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Favourite foreign words

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NDWDave 19 Jan 10:09am, 19 Jan 2025 20,670 posts	Quote Pin NDWDave Gemütlichkeit - geniality; friendliness (German)
JamieKai chameleon 19 Jan 10:14am, 19 Jan 2025 20,026 posts	Quote Pin JamieKai chameleon Muttley wrote:My favourite German word is Vokuhila. As this article explains, Der deutsche Name Vokuhila steht für "Vorne kurz, hinten lang". Clue: it's a hairstyle. Points for working it out and extra points if you have one yourself. spiegel.de A mullet? Surely bonus points taken away for having one - it's recent popularity is bizarre, no-one looks good with it.
Garfield 20 Jan 11:45am, 20 Jan 2025 18,326 posts	Quote Pin Garfield To go with Lizzie's Krankenhaus will be Krankenwagen...
Kittenheels Kath 20 Jan 11:50am, 20 Jan 2025 3,515 posts	Quote Pin Kittenheels Kath Pinkelpause = comfort break on a long car journey. The Germans are good at words, aren't they?
Garfield 20 Jan 12:06pm, 20 Jan 2025 18,327 posts	Quote Pin Garfield Yes, they do have some good ones!
Muttley 20 Jan 12:20pm, 20 Jan 2025 3,728 posts	Quote Pin Muttley Innere Schweinehund = inner pig-dog = the voice in your head that talks you into bad habits. And I recently discovered that although we use the German word schadenfreude for joy at the misfortune of others, there is actually an English word for it -- epicaricacy.
HazelnutCH 20 Jan 3:03pm, 20 Jan 2025 544 posts	Quote Pin HazelnutCH Kaputt - broken Mist - manure or can be used as a mild form of swearing (i.e. shit). Some good ones above.
TheScribbler 20 Jan 3:41pm, 20 Jan 2025 6,458 posts	Quote Pin TheScribbler Some lovely German words already. I particularly liked being reminded of Gemütlichkeit and knoblaut, which I remember from knoblauchbrot (garlic bread). Some Japanese words that I like are: Sumimasen - sorry/excuse me oishii (pronounced oy-she) - delicious Itadakimasu (pronounced it-a-dack-ee-mass) which you say before eating a meal, as a way of showing gratitude for it. Apologies to any Japanese speakers if I have mangled descriptions on the pronunciation. I learned bits of Japanese from a series of podcasts.
MudMeanderer 20 Jan 3:58pm, 20 Jan 2025 2,698 posts	Quote Pin MudMeanderer JamieKai chameleon wrote:Gift - poison in German I've always quite liked that with relation to the Brothers Grimms' Snow White! For it's alliteration I like the Dutch Winkelwagen.
JamieKai chameleon 20 Jan 4:59pm, 20 Jan 2025 20,036 posts	Quote Pin JamieKai chameleon TheScribbler wrote:Some lovely German words already. I particularly liked being reminded of Gemütlichkeit and knoblaut, which I remember from knoblauchbrot (garlic bread). Some Japanese words that I like are: Sumimasen - sorry/excuse me oishii (pronounced oy-she) - delicious Itadakimasu (pronounced it-a-dack-ee-mass) which you say before eating a meal, as a way of showing gratitude for it. Apologies to any Japanese speakers if I have mangled descriptions on the pronunciation. I learned bits of Japanese from a series of podcasts. I believe oishii can also mean cute, although i think pronounced more o'ee-she. [Source - I briefly dated and then remained friends with a lad from Yarmouth who studied Japanese, and used a handle of oishiiboy]