The BBC, on Words English Should Steal Nex
Sep. 26th, 2005 03:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingThe Japanese have "bakku-shan" - a girl who appears pretty from behind but not from the front
"Kummerspeck" is a German word which literally means grief bacon: it is the word that describes the excess weight gained from emotion-related overeating. "Drachenfutter" - literally translated as dragon fodder - are the peace offerings made by guilty husbands to their wives.
"Tingo" is an invaluable word from the Pascuense language of Easter Island meaning "to borrow objects from a friend's house, one by one, until there's nothing left".
And Spanish speakers in central America have a description of a government employee who only shows up on payday - an "aviador".
"Kummerspeck" is a German word which literally means grief bacon: it is the word that describes the excess weight gained from emotion-related overeating. "Drachenfutter" - literally translated as dragon fodder - are the peace offerings made by guilty husbands to their wives.
"Tingo" is an invaluable word from the Pascuense language of Easter Island meaning "to borrow objects from a friend's house, one by one, until there's nothing left".
And Spanish speakers in central America have a description of a government employee who only shows up on payday - an "aviador".
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Date: 2005-09-26 07:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-26 07:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-26 07:44 pm (UTC)-- Steve realises that the Governor wouldn't be much of a nemesis, come to think of it.
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Date: 2005-09-26 07:53 pm (UTC)He'd be a great nemesis.
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Date: 2005-09-26 07:58 pm (UTC)(Actually, a mercenary military captain commissioned by the governor to hunt him - but who can be escaped on payday, because he NEVER misses a payday....)
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Date: 2005-09-26 07:58 pm (UTC)Apparently.
Date: 2005-09-26 08:00 pm (UTC)Re: Apparently.
Date: 2005-09-26 08:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-26 08:26 pm (UTC)That's a new one on me. They might mean "PimPamPetten", which is actually a classic game for those boring 19th century evenings, and involves using disks (of plastic, nowadays) to bounce slightly smaller disks into a pot and which vaguely resembles skipping stones. Like Marbles, but different. Nowadays it's also one of the euphemisms for, err, having *fun* with one or more persons of the appropriate sex, introduced as such by a famous comedian team.
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Date: 2005-09-26 08:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-26 11:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-27 05:02 pm (UTC)I've met people this applies to.