Expanding the English Lexicon

[Kaodi]

I think shinigami is ready to make the leap to English.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well...shikataganai.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Also, as an Army Brat, I grew up with and developed a love of Acronyms.

My favorites include all the military classics- SNAFU, FUBAR, SUSFU, SUIFU- as well as literary greats like TANSTAAFL.

Mom likes them too- she's been using IDGAS for a couple of years, now.

 

[Samloyal23]

Forelsket (Norwegian): The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love.

Meraki (pronounced may-rah-kee; Greek): Doing something with soul, creativity, or love. It’s when you put something of yourself into what you’re doing.

Mamihlapinatapai (Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego): This word captures that special look shared between two people, when both are wishing that the other would do something that they both want, but neither want to do.

Zeg (Georgian): It means “the day after tomorrow.” OK, we do have "overmorrow" in English, but when was the last time someone used that?

Mamihlapinatapai does not exactly roll off of the tongue for an English speaker, it is just too long. The other words are short and not too hard to pronounce. These are the type of things I am looking for...

 

[Samloyal23]

I think shinigami is ready to make the leap to English.

Well...shikataganai.

Huh? What?

 

[Hussar]

Huh? What?

Shikataganai is Japanese for "There's nothing that can be done about it". Although, it doesn't translate so well because of cultural issues. For most Western English speakers, that would be a pretty negative thing to say, but, it Japanese, it's not. Maybe a better translation would be, "Well, damn."

 

[Samloyal23]

Shikataganai is Japanese for "There's nothing that can be done about it". Although, it doesn't translate so well because of cultural issues. For most Western English speakers, that would be a pretty negative thing to say, but, it Japanese, it's not. Maybe a better translation would be, "Well, damn."

Nice, but too long to get picked up by most English speakers...

 

[Elven]

Those aren't loans; they're outright theft. English killed Latin and took its stuff.

Thats not true, latin was (mostly) dead when english found him,

 

[Elven]

Shikataganai is Japanese for "There's nothing that can be done about it". Although, it doesn't translate so well because of cultural issues. For most Western English speakers, that would be a pretty negative thing to say, but, it Japanese, it's not. Maybe a better translation would be, "Well, damn."

Or the more common phrase "Thats Life" would be more fitting the sentiment

 

[Elven]

this sounds like a lot of academitry and work.

I prefer to simply use words or phrases as I intend their meaning and people adopt them.

XbOne : short for X-Box One. I'm not the only one to coin it, but it has gotten some traction.

Ding-Free Parking Space : that isolated parking spot where nobody can park next to you

Sleepitrons : the invisible particles a sleeping dog emits that makes you sleepy as well (Jim Butcher's latest work introduced Sleepeons as the same meaning, but my usage predates his book by many years).

There's been a few more I've gotten at least local people to adopt, but my brain is tired and can't remember.

They are not new words or terms,
(Shouldn't count if its on sites such as Urbandictionary, but if it did i'd use the term Spasmosis (AKA Spazmosis)
Where you soak up the stupid of people you've been around,)

What you need is a new term to indicate a new concept, not already in english