this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2025
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Any language, explain what it means if it's not English.

For example (as a non-native speaker) I've always liked the English word 'unprecedented', mostly in the context of fiction. Especially if it paints some entity to be really mystical or wondrous or it's own never before seen order of magnitude in any way.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago
[–] mic_check_one_two 5 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Gruntled. It means pleased or contented. It’s the positive form of the much more common “disgruntled”. If someone is caught in the rain, they may be disgruntled about being wet. But you very rarely hear the word “gruntled” used.

Similarly, “whelmed” is a word, which basically means “submerged” or “engulfed”. You can be _over_whelmed by emotion, meaning you were completely overtaken and swept away by the emotion. You can be _under_whelmed by an experience, meaning it failed to fully meet your expectations. But you can also just be whelmed. The experience did exactly what you expected; no more, no less.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

Solamente, it just flows so well. It means only in Spanish.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

I've always liked the word Adenosine. Not sure why, just fun to say.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 23 hours ago

Waffle not the food just the word. It’s fun to say.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I love the word helicopter, because unobviously, the root words aren’t heli and copter, but are “helico”, meaning spiral, and “pter”, meaning wing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

There are plenty of feminine given names that roll off the tongue incredibly well. Names like "Anna" and "Elaine" and "Katherine" do not begin to scratch the surface... But again, I pay more attention to names than the average person because I am obsessed with linguistics, and that obsession is what made me click this thread and type out a reply in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 19 hours ago

I knew a girl with such a cute name but she was not very good looking so guys used to say "name scam"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 22 hours ago

My favorite word is cunt.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

I love the word trabajaba (pronounced trah-buh-hah-buh). It means “worked” in Spanish.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

English: Spaghettification (being ripped/stretched apart extremely violently)

Oh and almost forgot: Yeet is an actual word now, so that as well.

German: Zeitgeist (so well known you've probably heard it already ["spirit of the times"])

Programming languages: print("lol, lmao even.");

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhän.

It's the longest word you can make in Finnish without using compounds, which can be infinite length.

It means, very loosely translated "I wonder if the outcome was a result of their lack of ability to cause others to be disorganized. "

I know, Finnish is an enviable language.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Am I understanding that Finnish has a way to combine words without being considered to be a compound? My very limited exposure to compound words (through German) was the very idea of mashing the words together made them compound.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

We have a concept of word inflection, which can be used to replace a lot of words that English would use to denote something being a question, ownership markers, causes and effects etc.

Compounds are fun too, since you can do chaining:

Viskibassokitaravahvistinpiiri

Whisky base guitar amplifier circuit

[–] [email protected] 2 points 22 hours ago

We have a concept of word inflection, which can be used to replace a lot of words that English would use to denote something being a question, ownership markers, causes and effects etc.

I don't speak Finnish, but I believe a good example for such an inflection is how in English you can glue an -s to words to make them plural. In some other languages, you say "many word" instead, because they don't have such an inflection.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Vegemíté, as pronounced by Gloria in Modern Family.

Every time I open the cupboard that has a jar, it brings me joy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

It's good shit. I ain't even an Aussie but that shit makes everything better.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

No way, I've never met anyone who didn't grow up with Vegemite but still enjoys it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Thing with Vegemíté is that it's like Marmite, but not fucking awful.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago

I like Marmite too lol

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Anesthetize

The 'esth' right into a t is just about the coolest combination of word sounds in any word in English.

Second favorite is cwm. :)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

As someone with a lisp who tends to turn 's' and 'z' sounds into a 'th' sound, i will respectfully disagree that it is a cool combination. it hurts me a little that i can't always say words properly but i suppose i could always ask a doctor to aneththetithe me.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Steadfast. As a native English speaker it feels like a very strong, grounded word which also suits its meaning. Originally literally means fixed in place, it's come to mean loyal and unswerving.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Stalwart Stolid Solid

[–] grillgamesh 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

antidisestablishmentarianism. its a fun word to say.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

i feel the same way about pneumonoultramicroscopicsyllacovolcanoconiosis. it's fun to say!

it's not considered a real word anymore (and from what i gather, never really was a real word, in the opinion of the english nerds who decide such things) but i learned how to say it, dammit! i can't unlearn that!

i might have even learned how to spell it correctly. i didn't check the spelling as i wrote it in this comment but i also don't think it matters if i incorrectly spell a word that isn't really a word. so... yeah...

anyways, it was possibly used as a complicated version of what was known as 'black lung' disease, which coal miners in the appalacians contracted from inhaling silica dusts, for anyone curious.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It should be “silico” instead of “syllaco”. It comes from “silicon”, like the dust you mentioned.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago

The Trinity of Doo: doobie, doofus, doodle.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Subtle, rhythm, and Wednesday. The spelling is just absolutely wild.

It’s about as messy as old British coins and Roman measures.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I also enjoy "one". There's just a random "w" in there when you pronounce it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 19 hours ago

Yeah, “wan” would make 5000% more sense.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

The subtle debt rhymed in rhythm on Wednesday.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Paraprosdokian. A sentence with a twist in it. Eg. Some people are like slinkies: not really good for much but they bring a smile to your face when you see one tumble down a set of stairs.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

autodefenestration is a fun one

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

defenestratafenestra isn't a real word but i use it to tell people i stopped using Windows and switched to Linux.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Sunwise and widdershins.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Brobdingnagian

It's a reference to the giants of Brobdingnag from Gulliver's travels. It means that something is absurdly large. It is also a large word making it delightful in that way. It also rolls off the tongue musically.

Coming in a close second is petrichor or petrichorian.

Petrichor is the word for the smell of the earth right after a rain. Petrichorian obviously means that something smells similar, or can be used to reference petrichor. I love the word for multiple reasons. First that it just sounds wonderful. Second that there's a word for describing this one specific smell that is a universal human experience to anyone not anosmic out of all other smells that are similarly universal.

Third that it approaches onomatopoeia on that it sounds like the way the smell smells. The earthy petri combined with the grounded ring of chor (pronounced like core, and references that the smell is a core thing of rain and earth) is the verbal sound of the way the smell tickles the nose and makes many people walk around sniffing like hounds on a walk through the woods after weeks in the city.

Petri chor. It's like the tinging of raindrops off of a piece of granite or marble in the mountains while you shelter under a tree and revel in the scents of it all.

I mean, it's no Brobdingnagian, but as words go petrichor is a bit magical. It invokes and evokes almost as much as tintinnabulation, but does so for a smell, which is so much harder to do. That, btw, is an excellent word: tintinnabulation. Of the bells, bells, bells, which may be the most enjoyable poem to read aloud, ever.

There's some other words that have the ability to invoke phantoms of their related senses. Cadaverine and putrescine come to mind; both names of chemicals involved in the putrescent smells of decomposition of flesh. Knowing their meaning brings forth memories of their smells. Not quite as effective in that, because you do have to know what they mean for the incantation to work, but still quite wonderful words. Sulfurous is similarly scent summoning. Flinty works as well, but is less musical as it resonates in the oral cavity and echoes off the teeth.

Look, I can do this all day. There's a word for people like me: logophile. There's a fancy word for people that are into words. How awesome is that?!

Oh, that ?! Even has a word! The interrobang! Ain't English awesome?!

And yes, at this point, the entire comment is sigogglin' (or sigoggly, or sigoggledy depending on where in the Appalachians you are), which is a twisty and crooked word for something that is twisty and crooked.

Loquacious, no?