15 Words With No English Equivalent

[mikeybc]

I submit "butterface."

*beaten to it*

Ha, thought of this too right away, reminded me of the Howard Stern contest a few years back.

Some say "buttaface"

 

[tchuck]

German "schadenfreude" - taking pleasure from another's misfortune. We all do it and we have no English word for it. It's how you would feel if Trump had to declare bankruptcy again.

Schadenfreude = sadistic

 

[finnbow]

Schadenfreude = sadistic

Not really. First, Schadenfreude is a noun. It means "the enjoyment obtained from the trouble of others."

Sadism (the noun form of sadistic) means "deriving pleasure as a result of inflicting pain or watching pain inflicted on others."

The former has to do with trouble/failure as opposed to the infliction of pain. Germans do not really use their words "Schadenfreude" and "Sadismus" interchangeably, nor do we in English.

 

[tchuck]

Not really. First, Schadenfreude is a noun. It means "the enjoyment obtained from the trouble of others."

Sadism (the noun form of sadistic) means "deriving pleasure as a result of inflicting pain or watching pain inflicted on others."

The former has to do with trouble/failure as opposed to the infliction of pain. Germans do not really use their words "Schadenfreude" and "Sadismus" interchangeably, nor do we in English.

Fair enough, though I would argue that "pain" and "trouble" are synonyms in English. I guess it depends on the context...

So is "sadismus" the direct translation of "sadism"?

 

[finnbow]

Fair enough, though I would argue that "pain" and "trouble" are synonyms in English. I guess it depends on the context...

So is "sadismus" the direct translation of "sadism"?

Yes.

 

[Junknewbian]

Not really. First, Schadenfreude is a noun. It means "the enjoyment obtained from the trouble of others."

Sadism (the noun form of sadistic) means "deriving pleasure as a result of inflicting pain or watching pain inflicted on others."

The former has to do with trouble/failure as opposed to the infliction of pain. Germans do not really use their words "Schadenfreude" and "Sadismus" interchangeably, nor do we in English.

Yes, thanks for this clarity. A sadist inflicts pain.

Schadenfreude is much nicer, maybe like watching a despised team lose the game. People who don't like the Boston Red Sox felt some schadenfreude this week.

 

[koseltri]

I recall reading back in the day that the Lamborghini Countach was so named because someone was heard to utter the word upon their first look at the car. It is a word used to express surprise/shock, but it is considered profanity. It has no direct translation, but is analogous to saying in English, "Holy sh*t!"

 

[tchuck]

Yes.

Alright, you win this one Mr Finn.

 

[tchuck]

I recall reading back in the day that the Lamborghini Countach was so named because someone was heard to utter the word upon their first look at the car. It is a word used to express surprise/shock, but it is considered profanity. It has no direct translation, but is analogous to saying in English, "Holy sh*t!"

Beats this Lambo name origin... (Aventador)

 

[EddyFranner]

Chrysler's Caravan, Car-a-van?

 

[mhardy6647]

I didn't think that Schadenfreude was quite abstruse enough to be truly considered "untranslatable". "Joy in [others'] harm/damage" - maybe kind of poetic, but pretty clear what they were getting at.

The great thing about German is the ability to form compound nouns essentially ad infinitum. In German, one may typically invoke a single word to express a fairly complicated concept The first big German compound noun they taught us in school - I'll never forget it - was das Fremdenverkehrsbüro. This is, of course, a "travellers' information center" - Fremden, strangers; verkehr(s), traffic, commerce ; büro, bureau, office, department.

The other cool thing about German - one must actually be clairvoyant to carry on a conversation in German, as the verb of a sentence in many circumstances only occurs at the bitter end (as my HS German teacher said) of the sentence. Thus, you get all sorts of information during the course of a sentence, but you don't know what actually know what happened until the "bitter end"!

 

[Mike Gibson]

I can think of several with no definition or translation here currently.
1. Patience
2. Compassion
3. Consideration

 

[finnbow]

Here's another good German one for ya. Massengefuhl. It literally means the "feeling of the masses." It doesn't translate,however, directly into our "mob mentality." It doesn't have as much of a negative connotation as "mob mentality" does.

The word can describe the uniformity of action/motion when the oompah band strikes up the music at a big beer fest and people start swaying back and forth as one.

 

[mhardy6647]

Here's another good German one for ya. Massengefühl. It literally means the "feeling of the masses." It doesn't translate,however, directly into our "mob mentality." It doesn't have as much of a negative connotation as "mob mentality" does.

The word can describe the uniformity of action/motion when the oompah band strikes up the music at a big beer fest and people start swaying back and forth as one.

(had to stick that umlaut in the quote...)

Yeah, those fun-loving Germans and their compounds!
Some other long-time faves:

Zeitgeist "the spirit of the times"
Weltschmerz "the pain of the world"
Weltanschauung "world view"

 

[finnbow]

(had to stick that umlaut in the quote...)

Yeah, those fun-loving Germans and their compounds!
Some other long-time faves:

Zeitgeist "the spirit of the times"
Weltschmerz "the pain of the world"
Weltanschauung "world view"

Schön Dank, mein Herr. As an aside, I can remember a friend in Germany who said that there is only one pretty word in the German language (to the ears of an American who speaks of the beauty of the romance languages). That word? Schmetterling (butterfly).

 

[Bob_in_OKC]

Steuerpimpel

 

[mhardy6647]

Mark Twain was pretty unimpressed by the German language - to paraphrase Mr. Clemens, what can you say about a language in which a girl is neuter and a turnip is feminine?

 

[screenersam]

N'est pas= isn't.

What you meant to write is : n'est-ce pas? which can be translated to: isn't it?

I stand corrected. haven't attended a Francois class since early 1980s.

surprised at the amount of German in the thread.

 

[Sandy G]

Spoken German all too often sounds like they're barking out orders to each other....Or, if a woman, she sounds like she's "Snitching" to Herr Komissar on the phone...

 

[finnbow]

Spoken German all too often sounds like they're barking out orders to each other....Or, if a woman, she sounds like she's "Snitching" to Herr Komissar on the phone...

True enough. But Dutch or Danish sounds like they're about to throw up on you.