I Never Knew There Was a Word For It

by Adam Jacot De Boinod

  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: