cafuné – brazilian portuguese: the act of running one’s fingers, gently but deeply, through someone else’s hair 積ん読 (tsundoku) – japanese: the act of leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piled up together with other such unread books
木漏れ日 (komorebi) – japanese: sunlight filtering through the trees
mångata – swedish: the roadlike reflection of moonlight on water
verklempt – yiddish: a person who is too emotional to speak
liefdesverdriet – dutch: the heartache caused from an unrequited love and the mental pains one endures; the physical pain of depression
fika – swedish/finnish: gathering together to talk and take a break from everyday routines, usually drinking coffee and eating pastries
幽玄 (yūgen) – japanese: an indescribable sentiment, can only be described as a painful awareness of the mysterious beauty and human suffering
l’esprit de l’escalier – french: the moment one finally thinks of a witty remark, far too late, after the opportunity has passed
kilig – tagalog: the feeling of butterflies in your stomach, usually when something romantic or cute takes place いるす
(irusu) – japanese: pretending to be absent from home when someone is at the door
habseligkeiten – german: personal belongings, small treasures and property, which define our happiness and sentiments
nefelibata – portuguese: cloud walker; name given to the quixotic dreamers, they appear spacey, otherworldly, but intelligent
σοφρωσύνη (sophrosyne) – greek: self-control, balance, wisdom & grace;virtue that follows the aphorisms “nothing in excess” & “know thyself"
hiraeth – welsh: homesickness for a place which never even existed. Connotations of sadness, yearning, profound nostalgia and wistfulness
torpe – tagalog: being too shy to pursue amorous desires
waldeinsamkeit – german: the feeling of being alone in the woods
litost – czech: the humiliated despair we feel when someone accidentally reminds us, trough their accomplishment, of our inadequacies
dustsceawung – old english: contemplation of the fact that dust used to be other things – the walls of a city, a book, a great tree…
duende – spanish: the spirit of evocation; the mysterious power a work of art has to deeply move a person
gattara – italian: a woman, often old and lonely, who devotes herself to stray cats
tоска – russian: a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause, a longing with nothing to long for, nostalgia
φιλότιμο (philotimo) – greek: a complex array of virtues; expressed through acts of generosity & sacrifice w/o expecting anything in return gezellig – dutch: abstract sensation of individual well-being that one shares with others;cozy ambience, anything pleasant, homely, friendly
Italian word(s) of the day: saltuariamente “on and off” (adverbial), e.g. Ho insegnato saltuariamente italiano per 8 anni “I taught Italian on and off for 8 years”
Hi there! It is, indeed, not possible to answer a question like that. In Italian there is a whole series of happy little words like cincischiare (loaf around, procrastinate) or fuffa (unimportant gossip or cheap merchandise) and wonderful Latin constructs like inscrutabile (literally, that cannot be looked at properly) and ineffabile (that cannot be said), not to mention the eyebrow-raising libridinoso (turned on by books) but what I’m also fascinated by are political neologisms, which tend to be very colourful, mostly short-lived, and often obscure both for language learners and native speakers who forgot to check the news for a couple of hours. Here are a few of them.
Benaltrismo – Substantivisation of the expression ben altri (‘most definitely other’) as used in sentences like, Sono ben altri i problemi del paese (‘The country has far more important issues to discuss’). It describes a transparent, but efficient, rhetorical trick used to imply that the subject at hand is frivolous or unimportant and one should focus on more urgent matters.
Bunga bunga – Look, I don’t even know. Legend says the term comes from a dirty joke Gaddafi, of all people, once told Berlusconi. It has come to mean ‘an orgy involving a powerful leader’ and the fact we need the term at all should shame the entire country into never talking to anyone again.
Celodurismo – This is a relatively old political term and probably tells you everything you need to know about the party who’s about to rule half of Italy. In the 90s, one of the most popular slogan of far right Lega Nord was La Lega ce l’ha duro (‘Lega is fully hard’ or something like that), hence the term, which should convey the idea of an aggressive, uncompromising, non PC and all round masculine way of doing politics.
Inciucio – Originally a Neapolitan word meaning ‘gossip’, inciucio has been promoted to be a synonym of another wonderful word, intrallazzo, and it now means ‘political intrigue, dishonest manoeuvre’.
