I Never Knew There Was a Word for It - Adam Jacot De Boinod [67]
70: koki, rare age, so called because the poet Tu Fu said that it was a privilege for a person to reach the age of seventy
77: kiju, long and happy life
88: beiju, the rice birthday
These last two birthdays gain their names from the similarity of the Japanese ideograms for ‘joy’ and ‘rice’ to those for the numbers 77 and 88 respectively.
Handy
In the Tsonga language of South Africa they have the expressive word vunyiriri, the stiffness of hands and feet felt on cold wintry mornings; while the Telugu language of India describes kamikili, the hand held with fingers bent and separated. However they’re positioned, their uses are manifold:
apphoteti (Pali, India) to clap the hands as a sign of pleasure
aupiupiu (Mailu, Papua New Guinea) to flick an insect off the body
ka-cha-to-re (Car, Nicobar Islands) to hang down by one’s hands
duiri (Buli, Ghana) to pass one’s hands over skin so that the hairs stand up
pamamaywáng (Tagalog, Philippines) placing the hands on one’s hips
geu (Bugotu, Solomon Islands) to thrust one’s hand into a bag
And two are even better than one:
raup (Malay) to scoop up with both hands
anjali (Hindi) the cup-shaped hollow formed by joining the two palms together
chal (Car, Nicobar Islands) to lift up something heavy using both hands
kaf faksara (Rotuman, South Pacific) to clap the hands with one finger bent inwards to make a hollow sound
Digital
‘Without fingers,’ say the Moroccans, ‘the hand would be a spoon.’ And where indeed would we be without our essential digits?
gamaza (Arabic) to take with the fingertips
gutól (Tagalog, Philippines) snipping with the fingernails
menonjolkan (Malay) to push one’s fingers into someone’s face
tstumi-oidagana (Yamana, Chile) to offer one’s finger or any part of oneself to be bitten
sena (Sinhala, Sri Lanka) the time that elapses while snapping the thumb and forefinger ten times
Doigt de seigneur
In French, starting from the one nearest the thumb, you have index; majeur – biggest finger; annulaire – ring finger; and, last but not least, auriculaire – literally, the ear finger, because it’s the only one small enough to stick in your ear. But if your digits don’t stop there, you have to go to the Luvale language of Zambia for the sambwilo, the sixth finger or toe.
Expansive
In the Malay language, they use the space between the fingers for a series of useful measurements:
jengkal the span between thumb and finger
jengkul the span between thumb and index finger
telunjok the span between thumb and the joint of the bent index finger
ketengkeng the span between thumb and little finger
Classified
Further down the body, one reaches those parts generally described as private. In Southern Africa, they appear to have thought more than most about keeping it that way:
phindzela (Tsonga, South Africa) to cover one’s private parts carefully
tswi (Tsonga, South Africa) to expose one’s private parts by bending forward
ikokomela (Setswana, Botswana) to look at one’s own private parts
Peppers and Parasols
The Japanese have a memorable vocabulary to describe their (male) genitalia:
imo a potato, a penis that is short and fat
tō garashi a red pepper, a penis that is small and pink
gobō a burdock, a penis that is large and tubular
kenke small, tight testicles (literally pickles)
karakasa a paper parasol, a penis that is unusually top-heavy
Map of the world
French slang uses even more elaborate metaphors. A penis is either une anguille de calecif, an underwear eel, or un cigare à moustache, a cigar with a moustache. In similarly fanciful fashion, breasts are described as une mappemonde, literally, a map of the world (spread across two hemispheres).
Bum deal
Round the back, it seems, we are free to be frank, especially in East Africa and the Philippines:
shuri (Swahili) a person whose buttocks stick out more than those of the average person
tuwad (Maguindanaon,