{"id":13621,"date":"2026-08-25T00:13:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T04:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/10-wonderfully-untranslatable-words-from-around-the-world-for-complex-and-difficult-emotions-the-marginalian\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T00:13:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T04:13:56","slug":"10-wonderfully-untranslatable-words-from-around-the-world-for-complex-and-difficult-emotions-the-marginalian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/10-wonderfully-untranslatable-words-from-around-the-world-for-complex-and-difficult-emotions-the-marginalian\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Wonderfully Untranslatable Words from Around the World for Complex and Difficult Emotions \u2013 The Marginalian"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Profit<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Language is the chalice we lift to our lips to taste our own experience \u2014 a vessel that constrains what it contains by giving it its own shape. The more complex our experience, the more muddled the emotions that comprise it, the more it spills outside what language can hold. And yet we live in language \u2014 narrative is the neurocognitive pillar of personhood<\/a> and emotions are how the brain interprets bodily sensations<\/a>, an interpretation achieved largely by naming. We also live in culture \u2014 encoded in each language are a culture\u2019s parameters of what it is permissible to feel, which we internalize as the parameters of what it is possible to feel. <\/p>\n

It helps, then, to have a larger lexicon of emotion \u2014 larger than our given language, in order to take back the expansiveness of our experience by liberating it from the constraints of culture. <\/p>\n

That is what cultural historian Tiffany Watt Smith offers in The Book of Human Emotions: An Encyclopedia of Feeling from Anger to Wanderlust<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (public library<\/em><\/a>) \u2014 a linguistic ledger of feeling exploring the cultural histories and psychosocial nuances behind the words we use to name our most confounding, complex, yet common experiences, partway between The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows<\/em><\/a> (that lovely lexicon of invented words for real things we feel but cannot name based on real etymologies from around the world) and David Whyte\u2019s Consolations<\/em><\/a> (that passionate unfastening of everyday words to reveal the deeper strata of their emotional nuances). <\/p>\n

<\/a>
Art by Julie Paschkis from The Wordy Book<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Punctuating the entries in English, from anger<\/a> to loneliness<\/a> to delight<\/a>, are some wonderfully untranslatable words from around the world for very specific affective states and emotional reactions with no equivalent in English \u2014 partly because our culture holds no space for them, partly because our model of human nature factors out the reality and dignity of those experiences, partly simply because the English language is not pliant enough to mold itself around such irregularly shaped objects of feeling. <\/p>\n

Here are ten of my favorites:<\/p>\n

\n

ABHIMAN<\/strong>
Sanskrit<\/em><\/p>\n

The literal meaning of abhi-man<\/em> is \u201cself-pride.\u201d Abhiman<\/em> evokes the pain and anger caused when someone we love, or expect kind treatment from, hurts us. Sorrow and shock are at its root, but it quickly flourishes into a fierce, bruised pride. To recognize abhiman<\/em> as an inevitable part of our emotional life is to know that breaking the unspoken contracts of love and respect between families and allies is an extremely serious betrayal.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

ACEDIA<\/strong>
Greek<\/em><\/p>\n

A distracting, creeping feeling. Like the tickle of a gnat crawling up your arm. A short-lived but disastrous emotional crisis, usually striking between 11AM and 4PM. Its first signs are listlessness and irritability, but it doesn\u2019t take long to turn into desolation and despair.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

AMAE<\/strong>
Japanese<\/em><\/p>\n

The sensation of temporary surrender in perfect safety when you crumple into the arms of a loved one to be coddled and comforted. In Japan, amae<\/em> is commonly acknowledged as part of all kinds of relationships, felt not only between family members, but with friends and in the workplace too. According to the Japanese psychologist Takeo Doi, amae<\/em> is \u201can emotion that takes the other person\u2019s love for granted,\u201d there when we depend on another\u2019s help with no obligation to be grateful in return. You can even be encouraged to show amae<\/em> to yourself. For Doi, surrendering to amae<\/em> is important because it represents a return to the indulgences and unconditional nurturing of infancy. It\u2019s the glue which allows stable relationships to flourish, an emblem of the deepest trust\u2026 this combination of vulnerability and belonging.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

BASOREXIA<\/strong>
20th-century English derivative of Latin and Greek<\/em><\/p>\n

The sudden urge to kiss someone.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

GRENG JAI<\/strong>
Thai<\/em><\/p>\n

The feeling of being reluctant to accept another\u2019s offer to help because of the bother it would cause them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

KAUKOKAIPUU<\/strong>
Finnish<\/em><\/p>\n

Feeling homesick for a place you\u2019ve never been to. From kauko<\/em> \u2014 faraway, and kaipuu<\/em> \u2014 a yearning.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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MALU<\/strong>
Indonesian<\/em><\/p>\n

The sudden experience of feeling constricted, inferior and awkward around people of higher status.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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SAUDADE<\/strong>
Portuguese<\/em><\/p>\n

A melancholic yearning for someone, or something, which is far away or lost. It\u2019s always there, pulsing between the surface with its hopefulness tinged with grief. There is a vague yearning, yet it is interlaid with resignation and the pleasure of remembering past joys.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

VIRAHA<\/strong>
Sanskrit<\/em><\/p>\n

Viraha<\/em> is usually translated as longing or the particular kind of love felt during separation or abandonment. An aspect of sringara rasa<\/em> (erotic and romantic love), one of the nine rasas<\/em> or themes that shape human experience, viraha<\/em> is a feeling of incompleteness without a loved one, and a fixation on the ecstasy of the longed-for reunion. Viraha<\/em> recalls the formulations of romantic infatuation, not only the erotic \u2014 the poetry of the Occitan troubadours, or the inconsolable longing expressed in Portuguese fado music. The difference is that viraha<\/em> is also a religious feeling \u2014 the soul\u2019s quest to find it\u2019s spiritual home. [See John Donne\u2019s \u201cBatter My Heart\u201d<\/a><\/em>.]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u017bAL<\/strong>
Polish<\/em><\/p>\n

\u017bal<\/em> (pronounced jal<\/em>) is melancholy felt at an irretrievable loss. This is not straightforward dejection. \u017bal is fickle, and shifts its shape, one moment resigned, the next rebellious. It combines the disappointment, regret and even violent fury which comes when some part of our lives has been taken away for good. It is most of all a kind of anger at recognizing the end of things.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Couple with Pablo Neruda\u2019s love letter to language<\/a>, then revisit artist Julie Paschkis\u2019s illustrated ode to words and the meanings between them<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Profit<\/a>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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