Hey, word nerds! Anyone know the Albanian term for mustache? Turns out, there are 27 of them. This and other such linguistic quirks inspired Adam Jacot de Boinod to spend years scouring international Web sites and foreign dictionaries in search of oddities, idioms, and bons mots. The result is a new book, The Meaning of Tingo, a rollicking language geek-out. Here are a few choice words. – Eric Steuer
Kummerspeck A German term for the weight people gain from emotion-related overeating.
Neko-neko The Indonesian word for someone with a novel idea that actually makes the situation worse.
Olfrygt How the Danish describe the nagging fear of being unable to find a beer while out of town.
Iktsuarpok The Inuit way of describing the act of repeatedly going outside to check if someone is coming.
Dozvonit'sya The Russian expression for ringing a doorbell or calling a phone number over and over until you get an answer.
Fucha Polish for using company resources for personal reasons.
Xiaoxia What the Chinese call new Internet users. Literal translation: small lobsters.
Tingo Rapanui for a person who borrows items from a friend, one by one, until everything's gone.
START
| Ping
| The Best: Accidental Discoveries
You Lousy Tingo, You!
| Putting Your DVDs on a Video iPod
