maaia (Yamana, Chile) to build wigwams here and there, as a large number of people flocking to a place will do rather than crowd into two or three existing wigwams
Pulling together
Things always work out better if you’ve got people to help you:
akittittuq (Iñupiat, Inuit) a stitch used for sewing a tent made by having one person on the inside while the other is outside (the one on the inside pushes the needle out so that the other person can pull the thread through; the person on the outside then pushes the needle in for the other person to pull); the same stitch is used for sewing a window into place
dugnad (Norwegian) working together in everyone’s interest without getting paid (for example, moving into a house, painting, building a cabin, etc.; also applies to parents coming together to paint a kindergarden, or everyone in an apartment building cleaning inside and outside the house together)
imece (Turkish) a social gathering at which everyone pitches in to help a neighbour undertake a large task
False friends
abort (German) lavatory
bang (Korean) room
dig (Gaelic) ditch
sir (Arabic) crack of the door
gate (Norwegian) street
rub (Croatian) edge
Flagging the beam
In Surinam, when the main roof beam of a new house is in place they have a celebration they call opo-oso, at which a flower or flag is nailed to the end of the beam, some beer is sprayed on the front of the building and then the builders, owner and others have a drink to celebrate.
Dutch decor
The Dutch have two useful expressions: kneuterig describes a particularly bourgeois type of stinginess which someone might display if they spent a fortune buying a new house and then furnished it with the cheapest fittings available, all in the name of saving money; and its opposite een vlag op een modderschuit, excessive decoration of a common thing, or trying to make the ugly beautiful (literally, a flag on a mud barge).
On reflection
Chinese whispers
It is an increasingly common practice to transliterate foreign proper nouns into Chinese characters that sound similar to the original word but give the Western name a highly positive connotation to Chinese ears:
adian Athens proper law
zhili Chile wisdom benefit
deli Delhi virtue hometown
faguo France method country
henghe Ganges everlasting river
haiya The Hague sea tooth
ingguo England country of heroes
lundun London matching honest
meiguo America beautiful country
niuyue New York bond agreement
taiguo Thailand peaceful country
Frog in a well
The Germans have the wonderful word Gemütlichkeit for that particular quality of cosiness you can only ever feel at home. In that always-descriptive language, someone who prefers to stay at home is a Stubenhocker, literally, a room sitter; and in the end, however splendid the house, it’s our intimate individual eyries we actually spend our time in:
pung (Iban, Sarawak and Brunei) to keep to one’s room
sucilwa (Mambwe, Zambia) a man who never leaves his hut (literally, all smoked up)
kúpa-mandúka (Sinhala, Sri Lanka) one who never leaves his home, one ignorant of the world (literally, a frog in a well)
The emperor’s throne
Different cultures have very different approaches to what we euphemistically call the smallest room in the house. The Spanish have excusado, with its polite suggestion of excusing yourself, whereas the German term wo sogar der Kaiser von China allein hingeht literally means ‘where the emperor of China goes by himself’. Once there, though, we all go through the same motions:
engkilu’ (Iban, Sarawak and Brunei) sticks or leaves used as toilet paper
zasedat’ (Russian) to sit on the toilet for a long time (literally, to preside)
Toilet museum
Some insist on trying to make us forget why we’re there at all:
toirebijutsukan (Japanese) a trend whereby young women moving into an apartment alone for the first time will go to extreme lengths to decorate their lavatory, scent it with perfume and stock it with interesting literature (literally, toilet museum)
Spatially aware
We all know these domestic places and spaces; but not all languages have such precise words for them:
bakatoo (Mandinka, West Africa) the space between the bed and the wall
izungu (Mambwe, Zambia) the space between the bed and the ground
caukā (Hindi) a clean corner in the kitchen for having meals; a rectangular slab of stone
Giftschrank (German) a cupboard where things are kept that may only be lent out to someone with special permission (literally, poison cabinet)
antardvā r (Hindi) a private door inside a house
rincón (Spanish) the internal corner (the external corner is esquina)
Besucherritze (German) the gap where the middle of three people lies when two single beds are pushed together (literally, a visitor’s trench)
Crumb thief
The same is true of the clutter we fill our rooms up with; until, as the Russians say, ‘Igolku nygde votknut’, there’s nowhere you can throw a needle:
dur dicki mengri (Romani) a telescope (literally, far-seeing-thing)
hap laplap bilong wasim plet (Tok Pisin, Papua New Guinea) a dish cloth
kruimeldief (Dutch) a hoover (literally, a crumb thief)
Staubsauger (German) a vacuum cleaner (literally, dustsucker)
yötwënukwastahkwa’ (Mingo, USA) radio (literally, people use it for spreading their voice out)
dinnilos dikkamuktar (Romani) television (literally, fool’s looking box)
Flimmerkasten (German) television (literally, flickering box)
Whatever our circumstances, in the end, perhaps, we should just be grateful that we are á-panna-griha (Sanskrit), someone whose house has not fallen in.
