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PENGUIN BOOKS THE MEANING OF TINGO Adam Jacot de Boinod first acquired his vokabulyu (Russian— “passion for foreign words”) while working as a researcher for the BBC program QI. While searching through 280 dictionaries, 140 Web sites, and innumerable books on language, he devel- oped a textbook case of samlermani (Danish—“mania for col- lecting”), became close to being fissilig (German—“flustered to the point of incompetence”), and narrowly avoided karoshi (Japanese—“death from overwork”). He is now intending to nglayap (Indonesian—“wander far from home with no particu- lar purpose”), but for the moment lives in London
[...]... savoured the direct logic of Danish, the succinctness of Malay, the sheer wackiness of Japanese, and realized that sometimes a dictionary can tell you more about a culture than a guidebook I looked at languages from all corners of the world, from the Fuegian of southernmost Chile to the Inuit of northernmost Alaska, and from the Maori of the remote Cook Islands to Siberian Yakut Some of them describe, of. .. manner 4 The Meaning of Tingo Hey you! O nce the first encounter is out of the way the correct form of address is important Most of us know the difference between the intimate French tu and the more impersonal (and polite) vous A similar distinction exists in Arabic between anta (‘you’ singular) and antum (‘you’ plural) – addressing an important person with anta (anti is the feminine version) rather than... the numbers 4, 9, 14, 19, or 42 for any of their rooms Forty-two (shi-ni) means to die, 420 (shi-ni-rei) means a dead spirit and 24 (ni-shi) is double death Nor do some hospitals use the number 43 (shi-zan), especially in the maternity ward, as it means stillbirth 9 Meeting and Greeting and the unutterable 10 The Meaning of Tingo Fare well M any expressions for goodbye offer the hope that the other. .. Another Albanian taboo-contraction is the word for fairy, shtozovalle, which means may ‘God increase their round-dances’ Similarly, in the Sami language of Northern Scandinavia and the Yakuts language of Russia, the original name for bear is replaced by a word meaning ‘our lord’ or ‘good father’ In Russian itself, for similar reasons, a bear is called a medved’ or ‘honey-eater’ In Masai the name of. .. first, then b) is the reply and then c) may be used If b) is said first, then c) is obligatory hashhashin (Arabic) one who smokes or chews hashish; came to mean assassin manu operare (Latin) to work by hand; then narrowed to the act of cultivating; then to the dressing that was added to the soil, manure prestige (French) conjuror’s trick; the sense of illusion gave way to that of glamour which was then... supposedly in order to avoid using the first two syllables of the word computer (con is slang for vagina and pute for whore) Creek Indians in America avoid their native words for earth (fakki) and meat (apiswa) because of their resemblance to rude English words In Japan, four (shi) and nine (ku) are unlucky numbers, because the words sound the same as those for ‘death’ and ‘pain or worry’ respectively... naturalize the best foreign words: ad hoc, feng shui, croissant, kindergarten We’ve been pinching words from other cultures for centuries Here are some we missed I hope you enjoy them as much as I do x Foreword I’ve done my best to check the accuracy of all the terms but if you have any suggestions for changes (and, of course, I’d love to know of your own favourite foreign words) do please send them in... not spoken again and, if their name is also a word used every day, then it is no longer used by the bereaved family The Sakalavas of Madagascar do not tell their own name or that of their village to strangers to prevent any mischievous use The Todas of Southern India dislike uttering their own name and, if asked, will get someone else to say it Shocking soundalikes T he French invented the word ordinateur,... the ends fshes long broom-like moustache with bristly hairs dirs ur newly sprouted moustache (of an adolescent) rruar with the moustache shaved off to name but ten The attention the Albanians apply to facial hair they also apply to eyebrows, with another twenty-seven words, including pencil-thin (vetullkalem), frowning (vetullvrenjtur), 19 From Top to Toe Albanian face fungus 20 The Meaning of Tingo. .. gigi rongak? And that’s not the only gap in our dental vocabulary: mrongos (Indonesian) to have ugly protruding upper teeth angil (Kapampangan, Philippines) to bare the fangs like a dog laglerolarpok (Inuit) the gnashing of teeth kashr (Persian) displaying the teeth in laughter zhaghzhagh (Persian) the chattering of the teeth from the cold or from rage And that one bizarre word that few of us are ever