I Never Knew There Was a Word for It - Adam Jacot De Boinod [31]
But maybe the laurels should go to the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes who devised the word lopado-temacho-selacho-galeo-kranio-leipsano-drim-hu-potrimmato-silphio-karabo-melito-katakechumeno-kichl-epikossuphophatto-perister-alektruon-opto-kephallio-kigklo-peleio-lagoio-siraio-baphe-tragano-pterugon, a dish compounded of all kinds of dainties, fish, fowl and sauces.
Otherworldly
zig then ma che; dam choe ma ha (Dzongkha, Bhutan)
do not start your worldly life too late; do not start your religious life too early
Beyond the veil
So what lies beyond the beauties of life, in sight, sound and smell? Do we live for ever? And if so, can any of us ever return?
iwang wayaka (Ulwa, Nicaragua) a spirit that comes out after a person dies, makes noises and yet is never seen
tarniqsuqtuq (Inuit) a communication with a spirit that is unable to ascend
raskh (Persian) the transmigration of the human soul into a plant or tree
hrendi thenok (Sherpa, Nepal) to get in touch with the soul of a dead person
bodach (Scottish Gaelic) the ghost of an old man that comes down the chimney to terrorize children who have been naughty
Spooked in Sumatra
The Indonesians have a particularly varied vocabulary to describe the inhabitants of the spirit world and their attempts to menace the living:
wewe an ugly female ghost with drooping breasts
keblak a ghost cockerel which frightens people at night with the sound of its flapping wings
kuntilanak a ghost masquerading as a beautiful woman to seduce men who are then horrified to find that she actually has a large hole in her back
Looking into the future
A cynical old Chinese proverb offers the thought ruo xin bu, maile wu; mai gua kou, mei liang dou: ‘if you believe in divination you will end up selling your house to pay the diviners’. But attempting to see into the future has been a constant in all societies for thousands of years:
aayyaf (Arabic) predicting the future by observing the flight of birds
ustukhwan-tarashi (Persian) divination using the shoulder-blade of a sheep
haruspex (Latin) a priest who practised divination by examining the entrails of animals
kilo lani (Hawaiian) an augury who can read the clouds
sortes (Latin) the seeking of guidance by the chance selection of a passage in a book
mandal (Arabic) prophesying while staring into a mirror-like surface
Hide away
Scottish Highlanders formerly had an unusual way of divining the future, known as taghairm. This involved wrapping a man in the hide of a freshly butchered bullock and leaving him alone by a waterfall, under a cliff-face, or in some other wild and deserted place. Here he would think about his problem; and whatever answer he came up with was supposed to have been given to him by the spirits who dwelt in such forbidding spots.
False friends
monaco (Italian) monk
fish (Arabic) Easter, Passover
alone (Italian) halo
fall (Breton) bad
lav (Armenian) good
bog (Russian) god
God willing
The French have a term, bondieuserie, which means ostentatious piety. But for many the solace of prayer and faith is both necessary and private:
saruz-ram (Persian) the first light breaking upon one committed to a contemplative life
rasf (Persian) the joining together of the feet in prayer (also the joining of stones in pavements)
thondrol (Dzongkha, Bhutan) the removal of sins through the contemplation of a large religious picture
kuoha (Hawaiian) a prayer used to bring a wife to love her husband and a husband to love his wife
tekbir (Arabic) to proclaim the greatness of God, by repeating
allahu akkbar, ‘Allah is great’
pasrah (Indonesian) to leave a problem to God
On reflection
The short of it
Among single letter words to be found among the world’s languages are the following: