one of the things i love the most about learning different languages is learning about concepts that do not exist in other language, about words that only exist in their language and cannot be translated.
so i decided to share a couple of my favourite ones with an approximate translation here:
| word | language | approximate meaning |
|---|---|---|
| apapacho, apapachar | Náhuatl (then adopted by Spanish speakers) | to hug (with the soul) |
| Appel du vide | French | “call of the void” the impulse one could feel to jump when standing on a very high place, or to do something self destructive in general |
| Cafuné | (Brazilian) Portuguese | to caress or tenderly run one’s fingers through a loved one’s hair |
| Fernweh | German | feeling longing or “homesickness” for a place one’s never been at |
| Komorebi - (木漏れ日) | Japanese | sunlight shinning through leaves |
| Pochemuchka - (почему́чка) | Russian | a child who asks many questions |
| Saudade | Portuguese | longing for something that’s lost |
| Toska - (тоска) | Russian | as Vladimir Nabokov put it: "At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom."
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there are many more words than the ones here, of course, so i’d love to hear your favourites as well~