Say what?

"These are more than funny vocabularies; they are tiny windows into the way other people live, and the obsessions that drive them."
John Walsh, The Independent, September 2005

Here are my favourite examples of weird and wonderful vocabulary from around the word. Use one in a sentence today.

MAMIHLAPINA TAPEI Fuengian language, Chile -- A shared look of longing between parties who are both interested yet neither is willing to make the first move.

MATA EGO Rapa Nui, Easter Island -- Eyes that reveal someone has been crying.

BAKKU-SHAN Japanese -- A girl who looks as though she might be pretty when seen from behind, but isn't when seen from the front.

QUEESTING Dutch -- Allowing a lover access to one's bed, under the covers, for a chit-chat.

BUZ-BAZ Ancient Persian -- A showman who makes a monkey and a goat dance together.

FUCHA Portuguese -- To use company time and resources for one's own purposes.

O KA LA NOKONOKO Hawaiian -- A day spent in nervous anticipation of a coughing spell.

GRILAGEM Brazilian Portuguese -- The practice of putting a live cricket into a box of newly faked documents, until the insect's excrement makes the paper look convincingly older (a project for this weekend?!)

TINGO Pascuenese language, Easter Island -- Borrowing things from a friend's house, one by one, until he has nothing left (Bahaha).

LATAH Indonesian -- Uncontrollable habit of saying embarrassing things.

XIAOXIAO Chinese -- The whistling and pattering of wind or rain.

DESUS Indonesia -- The quiet, smooth sound of somebody farting, but not very loudly.

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