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3quarksdaily

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December 19, 2008

Toujours Tingo: Weird words and bizarre phrases

From The Telegraph:

Crying-and-singing_1208900c Gwarlingo: Welsh description of the sound of a grandfather clock before it strikes.

Pisan zapra: Malay for the time needed to eat a banana.

Layogenic: Filipino for someone good-looking from afar but ugly up close.

Mouton enragé : French for someone calm who loses their temper - literally, "an enraged sheep".

Kati-kehari: Hindi meaning to have the waist of an elegant lion.

Yupienalle: Swedish for a mobile phone - literally, "yuppie teddy" like a security blanket.

Ikibari: Japanese, a "lively needle" and describing a man who is willing but under-endowed.

Tantenverführer: German for a young man with suspiciously good manners.

Fensterln: German for climbing through a window to avoid someone's parents so you can have sex without them knowing.

Stroitel: Russian for a man who likes to have sex with two women at the same time.

Okuri-okami: Japanese for a man who feigns thoughtfulness by offering to see a girl home only to try to molest her once he gets in the door - literally, a "see-you-home wolf"

Trennungsagentur: German for someone hired by a woman to tell her boyfriend he has been dumped.

Picture: Chantepleurer: French for singing at the same time as crying, exactly what these North Korean children are doing as they sing 'Kim Il Sung we want to see you one more time'

More here.

Posted by Azra Raza at 06:22 AM | Permalink

Comments

"Les avoir a zero"

Makes me wonder how many times, with our bad american French accent, we think we've been saying goodbye but they have been hearing "Balls to you, Baby." No wonder we don't get along. I'm going to be hitting that first r a LOT harder from now on.

Posted by: Carlos | Dec 19, 2008 9:28:14 AM

Tantenverführer: literally, a "seducer of aunts".

Posted by: Marco | Dec 20, 2008 5:27:55 AM

I like the "yuppie teddy" for cell phone.
Here are some funny words that people use for the @ sign in different countries, which I learned the hard way:
http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2006/11/where-its.html

Posted by: Marilyn Terrell | Jan 1, 2009 11:02:36 AM

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