How would you describe that feeling of meeting someone and starting to feel the euphoria of falling in love? A Norwegian would simply say “forelsket”. And everyone who speaks the language would understand it. There are words that only exist in Spanish and that we would not know how to translate into another language. And there are words in other languages that describe feelings, sensations or situations so beautiful, so special… that we would like to exist in all the languages of the world. These are our nineteen favorites:
Toska
It comes from Russian and one of the most famous writers in the country, Vladimir Nabokov, was the one who gave the best definition of it: “It is a feeling of great spiritual anguish, often without a specific cause”. Given this definition, it might seem as clinical as depression, but it is actually closer to what we feel when we are intense.
wabi sabi
It is a Japanese term that describes a “aesthetics that find beauty in imperfection”. It is applied to art, but also to everyday life, and in its formulation nature and the conjunction between the growth and decline of things are of great importance.
Viraha
This Hindi term could be described as “the discovery of love through separation”. There are those who believe in taking time as a couple and there are those who don’t; who knows the virahah knows that it is possible to realize how much we love someone when we start to miss them.
Cafune
In Brazilian Portuguese, cafuné is the word that defines a very specific caress and that, probably, we have all done at some time: the action of sliding fingers tenderly through the hair of the loved one.
bilita mpash
In the set of Bantu languages (spoken in central and southern Africa), bilita mpash it means “a wonderful dream”. We have a word in almost all languages to designate a nightmare, how could it not have occurred to us to have it for the opposite, if it is much better?
Forelsket
Norwegian also gives us the term forelsketwhich describes what we feel while we are falling in love. That feeling of euphoria and a little vertigo. How could we live without knowing it?
Peiskos
The Nordics are authentic specialists in creating words that define unique and at the same time very everyday sensations. Peiskosfrom Norwegian, is the feeling that invades you when you sit in front of a fire in a fireplace or a campfire and you enjoy its warmth and the crackling of the flames.
Hygge
Perhaps the best known of all these words, hygge It has come to us from the Danish and its meaning is as simple as the feeling that provokes it: “the happiness found in small plans, alone or with friends”. We’ve been doing it all our lives hygge and it was time to have a word to refer to it.
Koi No Yokan
Originating from the Japanese Koi No Yokan is the term that gives voice to the inevitability of some loves. And to the feeling we have when we realize it. If you had to give it a dictionary definition, it would be something like “the certainty that you are going to fall in love with someone when you see them for the first time”.
Razljubit
We could translate it as longing, as longing for lost love… but razljubit is actually something a little different. As with many of these words, only speakers of the language can know all the nuances. And this Russian word can only be defined as “the feeling you have for someone you once loved”.
Meraki
Is there anything that makes us feel more fulfilled than achieving something in which we put all our efforts? Something like this is intended to express the merakia word from modern Greek meaning “perform a very creative task leaving the soul in it”.
bouquet
Can something chaotic be beautiful? We think so… and the Koreans too. So much so that they have even created a word to define that feeling. It is bouquet, “something that is both beautiful and chaotic”.
wanderlust
It is another of those words that, being so necessary, have ended up becoming popular. We have seen it on posters, t-shirts and even tattoos. What does it mean? “An irrepressible desire to explore and discover the world”.
gjensynsglede
We are already considering learning Norwegian, from so many words that we have found in this language that we love. gjensynsglede designates the “joy to meet someone again after a long time without seeing”.
Mangata
Few things are more beautiful than the reflection of the moon on the water. And yet, almost no language has a word of its own to refer to that vision. The exception is the Swedish, who gives us mangata so that we know how to put a name to what we see on summer nights in front of the sea.
mamihlapinatapai
mamihlapinatapai It is a term that only exists in Yaghan, a language from Tierra del Fuego, and that has the honor of appearing in the book guinness of world records as the most accurate word in the world. describe “a look between two people, each of whom waits for the other to start an action that they both want, but neither has the courage to start”. Has a kiss come to our heads only?
Gigil
It comes from the Filipino and is, perhaps, the most curious of all the words we have found. Literally, gigil is he “urge to pinch something that is unbearably cute”. Puppies, kittens, baby cheeks… The possibilities of gigil they are infinite.
Nunchi
If we have a particularly intuitive friend, or if we ourselves are, nunchi may be a good word to describe us. It comes from Korean and designates “the ability to know how to read the emotional state of other people”.
Gokotta
From Swedish we learn the word gokotta, which designates an action that for some will be everyday… and for others something reserved for a dream vacation in the countryside. Literally, “the act of getting up early in the morning to go outside to listen to the birds singing”.
Arigata-meiwaku
When someone does something for us that we don’t want them to do, but that we appreciate, the Japanese say “Arigata-meiwaku”. It is, in Spanish, something similar to a “thanks for the trouble” or a “thank you for the favor”, although neither of these two expressions is 100% close to the meaning of the word in Japanese. It’s well born be grateful.
Nunchi
Korean is a very complex language, but it is currently very fashionable thanks to the series that come to us from this country. In them you may sometimes hear the word “nunchi”, which describes the ability to know how to read the mood of other people. This is not a psychologist or an expert, but someone normal and ordinary with enough empathy and ease to know how the person in front of you is doing.
Images | Unsplash.
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