
The English language may be absurd and magical, but it also fails to capture the entire nuance of human experience. Other languages, however, can fill in some of those gaps. Tim Lomas, a lecturer in positive psychology at the University of East London, has compiled a lists of those words that English lacks. Some of the definitions are ungainly in English, but the meaning behind them is often beautiful and always useful.
You can check out the full list here, and I’ve highlighted some of my favorites below.
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Ah-un (阿吽) (Japanese, n.): unspoken communication between close friends, literally ‘the beginning and ending of something’
Aljerre (Aranda, n.): dreamtime; an ancestral period when the world was created.
S’apprivoiser (French, v.): lit, ‘to tame’, but a mutual process – both sides learning to trust/accept the other.
Curglaff (Scottish, n.): the…
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