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avoir un oeil qui joue au billard et l’autre qui compte les points (French) said of someone who is cross-eyed (literally, to have one eye that’s playing billiards while the other is off counting the points)

False friends

ache (Bashgali, India) eye

flint (Swedish) bald head

glad (Dutch) smooth, sleek

groin (French) snout

honk (Armenian) eyebrow

mute (Latvian) mouth

pea (Estonian) head

pong (Khowar, Pakistan) foot

Gobstruck

Of course it’s all too easy to spoil the appearance of what we’ve been given …

vaaye-nokke (Malayalam) to stare at somebody with your mouth open (literally, mouth-see)

gaillseach (Gaelic) a large mouthful which makes the cheeks bulge out

… especially if we’re putting it to good use:

kecomak-kecamik (Indonesian) to move the mouth around when eating something or saying a prayer

fújtat (Hungarian) to pant, puff and blow

menggonggong (Malay) to carry something in your mouth

ayapsun (Dakota, USA) to pull something out by the roots using the mouth

raspakhivat’ varezhky (Russian) to drop one’s jaw in surprise or amazement (literally, to open someone’s mitten)

Lippy

With the fleshiest part of that useful opening, emotion can easily get the better of appearance:

maiskuttaa (Finnish) to smack one’s lips

bibidia (Swahili) to thrust out and turn down the lower lip as a sign of derision or contempt

Tsk tsk

In many parts of the world, the tongue is not used just for speaking or eating:

tam-tac (Vietnamese) to smack the tongue as a sign of admiration

mitimiti (Rapa Nui, Easter Island) to click one’s tongue as a sign of disagreement or of annoyance (tsk, tsk)

auau (Bugotu, Solomon Islands) to stick the tongue out

lamz (Persian) rolling the tongue about the mouth to pick the teeth

imel-es (Ik, Nilo-Saharan) to move the tongue in and out like a snake

Trouble gum

Americans talk disparagingly of ‘English teeth’, but England is not the only country in the world where dental radiance could be improved:

kasyápa (Sanskrit) having black teeth

kadadat (Sinhala, Sri Lanka) possessing only half of your original teeth

wahdatepa (Dakota, USA) to wear one’s own teeth short

si gwa pau (Cantonese) someone with buck teeth (literally, watermelon shoveller)

Smiling, squirting, stripping

The Italians say, ‘Teeth placed before the tongue give good advice’; and whatever your gnashers look like, you can always put them to good use:

gigil (Tagalog, Philippines) the gritting of the teeth when controlling emotion

n’wayin’wayi (Tsonga, South Africa) to smile showing the teeth

ntseka (Tsonga, South Africa) to squirt forcibly through the teeth

ki’it (Manobo, Philippines) to bite off something with the front teeth (as when eating corn on the cob)

yigul-a (Yamana, Chile) to pull out stitches with the teeth

eeti (Rapanui, Easter Island) to strip off bark or hard skin with the teeth

dona (Yamana, Chile) to take out lice from a person’s head and squash them between one’s teeth

dentilegus (Latin) one who picks up his teeth after they have been knocked out

Long teeth

When the French talk of aiming for the impossible, they say they are trying to prendre la lune avec les dents, literally, to seize the moon with one’s teeth; to be very ambitious, likewise, is avoir les dents qui rayent le parquet, to have teeth that scratch the floor. For the Finns, to do something unwillingly is pitkin hampain, with long teeth; while for the Spanish, andar con el diente largo, walking around with long teeth, means to be very hungry.

Copping an eyeful

‘The eyes are the mirror of the soul,’ say the Japanese, echoing an English saying. But often it’s the more mundane aspects of these organs that people worry about:

xitsavatsava (Tsonga, South Africa) the involuntary twitching of an eyelid or eyebrow

bitlisisa (Setswana, Botswana) a sore eye that has been rubbed

kuseng (Manobo, Philippines) to rub one’s eyes with the back of the hand

rabun ayam (Malay) poor eyesight, especially during sunset

Bewitching

As with the teeth, our peepers