Comments on: Japanese words that don’t exist, but should

By: japanese words

japanese words — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 12:51:15 +0000

Yes, I think To is correct. It should be arigata-meiwaku.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 21:50:37 +0000

I believe the word is arigata meiwaku, not ariga meiwaku.

I’m not sure about age otori, though.

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 19:37:49 +0000

A Russian equivalent (except without the gratitude part) to Ariga-meiwaku is: “Medvezhiya usluga,” which literally means: “a bear’s help.”

By: Dan McMinn

Dan McMinn — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 21:18:45 +0000

Might I suggest some Russian?

1) everybody talks about schaudenfreude as if only the Germans could think of such a diabolical word. The Russians have “zloradost” – which means, roughly “taking joy in evil/the misfortune of others”. Pretty much the same thing.

The Russian word for midget is “Liliput”

To play someone for a fool is “veshat lapsha na ushi” – hang noodles from their ears.

and the word for ladybug is “bozhya korovka” or “God’s little cow”

And the hard disk on your computer is called a “Winchester” (ok “Vinchester”) because they were originally created using vacuum tubes that had the approximate gauge of rifles.