Untranslatable Words

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by tirsales

Okay, you did it. You kept me up till 4:30 AM. Now I am tired and retiring.

yes, you see, this place is dangerous...

BTW: Anybody knows a good translation of the german word "bähen"? It used to mean "heating up", a second meaning is "roasting of pieces of bread in a pan".

could it be "to bake" ? it means to cook in the oven, so it's maybe not completely accurate. or "to toast" ?

[mores]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

Does this mean that Germans, like toddlers, put everything in their mouths?

hmmm ... shouldn't that be more of a french thing?

Originally Posted by tirsales

BTW: Anybody knows a good translation of the german word "bähen"? It used to mean "heating up", a second meaning is "roasting of pieces of bread in a pan".

http://www.textlog.de/38632.html
It means subjecting an object to moist heat for an extended amount of time.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by mores

hmmm ... shouldn't that be more of a french thing?

what is THAT supposed to mean ??

http://www.textlog.de/38632.html
It means subjecting an object to moist heat for an extended amount of time.

that page is also in german so it is not much help to me.. so i will just randomly suggest "to broil" as well (note that i'm not actually completely clear on the meaning of "to broil", but i believe it is done in an oven as well, and possibly involves some moisture).

[tirsales]

yes, you see, this place is dangerous...

Hmm .. we really should apply warning signs.

Thats interesting ... I didn't know bähen in the meaning mores suggested, but more in the line of roasting (e.g. the act of creating Croutons would be called bähen)

[mores]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

what is THAT supposed to mean ??

Well ... the oral fixation is so legendary that the french even have their own kiss named after them.
*slurp*

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

that page is also in german so it is not much help to me.. so i will just randomly suggest "to broil" as well (note that i'm not actually completely clear on the meaning of "to broil", but i believe it is done in an oven as well, and possibly involves some moisture).

That's why I translated the most important part of the text, which shows the 2 main "features" of this act: the moisture, and the long time it involves.

Then again, I have never heard this word before, and all my "knowledge" is secondary

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

what is THAT supposed to mean ??


that page is also in german so it is not much help to me.. so i will just randomly suggest "to broil" as well (note that i'm not actually completely clear on the meaning of "to broil", but i believe it is done in an oven as well, and possibly involves some moisture).

"These English! They have no idea of the real purpose of a tongue!" -- The Princess of Wales' Lady in Waiting, Braveheart

[Patricia]

One of my favourite Welsh words is 'cwtch' (pronounced kootsh). It's crossed the language barrier and is used by Anglophone Welsh people too.

Welsh mothers would traditionally cwtch their babies in a shawl, which they tied round their chests as a sort of baby sling. (I last saw some Valleys mothers doing this in about 1976.) So a cwtch became the word for 'safe place'.
It's most often used to mean 'cuddle', though. So you hear dialogues like,
'I've had a rotten day.'
'Awww, come here and have a cwtch.'

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cwtch

[tirsales]

cwtsh / kootsh? This will enter my regular vocabular. Thanks

[zelda_pinwheel]

oh, brilliant ! you can consider it as having crossed the language barrier into french now as well, since i will be looking for every possible opportunity to use a word which can be accurately defined as "hug", "safe place" and also "broom closet".

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

Alright, someone mozzle a word meaning "to change one's avatar to reflect the context of an unutterably silly thread". And no, "Taylorize" doesn't count.

Well, I'd suggest "Martinize" ... but I think a drycleaning company is already using that one.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by mores

hmmm ... shouldn't that be more of a french thing?

.

My friend, that would be highly improbable since that mouth of ours already contains both our feet.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Zelda, I am extremely impressed by your understanding of English. Are all people in France as fluent? Is this all from study or did you actually live in an English speaking location for many years to get so good at it.

What surprises me so much sometimes is non-native English speakers that are so fluent in written English but when speaking with them, or listening to them, they strugle. I always assume it is due to most if not all of their use and study of English to be with written word. Not that this is bad, I can't read/write any other language (unless you count the many computer languages that I am "fluent" in).

I never understood why my high school spanish teacher always emphasized pronunciation and being able to hear/speak the language as the first thing to learn before reading/writing it. Now I think I get it.

BOb

I think what has kept me from speaking some of the languages that I understand, is the fear of sounding foolish.

I don't know why that is ... I've always thought people speaking English with an accent sounded ... I don't know ... smart/sexy/interesting ... pick your own word. You get the idea. Yet, I always thought I would sound positively idiotic trying to speak Spanish/French/German ... so I stopped trying. Now, I can still read in them (albeit with some difficulty as I get older and have less opportunity), but I've really lost the ability to think on my feet and speak in anything other than English.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

are you really going to make me and squid-bucket do all the heavy lifting in this thread ?

all right, this one probably *does* have some equivalent (if only colloquially, in which case i get two shots with one stone right ?) but i couldn't immediately think of one and i just used it, so here you are, go crazy :

petite nature litterally it means "small nature", it's used to describe someone who is faint of heart (ha, oops, i guess it actually does have a pretty good translation...) and cannot stomach gory movies, getting blood drawn, injections, spiders... you get the idea. perhaps you can think of some better translations.

Wimp??

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

Where are our German-speaking friends? Another from "In Other Words":

korinthenkacker [core-in-ten-cuck-er] (noun)

A "raisin pooper" -- that is, someone so taken up with life's trivial detail that they spend all day crapping raisins. You can spot these types a mile off -- it's that irritating pen pusher or filing fanatic whose favorite job is tidying up the stationery cupboard.

Any language with a specific word for that kind of person must be fairly dense with other examples. Out with them!

Actually, there's a good term for those types in English: Tightass

[tirsales]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

I don't know why that is ... I've always thought people speaking English with an accent sounded ... I don't know ... smart/sexy/interesting ... pick your own word. You get the idea. Yet, I always thought I would sound positively idiotic trying to speak Spanish/French/German ... so I stopped trying. Now, I can still read in them (albeit with some difficulty as I get older and have less opportunity), but I've really lost the ability to think on my feet and speak in anything other than English.

I know what you mean. A french speaking german with a french accent? Thats sexy.
Me speaking french? Thats ... no, not sexy. Not in the least
And I can read English very well, I can understand it when spoken, I can even write in English sometimes - but you really dont want to listen to my attempts at English...


Oh and btw: Korinthenkacker - there are some other nice german words like that. e.g. I-Tüpfele-Scheißer (I-Point-Pooper). Yeah, we got a lot of them over here, so we got a lot of words for them. One in every local idiom
And "vergnazt" is still in use - at least in some parts Southern Germany. Sometimes used in the original meaning, sometimes meaning "busted up" - like crying out "Vergnatzt!" after really busting something (normally another person kindly reminding you )