telophase | (no subject)

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longshot14 has a linguistics question: "What words do you know in other languages refer to emotional states that are not easily describable or nameable using the English language?"

Countdown until someone posts "schadenfreude": 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

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I don't count schadenfreude since English seems to have appropriated it, like with "deja vu" (of which "presque vu" is a side term).

Yeah, but someone will probably post it. XD

*uses my only icon with German on it*

(told ya!)

Yes you did ;)

I was surprised at the number of ppl not on my friendslist replying with quite a bit of fun info - thanks!

My f-list is amazingly well-educated and interested in a wide variety of things. I could probably post just about any question and someone would have an interest in, or experience with, whatever it was. XD

(And you might want to 'pin' this post to get replies, as people will probably also post answers here: that tends to happen.)

No need - I read my flist pretty frequently and I won't forget :)

BTW, the question came up because a friend of mine had asked another (new) friend if compersion was "real".

I'm not sure whether he meant was it a real word, or whether it defined a real emotion, or if such an emotion is even possible, but it got me thinking about the wide range of emotional states humans can have, and the cultural impacts upon what kinds of emotions we experience, and the words we use to describe them.

Posing the question in linguistic phrasing is kinda cheating in this regard, since the word compersion is modern English so it wouldn't be a question of language barriers. It just got me quite curious on an academic level and I'm happy with the results I'm getting :)

OMG, my most hated neologism. and i love neologisms. and think the emotion is entirely possible since i've felt it. just hate that word. :)

My most hated neologism is "webinar." Unfortunately at work I am occasionally required to attend them. :P

maybe you could vlog from the next webinar!

Yeah, you posted a photo of a snail and had an identification of it within the day. Top that for obscure!

Lo Siento - I'm sorry, but for something that isn't your fault.

mono no aware

Also: l'esprit de'escalier

No one said je ne sais quoi.

Doesn't that just mean "I don't know what"? (Please enlighten me, as I've only taken a year of French so far.)

"I don't know why." It's knowing that you like something (e.g. a painting), but if someone told you to explain the reason why, you couldn't really put your finger on it.

Nichevo (Russian) - roughly, "It can't be helped", an expression of uniquely Slavic fatalism.

Erfolgtraurigkeit (German) - "success-sadness"; a feeling of unhappiness or dissatisfaction caused by the happiness/success of another.

Mudita (Sanskrit) - rejoicing in the good fortune of another

Nichevo: possibly similar to the Japanese "shikatta ja nai," also "it can't be helped."

"shikatta ja nai," also "it can't be helped."

Yet *another* term I first encountered in the Mars Trilogy! :D

And for the record some german words probably shouldn't count, as they just take 8 other words* and combine them into some mega word the length of the english sentence required to explain what they mean.

*Little known fact, there are only 37 unique words in German, everything else is just some combination of these 37 words.

Note to self: whenever you want more comments in an LJ entry than you've had in MONTHS, with a high signal-to-noise ratio, ask something that piques

telophase's interest!

:D :D :D

Muahahahahahahaaa!!!!!!!!!!!

What about "kvell"?

Not quite an emotional state, but something that really doesn't have an english equivalent. As posted for

longshot14:

Chinese: 开到荼蘼, to bloom till Tumi.

I'm not sure if "Tumi" is the correct translation for 荼蘼, I merely copied Wikipedia's translation. The proper classification of flower is "Rubus rosifolius", more commonly known as Climbing Raspberries, so I have no clue where Tumi came from.

However, to "Bloom until Tumi" or, "开到荼蘼" signifies the end of one year's blooms, because Tumi is the last flower to bloom in the summer. Once Tumi blooms, none of the other flowers will bloom.

"开到荼蘼" also has a Buddhist connotation: The only flower to bloom after Tumi flowers are "彼岸花", more commonly known as the Spider Lily. You may have heard of: 彼岸花，恶魔的温柔。? That is to say, "Spider Lily, the compassion of the Devil?"

Legend says that because the spider lily was the only flower that willing entered Hell, she was asked to return to the land of the living, however she remained at "黄泉路" approximately the Chinese version of purgatory, except that it's more of a road. The devil, or the demon that guarded Hell's entrance, couldn't bare for her to die, and agreed to let her bloom on the road, so that she could give the souls that were leaving the living world some comfort.

Thus, Buddhism says that the wings of flowers (ie. the petals) need to die before knowing how to fly. Only a place with no love nor hate (like the purgatory road) could let flowers bloom again.

Also, since flowers has always been compared to a women, Tumi's Age is also a means the loss a women's youth. Tumi's Bloom (荼蘼花开) represents the end of a relationship. To love till Tumi (爱到荼靡) is to approach the end of a love who personified your life.

There's nothing as poetic in english. I mean, it's not like we say, OH, I LOVED UNTIL CLIMBING RASPBERRIES!

I mean, it's not like we say, OH, I LOVED UNTIL CLIMBING RASPBERRIES!

Not yet, we don't, but I think we will now ^^;

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compersion!

Re: compersion!

Re: compersion!

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<i><b>SWEET JESUS!!!</b></i>

Re: <i><b>SWEET JESUS!!!</b></i>

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This was something interesting that I found out just yesterday...

Re: This was something interesting that I found out just yesterday...