I’ll start. Inn Norwegian the word for uterus is Livmor. It literally translates to life mother. I think it is such an expressive and beautiful word. Do you have words like that in your language?
I don’t know of a singular word, but “cellar door” has been called the most poetic phrase in English by many authors and poets for sounding very pleasant.
Same language, also poetic, but far from beautiful: Rævsnerk. I’ll leave the translation and interpretation as an exercise to the reader.
Hint: Hot and humid day.
Similar but not exactly the same is the German Klabusterbeere.
Tabarnak
Considered a very strong profanity. It takes the place of “Oh shit!” but with the sting of saying something like the C word in public. Poetic because it’s not a bad word at all. It references the tabernacle of a church where communion is kept. It’s only hardcore because Quebec is very Catholic, more than half, and it’s considered blasphemous. Especially by older folks.
I’ve long wondered about how that became a strong profanity
Yeah, I learned this word working with some French Canadians and they also taught me some other church related curse words that I’ve since forgotten.
In french: “Dépaysement”.
It’s the feeling a person gets when discovering a foreign country, a new culture. It’s usually used in a very positive manner.
I’m a francophone and tried to explain that France is not “dépaysant” enough for a vacation and the closest word I came up with is “exotic”, but it’s not exactly what I want to convey.
I like widdershins, which just means counter-clockwise, or circling something while keeping to the left.
yeah, in Swedish it’s livmoder. Which means the same thing
You got lagom. There are so many words we could import into danish, but instead we get all this stupid American stuff like rizz, prompt
Danish don’t have lagom? 😱
Qapla’: said to wish fortune on someone, as in “good luck”, particularly fortune in some form of honourable battle.
Not my language, but I like the Dutch word “peperduur” for “very expensive.” I like that the meaning has both historical and emotional aspects: pepper was once very expensive, and a high price can be considered spicy.
In English, “crestfallen” is a good one. When I read it I immediately imagine someone hanging their head in dismay.
Being from Vienna, my word is naturally an insult.
“Meine Allerwerterste/Mein Allerwerterster” (female and male version)
On the one hand, it’s a formal and very polite address to someone (meaning something like “my dearest”), but at the same time the word means “my ass”.
So with that word you can sound extremely polite and nice while at the same time calling them an ass.
English - paraprosdokian - it means a sentence that has a surprise twist. eg. Some people are like slinkies: not really good for much, but they bring a smile to your face when you see one tumble down a set of stairs. From the Greek, basically meaning beyond expectations.
No one has done English yet so I’ll go. My favorite is “flatulence” which roughly translates to “gas out of the butt”
Not poetic I reckon, but I like that effective has two Fs and defective only has one. That missing F makes something not work. So, in essence, sometimes, to give an F can help make something work.
And placenta is mother cake
Flâner
To wander aimlessly, without haste and without a specific goal.
Basically taking a stroll
I guess the Germans stole that one. In German this is “flanieren”.
in german, the uterus literally translates to birthmither
an actually poetic word in german is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
not because it is very romantic or sounds nice, but bcs you can basically fill 2 poems with it
uterus
Isn’t that just a Russian girl called Ute?