Odiocrazia – ‘Hateocracy’, ie a political ideology dominated by the opposition to, and hatred towards, the other parties. Amazingly, this has been around since 2008, but I can’t say I’ve ever heard anyone actually use it.
Tesoretto – Literally ‘small treasure’, but it actually means ‘extra tax revenues’. And by the way, this is actually one of my pet peeves – the woobification of serious words, and what the hell – tesoretto here and tesoretto there and it looks like you’re talking about Smurfs or something, and what’s even worse is furbetto – furbo is already a weird, almost pejorative word in Italian, but furbetto – which, until recently, was only used to describe children who misbehaved – is a word we now use to describe grown-ass people committing actual crimes, and ugh.
Vaffa Day or V-Day – Back in 2007, comedian Beppe Grillo invited people to mobilize in a ‘Fuck Them Day’ to support a new kind of Parliament: people turned up to sign so that MPs could only complete two terms of office and that they could be elected only if they were more or less honest. The initiative was a huge success, and it’s almost bittersweet to think of it now that Grillo’s own party has been exposed as just another nest of power-grabbing, corrupt and self-serving dickbags. Life, eh?
Webete – From web and ebete (‘idiot’), not exactly a political term but a word invented by exasperated journalist Enrico Mentana to shut up the self-appointed experts who plagued his Facebook posts. A related term is leone da tastiera (‘keyboard lion’), which means something like ‘cyberbully’ (according to Wikipedia: ‘a person who targets, offends or threatens others with the goal of discrediting them’). This new idea that everyone’s opinion is equally valid has descended upon the country like a plague, and the fierce debates it left in its wake, most famously about vaccines, prompted a doctor to declare that ‘science is not a democracy’. The new government, however, seems likely to disagree.
Hi guys! Here’s a masterpost of some inspirational quotes taken from classical literature that you can use in your bullet journal, planner, or whenever you need some extra motivation! Italicized are some of my favorites that really help me stop procrastinating and get through the day 🙂
romans:
seneca:
“i will storm the gods, and shake the universe.”
“luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
“if one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”
“it is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, but because we do not dare, things are difficult.”
“sometimes it is an act of bravery even to live.”
ovid:
“nothing is stronger than habit.”
“let your hook be always cast. in the pool where you least expect it, will be fish.”
“endure and persist; this pain will turn into good by and by.”
“what is without periods of rest will not endure.”
virgil:
“they can because they think they can.”
“let us go singing as far as we go: the road will be less tedious.”
“work conquers all.”
“practice and thought may forge many an art.”
“we cannot all do everything.”
horace:
“adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.”
“he who has begun has half done. dare to be wise; begin!”
“remember when life’s path is steep to keep your mind even.”
“mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. it is lovely to be silly at the right moment.”
“he who feared that he would not succeed sat still.”
catullus:
“often has leisure ruined great kings and fine cities.”
“if anything has happened to one who ever yearned and wished but never hoped, that is a rare pleasure of the soul.”
“i hate and i love. perhaps you ask why i do this? i do not know, but i feel it happening and i am tortured.”
greeks:
homer:
“the fates have given mortals hearts that can endure.”
“some of the words you’ll find within yourself, the rest some power will inspire you to say.”
“for a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother.”
“there is a time for many words and there is a time also for sleep.”
sappho:
“may I write words more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, sensitive than nerve.”
“beauty endures only for as long as it can be seen; goodness, beautiful today, will remain so tomorrow.”
“you who judge me, for me you are nothing.”
plato:
“be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
“no one should be discouraged who can make constant progress, even though it be slow.”
“music is a moral law. it gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.”
“the first and best victory is to conquer self.”
“the beginning is the most important part of the work.”
aristotle:
“the roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”
“pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”
“poetry demands a man with a special gift for it, or else one with a touch of madness in him.”
“we are what we repeatedly do. excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” (misattributed, but too good to pass up 🙂 )
plutarch:
“the mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.”
“what we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”
“to make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.”
“painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.”
“to find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.”
I hope you find these useful, or at least enjoyed reading through them! Let me know which are your favorites!
persephone's corner 