Albanian
- hundekuq: a bulbous nose, red at the tip.
- kacadre: a moustache with turned-up ends.
- vetullhen: an eyebrow arched like the crescent moon.
- pagezuar: dying before being able to enjoy the happiness that comes with getting married or seeing one’s children get married.
Bosnian
- gunj: a vest worn by the shepherds during winter, made from sheep skin.
Catalan
- seny: a combination of well-pondered perception of situations, level-headedness, awareness, integrity and right action.
- coentor: it literally means "stinging" but used in a figurative sense to describe something or someone gaudy and wealthy at the same time.
- festejar: spending time alone with the person one loves in a romantic way, traditionally before getting married.
- atzucac: dead end; may refer to a situation without apparent solution as well.
- goig: intense feeling of pleasure, satisfaction or happiness. There is also the expression "fer goig", meaning to be pleasant or nice to look at, used when people are well-dressed, have had their hair or make-up done in a special and good-lookin way.
Croatian
- pivopija: someone who likes to drink beer; literally a "beer drinker".
Czech
- prozvonit: to call someone with the intention of leaving one's number in their device's memory.
- ňufánek: a toy that is very cute and cuddly; the word can refer to a child who loves to cuddle.
Danish
- hyggelig: an adjective for something warm, friendly, cosy, comfortable.
Dutch
- gezellig: it may be translated as a convivial, cosy, fun, quaint, or nice atmosphere, but can also connote belonging, time spent with loved ones, the fact of seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness.
- broodje-aap: an awful, often invented story that is told as being true, thus becoming a myth (literally, a monkey-meat sandwich).
- regelneef: a person who loves organizing even without being asked to.
English
- higgledy-piggledy: disordered, jumbled, not neat and tidy. Probably used initially with reference to the disordered herding together of pigs.
- dilly-dally: to move or act too slowly.
Estonian
- koerailm: cat-and-dog weather; really bad weather.
- kalailm: good weather for fishing.
Finnish
- hiukaista: to feel hungry for something salty.
- poronkusema: the distance equal to how far a reindeer can travel without a comfort break, which is about 5 kilometers (literally, reindeer’s piss).
- kuunsilta: the long reflection of the moon when it is low in the sky and shining on the calm surface of a lake (literally, moon bridge).
- kaipaus: longing or nostalgia, very similar to the Portuguese concept of "saudade".
- fika: used to describe a pause for tea or coffee during the working day.
French
- yaourt: English pop music sung without any understanding of the meaning; singing to create something that sounds like English pop music but actually is not (literally, yoghurt).
- metro-boulot-dodo: the daily grind (literally, ‘tube-work-sleep’).
- chabrot: to put red wine in your soup, when there is little soup left.
- flâner: act of strolling the streets of a city out of pleasure.
Galician
- morriña: longing of our homeland, Galicia, when one is away from it.
- luscofusco: moment of the day, between the day and the night when the light has almost disappeared and we see the things like shadows.
Georgian
- genatsvale: a word used in the same as "dear", it means to appreciate very much.
- shemomedjamo: to eat even though one is already full because the food tastes so good.
German
- Zechpreller: someone who leaves without paying the bill.
- Ohrwurm: a catchy tune that gets stuck in the brain or a tune that rapidly obsesses an entire population (literally, an ear worm).
- Torschlusspanik: the fear of diminishing opportunities as one gets older, especially the fear of not having a relationship or becoming too old for a baby.
- Gemütlichkeit: feeling of comfort, coziness, warmth, as in one's home.
- Schadenfreude: pleasure derived from another person’s misfortune.
- Fernweh: desire to see distant places, travel, be far away from your home.
- Schilderwald: refers to a street where one might get lost due to the existence of many road signs. (literally, signs forest).
- Fahrvergnügen: joy of driving, pleasure derived from driving (literally, driving-pleasure).
- Frühjahrsmüdigkeit: state of fatigue, lowered energy, or depression associated with the onset of spring.
Greek
- μάγκας/mangas: is a young man who is self-confident and behaving in a somehow macho way. It may have a positive connotation of respect and even admiration by others at times, although there is also the popular expression 'don't be a mangas', showing rejection towards this kind of behaviour.
- μεράκι/meraki: doing something with soul, creativity, or love: putting something of oneself into what is being done.
- φιλότιμος/filotimo: this adjective describes
an array of virtues ranging form intense feeling of personal honour and dignity, to respect towards family members, friends and society overall, as well as acting right.
- λεβέντης/leventis: handsome, brave and good-hearted young man.
Hungarian
- csókolgat: to shower with kisses.
- verbunkos: a dance performed to persuade people to enlist in the army.
Icelandic
- eldhus-fifi (Old Icelandic): an idiot who sits all day by the fire.
- af-vegar (Old Icelandic): fallen on the back and unable to rise.
