May 24
From the RD.com (Reader’s Digest) newsletter:
But I Like to Hear Myself Talk
Some people live by the credo “Why use one word to describe something when I can use 47?” But in some cultures, that’s frowned upon. For example:
Foreign word: tingo (Easter Island)
English translation: “To take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by borrowing them.”
Foreign word: nakkele (Tulu, India)
English translation: “A man who licks whatever the food has been served on.”
Foreign word: bakku-shan (Japanese)
English translation: “A girl who appears pretty from behind but not from the front”
>From The Meaning of Tingo, by Adam Jacot de Boinod (Penguin)
