A thread for foreign words that are better than English ones

[daeno]

similar sniggers for SALOP on  Shropshire road sign
= homophone for salaud - b'stard

I'd have thought it was closer to the feminine version, "salope", no?

mind you a mongrel dog is 'bâtard' even in polite company

And a common-or-garden "idiot" is a "con" in all but the most formal contexts, whereas "fils de pute" is one of the worst insults you can dish out despite the English equivalent being relatively mild.

d.

"salope" can quite often mean "slut"

[Legs]

Swahili: bisi bisi
English: screwdriver

Swahili: shilingi mingi
English: expensive

Swahili: kisonono
English: gonorrhoea

[meddyg]

OK if we're doing Swahili (!)

'hatinafsi 'used of a person taking action without consutling anybody because he thinks they will try and persuade him against it.'

[meddyg]

Marathi (western and Central India)

'Baccedha'

'the bother fuss and vexation attendant upon bringing up children'

(no wonder I'm tired)

[Mr Larrington]

Swahili: Wabenzi
English: Overpaid and under-scrupulous twatbasket

English: Eclipse
Pidgin: Kerosene lamp blong Jesus gone bugger-up

[Morrisette]

Hiraeth

This word has no equivalent in English - it takes at least a sentence to explain it. And even then, they don't understand. 

Ah, Hiraeth. I've had conversations with Mr M about this. Something like, the feeling that only in Wales can you be whole and complete, a Welshman abroad even by his own choosing is always in exile. Or something.

I like the way it is written inside the rugby team's away shirts.

[Legs]

Swahili: Wabenzi
English: Overpaid and under-scrupulous twatbasket

Came across this one while reading The Last King of Scotland.  Is a Very Good Word.

[citoyen]

Swahili: Wabenzi
English: Overpaid and under-scrupulous twatbasket

Came across this one while reading The Last King of Scotland.  Is a Very Good Word.

I thought the English word for that was "banker".

d.

[Bledlow]

Swahili: Wabenzi
English: Overpaid and under-scrupulous twatbasket

I thought the English word for that was "banker".

d.

They're usually politicians.

'Wabenzi' = Benz people

[Quisling]

Collaborators = traitors to the cause who come the day of glorious day will be summarily executed

You called?

[Quisling]

Saudade is a Portuguese and Galician word for a feeling of nostalgic longing for something or someone that one was fond of and which is lost. It often carries a fatalist tone and a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might really never return.

[Adrian]

Hiraeth

This word has no equivalent in English - it takes at least a sentence to explain it. And even then, they don't understand. 

Ah, Hiraeth. I've had conversations with Mr M about this. Something like, the feeling that only in Wales can you be whole and complete, a Welshman abroad even by his own choosing is always in exile. Or something.

I like the way it is written inside the rugby team's away shirts.

So not just homesick then?

[Morrisette]

Hiraeth

This word has no equivalent in English - it takes at least a sentence to explain it. And even then, they don't understand. 

Ah, Hiraeth. I've had conversations with Mr M about this. Something like, the feeling that only in Wales can you be whole and complete, a Welshman abroad even by his own choosing is always in exile. Or something.

I like the way it is written inside the rugby team's away shirts.

So not just homesick then?

Apparently not. It's a Welsh thing 

[Lycra Man]

I like
French - carambolage
English - mangled remains of car after road accident

and speaking of German engineering
Zwolfcylinder -
Deutsche Tourenwagen Meistershaft

[hellymedic]

Yiddish: Chutzpah
English: Cheek!

Yiddish: Schmuck
English: Prick

[CAMRAMan]

German: Gift

English: Poison

In Swedish 'Gift' Pronounced "Yift" is also Wife, but beautifully it is also the same word for 'Poison' 

Gift = married/poison, Fru = wife/woman

Even more appropriate

[Rich753]

We don't seem to have had peloton or bidon, nor HC which imho is a wonderful shorthand for long steep and very very painful!

And gruppetto

[clarion]

Chapeau! of course...