More new words to learn from Toujours Tingo (published by Penguin)
I can relate to some. I can't wait to get the book once it is published here (26 November 2007).Kaelling - Danish: a woman who stands on her doorstep yelling obscenities at her kids.
Pesamenteiro - Portuguese: one who joins groups of mourners at the home of a dead person, apparently to offer condolences but in reality is just there for the refreshments.
Jayus - Indonesian: someone who tells a joke so unfunny you can't help laughing.
Kanjus Makkhicus - Hindi: a person so miserly that if a fly falls into his cup of tea, he'll fish it out and suck it dry before throwing it away.Giri-Giri - Hawaiian pidgin: the place where two or three hairs stick up, no matter what.
Pelinti - Buli, Ghana: to move very hot food around inside one's mouth.
Hanyauku - Rukwangali, Namibia: walking on tiptoes across warm sand.
Tartle - Scottish: to hesitate when you are introducing someone whose name you can't quite remember.
Vovohe Tahtsenaotse - Cheyenne, US: to prepare the mouth before speaking by moving or licking one's lips.
Prozvonit - Czech and Slovak: to call someone's mobile from your own to leave your number in their memory without them picking it up.
Hira Hira - Japanese: the feeling you get when you walk into a dark and decrepit old house in the middle of the night.
Gadrii Nombor Shulen Jongu - Tibetan: giving an answer that is unrelated to the question, literally "to give a green answer to a blue question".
Poronkusema - Finnish: the distance equal to how far a reindeer can travel without a comfort break.
Baling - Manobo, Philippines: the action of a woman who, when she wants to marry a man, goes to his house and refuses to leave until marriage is agreed upon.
Pisan Zapra - Malay: the time needed to eat a banana.
Physiggoomai - Ancient Greek: excited by eating garlic.
Baffona - Italian: an attractive moustachioed woman.
Layogenic - Tagalog, Philippines: a person who is only goodlooking from a distance.
Shvitzer - Yiddish: someone who sweats a lot, especially a nervous seducer.
Gattara - Italian: a woman, often old and lonely, who devotes herself to stray cats.
Creerse la Ultima Coca-Cola en el Desierto - Central American Spanish: to have a very high opinion of oneself, literally to "think one is the last Coca-Cola in the desert".
Vrane Su Mu Popile Mozak - Croatian: crazy, literally "cows have drunk his brain".
Bablat - Hebrew: baloney, but is an acronym of "beelbool beytseem le-lo takhleet" which means "bothering someone's testicles for no reason".
Vai A Fava - Portuguese: get lost, literally "go to the fava bean".
Rombhoru - Bengali: a woman having thighs as shapely as banana trees.
Mariteddu Tamant'e Un Ditu Ieddu Voli Essa Rivaritu - Corsican: a husband must be respected even if he is very short.
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Wednesday already?
2 comments:
For many years I suspected I would be a Gattara. Now, not so much.
I want this book.
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