Search This Blog

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

This and That

38 Wonderful Foreign Words We Could Use in English


1. Kummerspeck (German)
Excess weight gained from emotional overeating. Literally, grief bacon.
2. Shemomedjamo (Georgian)
You know when you’re really full, but your meal is just so delicious, you can’t stop eating it? The Georgians feel your pain. This word means, “I accidentally ate the whole thing."
3. Tartle (Scots)
The nearly onomatopoeic word for that panicky hesitation just before you have to introduce someone whose name you can't quite remember.

Those are just the first three on the list.  I wish I knew how to pronounce Shemomedjamo (the second on the list) because I could use that one!  You know, that bag of candy or half gallon of ice cream, or loaf of banana bread...shemomedjamo!  I'm practicing saying it, even if my pronunciation is wrong because it is a concise explanation.  I never intend to eat the whole thing, it is always an accident.

I'm now interested in reading The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre.  Here's why:





The reviews on Goodreads run the full gamut--from DNF to plenty of 5 stars.  Ordinarily, I would not be interested, but the songs by Shane Cavendish that were inspired by the book make me want to know more about the novel.

4 comments:

  1. Grrrrreat words.

    Wonder if you can find "how to say words, in their native language" for those words, on the Net????

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are fun and funny and impossible to pronounce. :)

      Delete
  2. Kummerspeck fits me all too well. :-( And I am so guilty of Tartle. Especially tomorrow when the medical resident comes for a tour and I introduce her to other staff in the office . . . I never remember their names. The residents' names. I remember my coworkers names.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All 3 of these have fit me at one time or another...as well as some of the others on the list. I love how precise some of the words are!

      Delete