IDIOMS OF THE WORLD
To make a mountain out of a molehill
tehdä kärpäsestä härkänen (Finnish) to make a bull out of a fly
se noyer dans un verre d’eau (French) to drown oneself in a glass of water
til ka taad banaana or rai ka pahaad banana (Hindi) to turn a sesame seed into a large tree or to turn a mustard seed into a mountain
arcem e cloaca facere (Latin) to make a stronghold out of a sewer
narediti iz muhe slona (Slovenian) to make an elephant from a fly
14.
Dinner Time
kopeklerin duası kabul olsa gökten kemik yağardı (Turkish)
if dogs’ prayers were accepted it would rain bones from the sky
Rushed breakfast
When it comes to eating there is, of course, no such thing as a typical meal:
munkavacsora (Hungarian) a working dinner
kamatuao (Gilbertese, Oceania) a meal for one who wakes during the night
bulunenekinoo (Mandinka, West Africa) the first meal cooked by a bride
ottobrata (Italian) a country outing or picnic in October
hwyaden (Welsh) the small amount of breakfast a newly married man has time to eat when leaving home for work after intimacy with his new wife (literally, a duck)
My tapeworm is talking
And there are still many parts of the world where you can’t take any kind of refreshment for granted:
kemarok (Malay) ravenously hungry after an illness
hiukaista (Finnish) to feel hungry for something salty
paragadupu (Telugu, India) the state of the stomach before a person has broken his fast
fulumizya (Mambwe, Zambia) to cook quickly for somebody who is very hungry
étaomêhótsenôhtóvenestse napâhpóneehéhame (Cheyenne, USA) being very hungry (literally, my tapeworm can almost talk by itself)
Sampling
Particular skills are often required to make sure you’ve got the very best of
the ingredients available:
kupit’ arbuz navyrez (Russian) to buy a watermelon with the right to sample a section
pale (Scots) to test a cheese by an incision
athukkugirathu (Tamil) to press a fruit softly with the fingers
Stirring it up
And then time must be taken to get things correctly and thoroughly prepared:
jiigi (Buli, Ghana) to stir with much energy, to prepare a hard food that cannot be stirred with one hand
ri-noo-ko che-he-kuo (Car, Nicobar Islands) chopping up with spoons and forks
tikudeni (Maguindanaon, Philippines) to put the correct amount of rice into a pot to be cooked
loyly (Finnish) the wave of heat that engulfs you when you throw water on the hot stove
Surprise water
Now is the moment when a cook’s individual skills can make all the difference to the end result. As the Chinese wisely say, ‘Never eat in a restaurant where the chef is thin’:
tliwat (Tagalog, Philippines) to pour a liquid several times between containers to mix or cool it well
bikkuri mizu (Japanese) a small amount of cold water added to a boiling pot of spaghetti or other noodles just before they are cooked (literally, surprise water: i.e. the cold water surprises the noodles)
ilas-ana (Yamana, Chile) to cut and spread meat open so that it cooks quicker
tuyong (Tagalog, Philippines) water added to make up for water lost (in cooking)
Dead dog
‘Hunger is the best cook,’ say the Germans, and it’s true that when you’re starving even the lightest snack will taste as good as anything you’ve ever eaten:
smörgås (Swedish) a sandwich (literally, butter goose)
ekiben (Japanese) a packed lunch dispensed from station kiosks
dokhlaya sobaka (Russian) a low-quality frankfurter (literally, a dead dog)
Xoox
For the fuller meal, what fine and varied ingredients the world offers:
jordgubbe (Swedish) a strawberry (literally, earth man)
ah (Arabic) egg white
xoox (Eastern Arabic) plums
sneisar-hald (Old Icelandic) the part of a sausage in which the pin is stuck
tsé-péene éškôseeséhotamého’évohkôtse (Cheyenne, USA) a pork sausage
Slug in the hole
Some ingredients might not be to everyone’s taste:
lelita’ (Iban, Sarawak and Brunei) an edible slug of the swampland
nido (Tagalog, Philippines) an edible bird’s nest
brarah (Hebrew) second-rate fruits (specifically oranges)
kavavangaheti (Tsonga, South Africa) a dead animal so large that people cannot finish its meat (for example, hippo, whale or elephant)
cilh-vā ns (Hindi) the flesh of a kite (the eating of which is said to produce madness)
mmbwe (Venda, South Africa) a round pebble taken from a crocodile’s stomach and swallowed by a chief
Cabbage or cheese
The Italians even approve or disapprove in terms of food:
come i cavoli a merenda totally out of place, inappropriate (literally, like cabbage for a snack)
come il cacio sui maccheroni perfect (literally, like cheese on pasta)
Your legs are long
The actual nosh itself is only part of it. Company is equally important, and in many parts of the world you simply have no idea who’s going to show up:
pakiroki (Rapanui, Easter Island) a pauper who comes to someone else’s house hoping to be invited to eat
jiao chang (Chinese) your legs are long (said of someone who arrives just as something delicious is being served)
a la suerte de la olla (Chilean Spanish) to arrive at someone’s house not knowing what food they will be offering (literally, to the luck of the pot)
bufeák (Czech) a guy who hangs around cafeterias and eats leftovers
xenodaites (Ancient Greek) a devourer of guests or strangers
On reflection
Say cheese
When trying to catch a person’s attention and have him/her look into the lens, the old Czech photographers’ phrase was pozor, vyleti ptacek, which literally means ‘watch out, a bird will be released/fly out’ (from the camera). In Serbia, people are asked to say ptica, ‘bird’. Danish photographers have a variety of phrases they can use, but their favourite is sig appelsin, ‘say orange’.
