Reviewing “They Have a Word for It” by Howard Rheingold

Charlemagne said that to “have another language is to possess a second soul.” The more I’ve read about linguistics, taken language classes, or watched foreign films, the more I agree with this sentiment. Language is not everything; some might consider wordless communication (the Japanese have a word for that, “haragei,” which is a noun meaning “Visceral, indirect, largely nonverbal communication”), like art or music or dance, to be a more fundamental form because you don’t need an interpreter to tell you how to feel when hearing a symphony or looking at a painting. (There’s a word for that in Hindi: “rasa” refers to a “mood or sentiment evoked by a work of art.”)

However, those nonverbal communication media are also arguably more subjective: what I feel when I look at art or listen to music isn’t the same as what another person might experience. Language is also somewhat subjective, but its goal is to clearly communicate, to properly transfer internal thoughts and feelings to the external world as faithfully and completely as possible.

Expanding one’s vocabulary is one way to ensure that this transfer is more faithful and more complete. Another way is to expand one’s language beyond one’s native tongue. English is both complicated and enriched by its many loanwords—pajamas, aficionado, doppelganger. And, according to They Have a Word for It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words & Phrases, there are many other candidates we should consider grafting into English.

What I like best about this book is that Rheingold doesn’t just include every foreign word he came across in his research, but instead has carefully considered and chosen words that he thinks might benefit English-speaking culture:

• Ho’oponopono (Hawaiian, noun) – Solving a problem by talking it out
• Sitike (Apache, noun) – In-laws who are formally committed to help during a time of crisis
• Rojon (Indonesian, noun) – Mutual cooperation; a relationship among a group of people who are committed to accomplish a task of mutual benefit
• Lao (Chinese, noun) – A respectful term used for older people
• Berrieh (Yiddish, noun) – An extraordinarily energetic, talented, competent woman
• Shibui (Japanese, noun) – Beauty of aging
• Yugen (Japanese, noun) – An awareness of the universe that triggers feelings too deep and mysterious for words

There are also words that describe things that are commonplace in English-speaking culture, such as:

• Torschlusspanik (German, noun) – Fear of being left out
• Ocurrencia (Spanish, noun) – Sudden, bright idea or witty remark
• Esprit de l’escalier (French, noun) and Treppenwitz (German, noun) – A clever remark that comes to mind when it is too late to utter it….Basically when that ocurrencia evades you until eight hours later when you wake up in the middle of the night kicking yourself because you thought of your treppenwitz.
• Contestaire (French, noun) – One who challenges the established order
• Insaf (Indonesian, adjective) – Socially and politically conscious
• Masa bodoa (Javanese, adjective) – Socio-politically passive and unaware

And then there are words that are particularly useful on a bad day at work:

• Korinthenkacker (German, noun) – A person overly concerned with trivial details
• Radfahrer (German, noun) – One who flatters superiors and browbeats subordinates
• Schlimmbesserung (German, noun) – A so-called improvement that makes things worse
• Farpotshket (Yiddish, adjective) – Something that is all fouled up, especially as a result of an attempt to fix it

In the beginning of the book the author writes, “The sophisticated linguist will recognize as many as a dozen words. In fact, if you can recognize as many as a dozen words, that’s proof positive you are a sophisticated linguist.” Well, here are the words I knew, mostly thanks to my year of studying German in college:

• Gemütlich (German, adjective) – Coy, comfortable, genial, homey
• Zeitgeist (German, noun) – The prevailing mood of a certain period.
• Fisselig (German, adjective) –Flustered to the point of incompetence
• Weltschmertz (German, noun) – A gloomy, romanticized world-weary sadness, experienced most often by privileged youth
• Schadenfreude (German, noun) – Joy that one feels as a result of someone else’s misfortune
• Paperkrieg (German, noun) – Complicated paperwork connected with making a complaint
• Ohrwurm (German, noun) – A tune or melody that infects a population rapidly
• Wabi (Japanese, noun) – A flawed detail that creates an elegant whole
• Sabi (Japanese, noun) – Beautiful patina
• Mantra (Sanskrit, noun) – Word or syllable uttered to oneself in order to achieve a state of mind; a linguistic mind-tool
• Contre-coeur (French, adverb) – Against the wishes of the heart
• Gedankexperiment (German, noun) – Thought-experiment
• Maya (Sanskrit, noun) – The mistaken belief that a symbol is the same as the reality it represents
• Feierabend (German, noun) – Festive frame of mind at the end of the working day
• Waq’f (Arabic, noun) – Property given to God
• Tao (Chinese, noun/verb) – The way it goes
• Dharma (Sanskrit, noun) – Each person’s unique, ideal path in life, and knowledge of how to find it
• Zivilcourage (German, noun) – Courage to express unpopular opinions
• Gaia (Greek, noun) – Earth as an organism
• Gestalten (German, noun) – Little wholes that make up larger wholes
• Zwischenraum (German, noun) – The space between things
• Idée-force (French, noun) – An idea that has an active, substantive power
• Uffda (Swedish, exclamation) – A word of sympathy, used when someone else is in pain

Actually, I’m not sure that last one is correct. “Uff da” is like the “oy vey” of Norwegian. Of course, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark have an intertwined history, so the spelling and usage may be different.