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Wednesday, April 13, 2022

10 Interesting Words from Other Languages

I love coming across beautiful words from other languages, especially ones that have no English equivalent. Some are deeply meaningful, some are interesting for writers, and some describe the funny parts of life. Here are ten from my ongoing list:

  • Petrichor: the wonderful smell in the air after it’s been raining
  • Komorebi: sunlight filtering through trees
  • Waldeinsamkeit: The feeling of solitude and connectedness to nature when being alone in the woods.
  • Tsundoku: the act of buying a book and leaving it unread, often piled with other unread books
  • Kaizen: a method for transforming habits incrementally, one step at a time, in order to continuously improve
  • Meraki: to do something with soul, creativity, or love; when you leave a piece of yourself in your work
  • Irusu: pretending to be out when someone knocks at your door
  • Yaourt: To sing along to a song even though you don’t know the lyrics. Instead, you use nonsensical noises that vaguely resemble the lyrics of a song.
  • Shemomedjam: to eat something because it’s so yummy and delicious, even though you’re not hungry
  • Meriggiare: to rest or relax at midday, usually in a shady spot on a sunny day
          BONUS:
  • Ubuntu: The act of being kind to others because of one’s common humanity.

Are you a word lover too? Share one of your favorites in the comments below.

--Marcia Peterson  

4 comments:

  1. Oooo, irusu. Didn't know there was a word for what I do.

    I love the sound and play of words. My favorite? Tintinnabulation.

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  2. That's another good one, Sue!

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  3. LOVE these, Marcia, and love how every single one of them is recognizable as something we humans do no matter where we live. Isn't that amazing, how alike we all are?

    I love words and expressions, too...to name just one is almost impossible! But I'll go with cattywampus. In fact, I think I'll work that into my current WIP. I don't think we use cattywampus nearly enough! :-)

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  4. These are beautiful! I love getting Dictionary.com's "Word of the Day" and often incorporate a new word into an essay just for fun. Yesterday's word was "sennachie" - a professional storyteller of family genealogy, history, and legend.

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