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asa (Korean) death from starvation

áhano’xéohtsé (Cheyenne, USA) to die from carrying a load

skeelah (Hebrew) stoning to death

lang-trì (Vietnamese) death by a thousand cuts (an ancient punishment)

prayopaveshī (Hindi) one who undertakes a fast unto death

chŏngsa (Korean) love suicide, double suicide

fwa imfwa leza (Mambwe, Zambia) to die abandoned and alone (without having anyone to fold one’s arms and legs for the burial)

lavu (Manobo, Philippines) to drown someone by overturning their canoe

Another way to go

The Fore tribe of New Guinea suffer from a terrible disease called kuru, which means shaking death. It is also known as the laughing sickness from the disease’s second stage in which the sufferers laugh uncontrollably. It has a 100 per cent fatality rate.

Stiff

There’s no saving us now; the best we can hope for is a little dignity:

tlanyi (Tsonga, South Africa) to find a person lying dead when one thought him alive

bahk’ e chamen (Chorti, Guatemala) the fright caused by looking at a corpse

kreng (Dutch) a dead body which is bloated from being submerged in water for a substantial period of time (also a bitch)

gruz 200 (Russian) corpses transported by air (literally, load 200)

False friends

arm (Estonian) scar

cocoa (Nahuatl, Mexico) to suffer pain

halal (Hungarian) death

kill (Amharic, Ethiopia) skull

kiss (Swedish) pee

men (Thai) a bad smell

rib (Somali) contraction

rat (Romani) blood

safari (Zarma, Nigeria) medicine

wish (Bashgali, India) poison; medicine

Feet first

Every culture attaches importance to a respectful disposal of the dead; but how exactly they do it is different all over:

vynosit’ (Russian) to bury someone (literally, to carry someone out feet first)

monoklautos (Ancient Greek) with one mourner

tomboka (Luvale, Zambia) to dance (said of an executioner)

sahagamanamu (Telugu, India) the burning alive of a widow, with her dead husband

Leichenschmaus (German) the meal after the funeral (literally, corpse banquet)

xuxo (Tsonga, South Africa) the spot where an important man died; when rites are observed for his spirit, people go first to that place, then to his grave

Funeral crashers

‘A beautiful funeral does not necessarily lead to paradise,’ runs a Creole proverb and, were we still able to care, such a thought might be reassuring:

tumeakana (Yamana, Chile) to not show the grief for a friend who has died that is expected from relatives, to act when a mourner as though one was not a mourner

pesamenteiro (Portuguese) one who habitually joins groups of mourners at the home of a deceased person, ostensibly to offer condolences but in reality to partake of the refreshments which he expects will be served

In loving memory

Now all that’s left is for those who remain to remember and express their feelings:

di-huong (Vietnamese) the memory of a dead lover

keriah (Hebrew) a tear in clothes to signify a broken heart

miàti-drànomàso (Malagasy, Madagascar) to go up to the palace to weep on the decease of the sovereign

nyekar (Indonesian) to visit and lay flowers on the grave of a dead relative or friend

prātahsmaranīya (Hindi) worthy of being remembered every morning; revered

yortsayt (Yiddish) the anniversary of someone’s death

Hex revenge

While some love and remember, there are others who believe that if someone is ill and dies there must be someone to blame; and appropriate action may have to be taken:

rihehlo (Tsonga, South Africa) a spell cast upon a person by putting medicines on the grave of one killed by his witchcraft

Radish tips

Once under the ground we say we are ‘pushing up daisies’. For the French, though, to be dead and buried is either engraisser les asticots, fattening the maggots, or manger les pissenlits par la racine, eating dandelions by the roots. Even more imaginatively the Germans have sich die Radieschen von unten angucken, he’s looking at the radishes from below.

IDIOMS OF THE WORLD

Out of the frying pan and into the fire

min taht al dalf lataht al mizrab (Arabic) from under the drip to under