Words we should borrow
Some words in other languages that we should anglify:
- bakku-shan (Japanese): a girl who appears pretty from behind, but not from the front
- Kummerspeck (German, literally meaning grief bacon): the excessive weight gained from emotion-related eating
- uitwaaien (Dutch): walking in windy weather for fun
- plimpplampplettere (Dutch): to skim stones.
And one that we perhaps shouldn’t:
- koshatnik (Russian): stolen cat dealer.
September 26, 2005 | Filed Under Random thoughts
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Not much better!Mum x
A word that sticks in my mind from a book that was knocking around inthe Telegraph days contained the English word ‘ucalegon’, which means ‘a neighbour whose house is on fire’. Admittedly, there’s a tiny window of opportunity for its use, but imagine how smug you’d be if you managed it. e.g. “Everyone, this is my ucalegon, Alan. Alan, this is everyone.”