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Scholars and professional translators have determined that “ilunga” — a word in the Bantu language of Tshiluba for a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time; to tolerate it a second time; but never a third time — is the “most untranslatable word in the world. “Shlimazl”, a Yiddish word for a chronically unlucky person, and “radioukacz”, a Polish word for a person who worked as a telegraphist for the resistance movements on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain, ran a close second and third. The most untranslatable word in the English language was voted to be “plenipotentiary”, which means a special ambassador or envoy, invested with full powers.
June 30th, 2004 at 9:03 pm
Kitsch as an untranslatable word doesn’t qualify, in my opinion, because it’s taken straight from German with the same meaning.
Therefore, a German-speaker wouldn’t need a translation, so it is NOT untranslatable.
August 2nd, 2004 at 4:10 pm
Interesting list.
Here are some considerations, and two of the words are not in most common English dictionaries:
The ten (!) english words that were voted hardest to translate
plenipotentiary = A diplomat who is fully authorized to represent his or
her government.
gobbledegook = language characterized by circumlocution and jargon, usually
hard to understand
serendipity = Pure luck in discovering things you were not looking for.
poppycock = Senseless talk; “don’t give me that stuff”. First used 1865
googly = A cricket ball bowled as if to break one way that actually breaks
in the opposite way
Spam = (trademark) a tinned luncheon meat made largely from pork. Also
from “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”] To crash a program
whimsy = The trait of acting more from whim or caprice than from reason or
judgment.
bumf =
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/english/bu/bumf.html
chuffe =
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/english/ch/chuffe.html
Regards, George