Foreign words that don't have direct translation into English

Marydoll

There is a Scottish word scunnered, which doesn't quite translate into English. It however, sums up a feeling of being extremely fed up. In fact it describes my mood very accurately today.

I can hear my mum saying “I’m fair scunnered”. Brilliant word.

Just realised that it is an old thread and I have already posted my contribution ages ago!

"Schadenfreude - pleasure in someone else’s misfortune"

There is an English equivalent, epicaricacy

Casdon

How about pendwmpian - Welsh for dozing - it literally means your head is nodding off,

I love that word Casdon my Nain used to tell me to play quietly while she did a bit of pendwmpian!

Another lovely Welsh word I use is ‘smonach’ which means exactly the same as bourach in Gaelic, a right mess!

Strach means palaver and I’d use pen-nionyn (onion head)to describe politicians (of any hue) rather than the Welsh for carrot! Perfectly describes the layers of stupidity and ability to make you ?

MawtheMerrier

From the Uxbridge English Dictionary
Coup de grace - lawnmower ,

Brilliant ?

How about pendwmpian - Welsh for dozing - it literally means your head is nodding off,

From the Uxbridge English Dictionary
Coup de grace - lawnmower ,

Parsley3

The Gaelic word bourach describes a right shambles, I think. Very apt on occasion.

I thought of that one too :I had never heard it until I lived in the far north of Scotland but it is a lovely word.

Coup de grace, often mispronounced.
French, final act, usually, but not always, a bad thing, to bring someone down.
Dénouement- literally the untying of all the knots, but we might say it is tying up all the loose ends of a plot or storyline.

Pied-à-terre. A flat or cottage, often a second home, somewhere you stay when you touch down in another place.

Of course many words in English come from French. Some have been absorbed unchanged, but I have recently noticed them being pronounced the French way eg homage.

Not quite a foreign language - all one word Oharey - Scouse elision Oh, Ah, Hey - translates as - Oh, I say, you can't do that here, or How unfair - tone and context tell you which.

Gosh, normally I'm the first to notice it's an old thread that has been revived by someone trying to sell something, but I just jumped right in here. Never mind, the subject certainly wasn't exhausted at the time, there's plenty more to say.

What an interesting thread. I'm originally a Scot, now Italian. I wash the towels and hang them out, when there is a drooth in it, dry, abive all a breeze, just right for drying laundry. I'm fair scunnert when, unexpectedly, there is a bomba d'acqua, literally a water bomb, a downpour. I love language!

-even thats wrong! SCROW

Blast auto-correct
What I said was "what a scow" nor "score"

There's a Cumbria word 'scrow' meaning an untidy mess. (pronounced 'ow' as in how).
I once walked into the staff room at the school I worked in at that time, and said "What a score" (because it was in a real mess with papers and books and dirty teacups everywhere) and no-one knew what on earth I meant.

Oops, an old thread (but a nice one )

Cwtch which means so much more than a hug or a cuddle - it encompasses cosiness, warmth and a feeling of safety too.

Another guid Scots word is "fantouche" meaning something that is very fancy and making itself out to be more than it is.

The Spanish "exigente" doesn't translate well into any other language - you need both insistent, demanding and a right pain in the neck to convey its meaning in English.

Callistemon

Hiraeth which is a Welsh word that means more than just a longing or homesickness.

That would be like "saudade" in Portuguese.

A couple of words in everyday use in German for which, despite speaking the language for 40;years now, I still haven't found something similar in English:

Stulpen - to turn something inside out (like a sock) or to pull something over something (best example I can think of is a condom, sorry)

Feierabend - the free time after work, or the time you knock off work.

Fernweh - the urge to go on travels, just to get away and see foreign lands - as far away as possible.

I would say that chez (moi, toi etc) is translated by "home" in English.

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I think you need a new dictionary

Epicaricacy flows much better and is a good English word, better than a german one

Having never heard of it, I just looked that up in my colossal fat Oxford dictionary, @Brahumbug - it’s not there! Nowt between epicardium and epicedium.

Anyway, Schadenfreude rolls off the tongue much better, and to me it does sound much more like wot it means.

"Schadenfreude - pleasure in someone else’s misfortune."

Actually, we have a perfectly good English word for that. Epicaricacy.