The English word cheese is often used because pronouncing it shapes the mouth into a smile. Other languages have adopted this method, with different words that have a similar sound or effect:
kimchi (Korean) a traditional fermented dish made of seasoned vegetables
qiezi (Mandarin) aubergine
cerise (French) cherry
whisky (Argentinian Spanish)
In Malta, people sometimes jokingly say ġobon, their word for cheese, which will obviously result in the exact opposite facial expression.
Gobbling it down
Sometimes your guests are so busy filling their faces that they forget about the politer aspects of sharing a meal:
fresser (Yiddish) someone who eats quickly and noisily
physingoomai (Ancient Greek) to be excited by eating garlic
qarun (Persian) someone who eats two dates or two mouthfuls at once
bwakia (Swahili) to throw into the mouth (for example, pieces of food, nuts, tobacco)
komba (Chewa, South East Africa) to scrape a pot or dish with the forefinger, as children do
pelinti (Buli, Ghana) to move very hot food around inside one’s mouth to avoid too close a contact
ikok (Ik, Nilo-Saharan) to knock bones together in order to take out and eat the marrow from inside
waphaka (South African Township) to eat faster than the rest
Miss Manners
Scoffing too fast can be just the start of the problem:
buttare giu tutto come un lavandino (Italian) to eat like a pig (literally, to throw down everything as if one were a sink)
muwel (Manobo, Philippines) to fill the mouth so that one cannot talk
hdaśna (Dakota, USA) to miss when putting food into one’s mouth
xom-xoàm (Vietnamese) to speak while one’s mouth is full
roic (Gaelic) the sumptuous feasting by boorish people without any of the refined manners of genteel society
False friends
sky (Swedish) gravy
tuna (Tuvaluan, Polynesia) prawn or eel
binlíd (Tagalog, Philippines) small broken particles of milled rice
dark (Albanian) evening meal
fig (Caribbean Creole) banana
Slow Food
So, instead, take your time and fully savour the experience:
fyompola (Mambwe, Zambia) to lick honey off the fingers
pisan zapra (Malay) the time needed to eat a banana
Menu envy
For some, the salad next door is always greener:
Futterneid (German) the desire to eat what is on another person’s plate (literally, feeding envy)
lyu mupusulo (Mambwe, Zambia) to eat so as to cheat another out of his share of food
selongkar (Malay) to steal food off a plate
gagula (Tsonga, South Africa) to take food without permission, showing a lack of good manners
Picky
Others could do with feeling a bit hungry once in a while:
kieskauw (Dutch) a person who trifles with his food
malastigà (Tagalog, Philippines) being bored of eating the same food all the time
Krüsch (northern German) somebody who dislikes a lot of foods (and is therefore difficult to cook for)
My mouth is lonely
And some greedy pigs just don’t know when to stop:
amuti (Rapanui, Easter Island) a glutton; someone who will eat anything, such as unripe or out-of-season fruit
akaska (Dakota, USA) to eat after one is full
ngang da (Vietnamese) to lose one’s appetite because one has eaten between meals
kuchi ga sami
shii (Japanese) eating when you don’t need to, for the sake of it or out of boredom (literally, my mouth is lonely)
knedlikový (Czech) rather partial to dumplings
hostigar (Chilean Spanish) to gorge on sweets to the point of nausea
Angel cake
In the end, though, it’s all in the eye – or rather mouth – of the beholder. For better …
alsof er een engeltje op je tong piest (Dutch) utterly delicious, heavenly tasting (literally, as if an angel is urinating on your tongue)
kou fu (Chinese) the good luck prerequisite for having opportunities to eat delicious food (literally, mouth fortune)
… or worse:
panshey (Bengali) food that tastes rather flat
ichootakbachi (Alabama, USA) to leave a bad taste in the mouth
tomatoma (Mailu, Papua New Guinea) tasteless food
pikikiwepogosi (Ojibway, North America) having the taste of an animal that was tired out before it was killed
tsitlama (Setswana, Botswana) to make a wry face after eating or drinking something nasty
Restaurant review
Tired of cooking at home, not to mention doing the washing-up and putting-away, we may tell ourselves how nice it is to eat out. But though the fantasy is great, the reality is often less so:
I Never Knew There Was a Word For It Page 20