Tag: language

latin phrases worth knowing:

latin phrases worth knowing:    

(in case you wanted to know because i fucking love this language)

  • ad astra per aspera – to the stars through difficulties
  • alis volat propriis – he flies by his own wings
  • amantium irae amoris integratio est – the quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love
  • ars longa, vita brevis – art is long, life is short
  • aut insanity homo, aut versus facit – the fellow is either mad or he is composing verses
  • dum spiro spero – while I breathe, I hope
  • ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem – with the sword, she seeks peace under liberty
  • exigo a me non ut optimus par sim sed ut malis melior – I require myself not to be equal to the best, but to be better than the bad
  • experiential docet – experience teaches
  • helluo librorum – a glutton for books (bookworm)
  • in libras libertas – in books, freedom
  • littera scripta manet – the written letter lasts
  • mens regnum bona possidet – an honest heart is a kingdom in itself
  • mirabile dictu – wonderful to say
  • nullus est liber tam malus ut non aliqua parte prosit – there is no book so bad that it is not profitable in some part
  • omnia iam fient quae posse negabam – everything which I used to say could not happen, will happen now
  • poeta nascitur, non fit – the poet is born, not made
  • qui dedit benificium taceat; narrat qui accepit – let him who has done a good deed be silent; let him who has received it tell it
  • saepe ne utile quidem est scire quid futurum sit – often, it is not advantageous to know what will be
  • sedit qui timuit ne non succederet – he who feared he would not succeed sat still
  • si vis pacem, para bellum – if you want peace, prepare for war
  • struit insidias lacrimis cum feminia plorat – when a woman weeps, she is setting traps with her tears
  • sub rosa – under the rose
  • trahimir omnes laudis studio – we are led on by our eagerness for praise
  • urbem latericium invenit, marmoream reliquit – he found the city a city of bricks; he left it a city of marble
  • ut incepit fidelis sic permanet – as loyal as she began, so she remains

I started Hebrew, which is why I’ve been dead on this blog, but I don’t think I can ever properly convey to you guys the sheer cultural whiplash of spending years learning Japanese from Japanese teachers and then trying to learn Hebrew from an Israeli

  • Japanese: you walk into class already apologizing for being alive
    Hebrew: you walk into class, the teacher insults you and you are expected to insult her back


  • Japanese: conjugates every single verb based on degree of intended politeness, nevermind keigo and honorifics
    Hebrew:
    Someone asked my teacher how to say “excuse me” and she laughed for
    several seconds before saying we shouldn’t worry about remembering that
    since we’ll never need to say it


  • Japanese: if you get one stroke wrong the entire kanji is incomprehensible
    Hebrew: cursive? script? fuck it do whatever you want, you don’t even have to write the vowels out unless you feel like it


  • Japanese: the closest thing there is to ‘bastard’ is an excessively direct ‘you’ pronoun
    Hebrew: ‘bitch’ translates directly

Old Irish Curses

thar-cionn:

  • Go n-ithe an cat thú is go n-ithe an diabhal an cat = May the cat eat you, and may the devil eat the cat
  • Titim gan éirí ort = May you fall without rising
  • Imeacht gan teacht ort = May you leave without returning
  • Plá ar do theach = A plague on your house
  • Dóite agus loisceadh ort = Burning and scorching on you
  • Briseadh agus brú ar do chnámha = Breaking and crushing to your bones
  • Go ndéana an diabhal dréimire de cnámh do dhroma ag piocadh úll i ngairdín Ifrinn = May the devil make a ladder of your back bones while picking apples in the garden of hell
  • Go hIfreann leat a shlíomadóir lofa = To hell with you, you rotten bastard

a list of untranslatable words ☕️

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

Persian words for sexuality

LGBT (and also Queer) : دگرباشی = Degarbashi
Genderqueer : خارج از جنسیت = Kharej Az Jenseya
Cisgender : هم‌ سو جنسی = Ham So Jensi
Heterosexuality : دگرجنس‌ گرایی = Degar Jens Garayi
Homosexuaity : همجنس‌گرایی = Ham Jens Garayi
Homosexual :  همجنس‌ خواه – همجنس‌گرا = Hamjens Gara – Hamjens Khah
Bisexual : دوجنس‌گرایی = Do Jens Garayi
Transgender : ترا جنسیتی = Tara Gensiyati
Transexual : تراجنسی = Tara Jensi
Transman : ترا مرد = Tara Mard
Transwoman :  ترا زن = Tara Zan
Asexuality : بی‌ جنس‌ گرایی = Bi Jens Garayi
Pansexuality : همه‌ جنس‌ گرایی = Hameh Jens Garayi
Polysexuality : چند جنس‌ گرایی = Chand Jens Garayi

Honey in European Languages

Albanian        – mjaltë
Basque          – eztia
Belarusian     – мёд
Bosnian         – med
Bulgarian       – мед
Catalan          – mel
Croatian        – med
Czech            – med
Danish          – honning
Dutch            – honing
Estonian        – mesi
Finnish          – hunaja
French           – miel
Galician         – mel
German         – Honig
Greek            – μέλι
Hungarian     – méz
Icelandi         – chunang
Irish              – mil
Italian           – miele
Latvian         – medus
Lithuanian    – medus
Macedonian  – мед
Maltese         – għasel
Norwegian    – honning
Polish           – miód
Portuguese  – mel
Romanian    – miere
Russian       – мед
Serbian       – мед

Slovak        – med
Slovenian    – medu
Spanish      –  miel
Swedish      – honung
Ukrainian    – мед
Welsh         – mêl

This thick golden fluid has its differentiations not only when it
comes to colour, taste and herbal origin, but  even the very name of it
has numerous variations, not all of them belonging to the same language
family.

Linguists who study the Indo-European theory  estimate that the
Proto-Indoeropean word for honey was  melit, which gave the Sanskrit
word madhu, the Greek μέλις, the Latin mel and eventually words like μέλι(ττ)σσα or mellifluous. Hence the names mel, miel, miele, med, and all their variations.

So, what happened to the Northeners? It seems that the northern
branches of the IE language tree ( ie. the Germanic branch, unlike the
Slavs who remained loyal) followed a different path right from the
beginning. They’d name honey after the colour of it, using the PIE word
for “golden y ellow”, which is k(e)neko. That eventually evovled to the ancient Germanic huna(n)go,

which became honung in Old Norse, and then hunig in Old English. Between
Old English and now, the letter “g” following an “i” or an “e” sound
has tended to drop away or turn into a “y,” meaning that the Medieval hunig became our modern-day “honey.”

*Portuguese also includes Brazilian Portuguese , Spanish
Cental- South american spanish and french all non-frenh countries where
it’s the official language.

Sources:  x , x