshu na ushi, which literally translates as ‘to hang noodles on someone’s ears’.

  A real mouthful

  In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs which is still spoken today in Mexico, camachaloa is ‘to open one’s mouth’, camapaca is ‘to wash one’s mouth’, and camapotoniliztli is ‘to have bad breath’.

  Getting lippy

  Lips can be surprisingly communicative:

  zunda (Hausa, Nigeria) to indicate with one’s lips

  catkhara (Hindi) smacking either the lips or the tongue against the palate

  die beleidigte Leberwurst spielen (German) to stick one’s lower lip out sulkily (literally, to play the insulted liver sausage)

  ho’oauwaepu’u (Hawaiian) to stick the tongue under one’s lip or to jut out the chin and twist the lips to the side to form a lump (as a gesture of contempt)

  Hooter

  Noses are highly metaphorical. We win by a nose, queue nose to tail or ask people to keep their noses out of our business. Then, if they are annoying us, it’s that same protuberant feature we seize on:

  irgham (Persian) rubbing a man’s nose in the dirt

  hundekuq (Albanian) a bulbous nose, red at the tip

  nuru (Roviana, Solomon Islands) a runny nose

  engsang (Malay) to blow the nose with your fingers

  ufuruk (Turkish) breath exhaled through the nose

  Albanian face fungus

  Just below the nose may be found a feature increasingly rare in this country, but popular amongst males in many other societies. In Albania the language reflects an interest bordering on obsession, with no fewer than twenty-seven separate expressions for this fine addition to the up
per lip. Their word for moustache is similar to ours (mustaqe) but once attached to their highly specific adjectives, things move on to a whole new level:

  madh bushy moustache

  holl thin moustache

  varur drooping moustache

  big handlebar moustache

  kacadre moustache with turned-up ends

  glemb moustache with tapered tips

  posht moustache hanging down at the ends

  fshes long broom-like moustache with bristly hairs

  dirs ur newly sprouted moustache (of an adolescent)

  rruar with the moustache shaved off

  … to name but ten. The attention the Albanians apply to facial hair they also apply to eyebrows, with another twenty-seven words, including pencil-thin (vetullkalem), frowning (vetullvrenjtur), plucked (vetullhequr), knitted (vetullrrept), long and delicately shaped (vetullgajtan), thick (vetullor), joined together (vetullperpjekur), gloomy (vetullngrysur), or even arched like the crescent moon (vetullhen).

  Bearded wonder

  The Arab exclamation ‘God protect us from hairy women and beardless men’ pinpoints the importance of facial hair as a mark of rank, experience and attractiveness:

  gras bilong fes (Tok Pisin, Papua New Guinea) a beard (literally, grass belonging to the face)