The time needed to eat a banana
There’s a phrase for that in Malay, in fact: “pisan zapra.” Apparently this is an important measurement of time in Malaysia.
The World’s GeoQuiz recently had a piece on all sorts of words like this:
Kaelling – Danish: a woman who stands on her doorstep yelling obscenities at her kids.
Pesamenteiro – Portuguese: one who joins groups of mourners at the home of a dead person, apparently to offer condolences but in reality is just there for the refreshments.
Jayus – Indonesian: someone who tells a joke so unfunny you can’t help laughing.
Kamaki – Greek: the young local guys strolling up and down beaches hunting for female tourists, literally “harpoons”.
Giri-GIRI – Hawaiian pidgin: the place where two or three hairs stick up, no matter what.
Pelinti – Buli, Ghana: to move very hot food around inside one’s mouth.
Dii-KOYNA – Ndebele, South Africa: to destroy one’s property in anger.
Hanyauku – Rukwangali, Namibia: walking on tiptoes across warm sand.
Tartle – Scottish: to hesitate when you are introducing someone whose name you can’t quite remember.
Vovohe Tahtsenaotse – Cheyenne, US: to prepare the mouth before speaking by moving or licking one’s lips.
Prozvonit – Czech and Slovak: to call someone’s mobile from your own to leave your number in their memory without them picking it up.
Hira Hira – Japanese: the feeling you get when you walk into a dark and decrepit old house in the middle of the night.
Koi No Yokan – Japanese: a sense on first meeting someone that it is going to evolve into love.
Cafune – Brazilian Portuguese: the tender running of one’s fingers through the hair of one’s mate.
Shnourkovat Sya – Russian: when drivers change lanes frequently and unreasonably.
Gadrii Nombor Shulen Jongu – Tibetan: giving an answer that is unrelated to the question, literally “to give a green answer to a blue question”.
Biritululo – Kiriwani, Papua New Guinea: comparing yams to settle a dispute.
Poronkusema – Finnish: the distance equal to how far a reindeer can travel without a comfort break.
Pisan Zapra – Malay: the time needed to eat a banana.
Physiggoomai – Ancient Greek: excited by eating garlic.
Baffona – Italian: an attractive moustachioed woman.
Gattara – Italian: a woman, often old and lonely, who devotes herself to stray cats.
Creerse La Ultima Coca-COLA EN EL DESIERTO – Central American Spanish: to have a very high opinion of oneself, literally to “think one is the last Coca-Cola in the desert”.
Vrane Su Mu Popile Mozak – Croatian: crazy, literally “cows have drunk his brain”.
These are all from a book, Toujours Tingo: More Extraordinary Words To Change The Way We See The World, and Web site by dictionary collector Adam Jacot de Boinod.
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“Gadrii Nombor Shulen Jongu – Tibetan: giving an answer that is unrelated to the question, literally “to give a green answer to a blue questionâ€?.”
Think that phrase is used to talk about politics, much?
Comment by Jeff Hamilton — November 16, 2007 @ 13:14