A reader adds to the growing list:
My wife and I are especially fond of “biritilulo,” a word from Papua, New Guinea, that literally means “to argue over yams” but is actually a great, loud row deliberately started between two angry parties as a way of letting out tension. It allows everyone to realize that the conflict in question is silly and to get on with life.
Another:
My favorite is the Spanish “sobremesa”: it means sitting around the table in leisurely conversation after the meal is over.
Another:
There’s also “saudades” in Portuguese, which is the pain and the pleasure of missing someone or something. The pain part is obvious; the pleasure is because the realization that you have a connection with a person or place that is so strong it causes you pain. And, more generally, it’s joyous to remember what you love. Soldiers looking at pictures of their lovers or family are experiencing saudades.
Another:
As a Brit in Thailand I’ve been having trouble with the Thai word “khrap” (or “ka” if the speaker is a woman). This word is added on to the end of a sentence to make it more polite. It’s usually reserved for talking with strangers, and if you watch Thai TV with a female presenter pretty much every sentence she utters ends with a cute “ka”. For example, “sa-was-dee” means “hello” in Thailand, but you’ll always hear it as “sa-was-dee ka/khrap”.
Another:
I’m sure you are deluged on this, but here is one that is worth noting: the Yiddish word “farible” (or “faribel”). It means to hold a grudge for years (or decades) over some trivial slight. “She has a faribel because she wasn’t originally invited to the party.” For some reason this very useful Yiddish word never made it to the US, but it is widely used among Jewish South Africans.
Another:
I grew up in a German/English bilingual household, and my favorite German word without an English equivalent is “jein”, a mashup of “ja” and “nein”, thus taking the phrase “yes and no” and reducing it to one simple word, easily said with whatever intonation suits your feelings on the question being asked!
Yet another:
Oh my goodness I love this thread! German has so many great examples. As a college student from California studying abroad at a private German Uni, I learned some great words. “Fremdschämen” – feeling shame or embarrassment on behalf of someone else (this is apropos during late nights at the bar). Likewise, “Schadenfreude” is taking pleasure in others pain. But for me, post-college, this one is perfect: “das Wanderjahr” – a year (or more!) of travel and fun before settling into a career.
One more:
Your reader who submitted “l’esprit d’escalier” as a word with no English equivalent isn’t quite right. The neologism “retrotort” (based on “retort”) is not commonly known, but it’s pithier.
The Dish 