- féauðnu-maðr (Old Icelandic): a man lucky with his sheep.
- gluggaveður: weather which is nice to look at through the window but not nice to be out in (literally, window-weather).
Irish
- plubairnigh: a verb specifically used to describe that distinctive thick, bubbling sound that porridge makes when it is boiling. An example: "Bhí an leite ag plubairnigh sa phota" ("the porridge was 'plubairnigh-ing' in the pot").
Italian
- mammismo: maternal overprotection and excessie care that continues into adulthood.
- abiocco: from the verb 'abioccare', abbiocco describes one's wish to lie down and rest, mostly after eating and drinking with abundance.
- gattara: a woman catlover who feeds alley cats or spends time with domestic cats.
- meriggiare: to rest in the shade during midday and the hottest afternoon hours.
Korean
- 사랑해/saranghae: translates as "I love you", or "let's live until we die together" (literally, "sa-" means die; "rang-" means together and "hae" means doing).
Latvian
- vientuliba: loneliness, solitude.
- slapjdraņķis: simultaneous rain and snow.
Lithuanian
- žlugtas: laundry which is watered before washing.
- brekšti: a verb which is used to describe a moment between the night and the dawn.
- rymoti: to lean on something (arms, fence, etc.) for some time.
- brukti: to suggest something in a very annoying and irksome way.
- davatka: a person who likes to gossip.
Norwegian
- kram snø: sticky snow, excellent for making snow-balls and snowmen.
- fiskevaer: good weather for fishing.
- sjøstygg: being so ugly that the tide won’t come in, if one's on the shore (literally, sea ugly).
- giftekniv: someone trying to get two people married.
- pålegg: whatever you put on your bread or bagel.
- guovssahasat: northern/polar lights.
- oppholdsvær: weather that is excellent, but good enough to allow spending some time outside (i.e., not too windy, not too cold, not too rainy).
Portuguese
- chico-esperto: used to describe someone who is smart enough to take advantage of situations even if damaging someone else's interests.
- saudade: homesickness, longing, missing, heartache, nostalgia.
- desenrascanço: capacity to get oneself out of trouble or to improvise creative solutions to seemingly impossible situations.
- compincha: someone who is always down for fun or drinks.
Romanian
- dor: a feeling of melancholy as a result of the desire to see someone or something one loves.
- doină: a kind of musical folklore that expresses a feeling of wailing, melancholy, grief, revolt, love.
Russian
- почемучка/pochemucka: a person who always asks something.
- дерябнуть/deryabnut’: to drink quickly in order to warm up.
- дакать/dakat’: to keep saying yes.
- теплушка/teplushka: heated goods van used for carrying people.
- обкуриться/obkurit'sya: to make oneself ill by excessive smoking.
- залипать/zalipat': to stand staring at something; it implies at times a state of deep reflection.
Serbian
- inat: spite, defiance; when you do or do not do something just to prove someone else wrong even if at one's detriment.
- merak: happy and content feeling derived from the simplest and everyday things.
- dangubiti: to spend the whole day doing pointless things.
- праскозорје/praskozorje: explosion of dawn.
Slovak
- prezvoniť: to call someone with the intention of leaving one's number in their device's memory.
- škodoradosť: pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.
Slovenian
- zlovešč: someone who predicts harm/evil.
Spanish
- chupóptero: a person who works little but who economically parasites an organisation, company or another person.
- piropo: a compliment paid to someone, especially referring to someone's beauty. It may range from polite to raunchy.
- vergüenza ajena: feeling of shame on behalf of someone else.
- sobremesa: to sit after an abundant meal in company of other people so as to chat and rest.
- malaje: a disagreeable person.
- empalagoso: sickly sweet.
- matasuegras: twisted paper tube with a mouthpiece that unscrews when blown and scares as a joke, used mainly at birthday parties.
- duende: the ability to move someone emotionally through a work of art or a musical piece. It is very related to flamenco music and it is at times thought of as an inborn ability.
- chapuza: work done badly and without technical knowledge.
Swedish
- lappsjuka: a melancholy caused by isolation.
- fika: coffee break or an overall word for buns and other snacks that are eaten on coffee breaks.
- lagom: not too little or not too big, just right or in the right measure.
- myrornas krig: when the television screen turns black and white with spots and it looks like ants are battling (literally, ants war).
- mångata: the glimmering, roadlike reflection that the moon creates on water.
- gökotta: refers to waking up early, often at dawn when first sing and chirp.
Welsh
- cwtch: an affectionate hug - provide a 'safe' place in someone's arms, a rather special one, blessed with the warmth and generosity of the Welsh, a truly free flowing expression of love and acceptance.
- hiraeth: deep longing for something, especially one's home.
- yakamoz: any kind of light reflecting onto water.
* The concept and original examples for this page were provided by Adam Jacot de Boinod.