21 Cool Foreign Phrases And Words That Mean Something Very Specific

Foreign people not only make up queer English words, they also have interesting words of their own. Please add any that you know of in the comments. Queer means odd by the way. My friend Chris’ dad hated gay people because he felt they took a perfectly good word and made it mean something perverted.

1. Ilunga (Tshiluba, Congo): a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time
2. Taarradhin (Arabic): a way of resolving a problem without anyone losing face (not the same as our concept of a compromise – everyone wins)
3. Razbliuto (Russian): The vacant feeling you have for someone you once loved, but no longer love.
4. Meraki (Greek): doing something with soul, creativity, or love
5. Yoko meshi (Japanese): literally ‘a meal eaten sideways’, referring to the peculiar stress induced by speaking a foreign language:
6. Duende (Spanish): a climactic show of spirit in a performance or work of art, which might be fulfilled in flamenco dancing, or bull-fighting, etc.
7. Pochemuchka (Russian): a person who asks a lot of questions
8. Tingo (Pascuense language of Easter Island): to borrow objects one by one from a neighbour’s house until there is nothing left
9. Manqué (French) having failed to become what one might have been
10. Litost (Czech): a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery
11. Waldeinsamkeit (German): the feeling of being alone in the woods
12. Dai Lu Maozi (Chinese) Translates to “He wears the green hat”; Meaning his Wife is sleeping with someone else.
13. Faire Du Leche-Vitrines (French) Literally, “to lick the windows”; Window Shopping.
14. Harami (Arabic) An electrical plug adapter that allows more than one plug to be plugged into the same socket. Literally means “thief”
15. Guanxi (Mandarin): in traditional Chinese society, you would build up good guanxi by giving gifts to people, taking them to dinner, or doing them a favor, but you can also use up your gianxi by asking for a favour to be repaid.
16. Handschuhschneebalwerfer (German) Germans like to smash words together into one. This one translates to “Somebody Who Wears Gloves To Throw Snowballs”, used in general to describe cowards.
17. Geisterfahrer (Austria) Someone driving the wrong way on the Autobahn. Literally: Ghost Driver.
18. Shitta (Farsi) Leftover dinner eaten for breakfast.
19. Schadenfreude (Guess Who) To derive pleasure via someone else’s pain or misfortune
20. Gorerro (Spanish) Someone who never picks up a check.
21. Rujuk (Indonesian) To Remarry your ex-wife.

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Reader's Comments

1. 

   Tarof (Farsi): to offer without really wanting the other person to take or to refuse to take but really wanting to. This happens a lot with food, bills in restaraunts and gifts.

   Stam (Hebrew):just because. Example: person #1 “why did you do that?” person #2 “stam.” This word is used all of the time to describe everything and nothing.

   Reply to this comment
2. Rachel on 23 May 2008 2:07 am
3. 

   [...] You have to be pretty thirsty to literally lick the windows (I prefer to do so figuratively). [...]

   Reply to this comment
4. LibrariAnne · SAW Tuesday-Flickr squirrels on 07 Oct 2008 4:37 pm
5. 

   One correction here and one addition. “Handschuhschneeballwerfer”: Never heard of that, but the word makes sense – just write it with double l, “ball”. “Geisterfahrer” is right, but known in Germany too. Just for the records.

   Reply to this comment
6. mac on 27 Nov 2008 3:54 am
7. 

   Actually, a “pochemuchka” is, specifically, someone who constantly asks “why”. Not just a lot of questions, but specifically just “Why”.

   Reply to this comment
8. Natasha on 27 Nov 2008 1:49 pm
9. 

   Being a native speaker of Russian, I’m unable to figure out N3? Is it really Russian?

   Reply to this comment
10. Andrey on 29 Nov 2008 2:01 pm
11. 

    Yokomeshi refers to eating overseas (and by association the stress involved), not to the act of speaking a non-Japanese language.

    It comes from “yokomoji” -> horizontal writing, i.e. English and other languages written from left-to-right, combined with “meshi”, the casual word for food.

    Reply to this comment
12. Wwwww on 06 Dec 2008 10:00 pm
13. 

    Geisterfahrer just doesn’t roll off the tongue as nicely or effortlessly as the Dutch equivalent: SPOOKRIJDER. Same translation though. And pronounce the “SPOOK” in English as “spoak” or “spoke”.

    Reply to this comment
14. Kerkfikker on 07 Dec 2008 1:46 am
15. 

    Another word with the same connotation as Handschuhschneeballwerfer is Warmduscher.
    It might be that it’s only used within my group of friends, but it means exactly the same… And is shorter

    Reply to this comment
16. Bokkie on 18 Jan 2009 5:16 am
17. 

    I’m russian so i’ll help u with third number it’s written incorrect.
    Razliubil (male talking about female)or razliubila (opposite)

    Reply to this comment
18. nina on 09 Mar 2009 1:21 pm
19. 

    great stuff. and smart comments. me likey.

    Reply to this comment
20. jmm on 22 May 2009 9:07 pm