Weird Expressions, Languages, Words.

[Blessed2]

Any interesting words and expressions, differences in language, words that don't exist in other tongues etc. Etymology. Similarities and synchoricities. Striking pointings in language. Let's talk.

 

 

[Blessed2]

Like for example, in Finnish there are two words for the English term "jealousy". They are kateellisuus and mustasukkaisuus.

 

Kateellisuus is a word as it's own. It's basically directly translatable as jealousy.

 

Mustasukkaisuus not so much though. It's two words. Musta + sukka-isuus.

 

Musta means black. Sukka means sock.

 

So mustasukkaisuus means: black sockedness. Having black socks.

 

Weird.

 

Black sockedness is usually used as an expression of jealousy specificallly about for example the person you're attracted to, like a spouse, being attracted to another person. Or maybe an ex is with a new partner and you experience mustasukkaisuus. 

 

Why black socks?  Why jealousy specifically about relationships?  🤔

 

 

[Phil]

Here’s a weird one…  in English, "gift" means a present or something given willingly to someone without payment. In German, gift means poison.

 

Also interesting… In English, "the present" can refer to both a gift and the current moment in time, creating a unique double meaning or pointing to these being one & the same. In other languages, these are two distinct concepts typically have two distinct words.

[Mandy]

"Curiosity killed the cat" was originally "care killed the cat".  "In this instance, "care" was defined as "worry" or "sorrow for others"." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_killed_the_cat

 

 

[Enlightened Cat]

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia refers to the phobia or fear of long words.

[judy]

"Hysteria" comes from Greek "hystera" meaning "uterus".

 

For context, in Victorian England hysteria was an official mental health diagnosis. At the time, "madness" was believed to affect mostly just women (convenient?).

 

[judy]

In German, there are two common expressions that you can use to make an apology.

 

One is related to guilt:

"Entschuldigung" or "sich entschuldigen" has the literal meaning of "to dis-guilt" oneself.

 

The other is related to sorrow or suffering:

"Es tut mir leid", which literally translates to "it does me sorrow" (i guess the same as "i'm sorry") or "it causes me suffering".... although we wouldn't typically think of guilt or suffering when using these expressions.

Edited September 4 by judy

[Phil]

"Wabi-sabi", Japanese, means ‘finding beauty in imperfection’. According to GPT the term has no English equivalent, but I disagree. 

 

[Phil]

That aspects are forward in the sense being, many words backwards, which is actually forwards, are revealing. 

Like, ‘ever’, such as in ‘for ever’ or ‘ever more’.