Last word in a foreign language that you learnt 2

[Linguaphile]

With that type of reading, I almost always try to gain some background knowledge about it by reading in English on the same topic before reading about it in a language I know less well. For one thing, for the types of words you're talking about, often even in English when writing about it they'll use the native words, so you'll learn them. And then of course it helps to have the background knowledge even when that isn't the case.

He lulled me into a false complacency by not going into details for the first 100+ pages of the novel

LOL

[linguoboy]

LOL

Honestly, that's one of my frustrations with Roberts. It's not always clear what's important for understanding the story and what's just colourtext. At first I was reading very closely and trying to remember as much as possible. But then he wasted my time with some absurdist nonsense in Italy and I decided to read more for speed. Now I guess that's catching up with me again.

[Linguaphile]

pelela child's potty chair

[Dormouse559]

au forceps adv - painfully, arduously
haletant adj - breathless, panting; (figuratively) gripping

Etats-Unis: suspense haletant en Géorgie, probable victoire démocrate au forceps
United States: gripping suspense in Georgia, likely Democratic victory hard won

[schnaz]

kwe hello in the Algonquin language
http://www.hilaroad.com/camp/nation/hello1.wav

[Multiturquoise]

Goonerette

[linguoboy]

congesta

I always enjoy learning foreign terms that have no close equivalents in English. A congesta is an accumulation of snow in a high-altitude clotada (another word without a close English equivalent; it means an area that is low-lying compared to the terrain around it and can designate anything from a relatively flat expanse connecting two valleys to a steep narrow gulch). It's glossed in various sources as "snowdrift" or "snowbank", but these are just masses of snow that can occur at any altitude and on any sort of terrain. I was curious if I could find a technical term in glaciology that corresponded to congesta but there doesn't seem to be one.

[Rí.na.dTeangacha]

congesta

I always enjoy learning foreign terms that have no close equivalents in English. A congesta is an accumulation of snow in a high-altitude clotada (another word without a close English equivalent; it means an area that is low-lying compared to the terrain around it and can designate anything from a relatively flat expanse connecting two valleys to a steep narrow gulch). It's glossed in various sources as "snowdrift" or "snowbank", but these are just masses of snow that can occur at any altitude and on any sort of terrain. I was curious if I could find a technical term in glaciology that corresponded to congesta but there doesn't seem to be one.

Could the altitude thing not be down to Catalan-speaking areas not generally having much snow outside of higher altitude areas?

[linguoboy]

Could the altitude thing not be down to Catalan-speaking areas not generally having much snow outside of higher altitude areas?

Sure, the meaning of the term is rooted in the geography and climate of the Catalan-speaking areas. But when it comes to describing accumulations of snow at lower altitudes in places like Moscow or New York, Catalan-speakers seem to prefer other expressions like pila de neu instead of extending the meaning of congesta. Furthermore, Spanish is spoken natively over a wider geographic range and it has its own word (ventisquero) for the same concept, one also not used to described snow and ice collecting at lower altitudes.

[megaabsol123]

: "reden" (means: reason)

just in case I did the whole flag thing wrong, this is a Dutch word.

[Dormouse559]

présentiel /pʁezɑ̃sjɛl/ adj - face-to-face, in person

The word is also used in the phrase en présentiel, which also means "in person". Here's the article where I encountered it:

Covid-19 : des centaines d’étudiants mobilisés à travers la France pour réclamer des cours en présentiel

[COVID-19: Hundreds of students rally across France to demand in-person courses]

[linguoboy]

myfïol egoistic, selfish

I really like this coinage. Myfi is the emphatic form of the 1s pronoun (which generally appears as fi or just i), so it's a very transparent derivation. English egoistic just looks baroque by comparison.

[dEhiN]

un hérisson hedgehog
un écureuil squirrel

une joue cheek
une gencive gum (of the mouth)

I learned the first two words from a YouTube video where French speakers tried to pronounce several hard English words. One of the words was "hedgehog" and another was "squirrel", and in both cases, one of the speakers said the French word for that animal. I learned the last two from reading the French part of the label on my toothpaste. I think I learned joue once before, though I'd forgotten about it, but I never knew of gencive, just gomme which is chewing gum.

[linguoboy]

I learned the first two words from a YouTube video where French speakers tried to pronounce several hard English words.

"Squirrel" is notoriously hard for nonnative speakers not just in English and French but also German (StG Eichhörnchen), so videos of people trying to pronounce the equivalents in other languages are almost their own subgenre.

[I can't really think of other languages where this is the case except for Welsh gwiwer. That's gotta be a real bugger for Germans!]

[dEhiN]

"Squirrel" is notoriously hard for nonnative speakers not just in English and French but also German (StG Eichhörnchen), so videos of people trying to pronounce the equivalents in other languages are almost their own subgenre.

[I can't really think of other languages where this is the case except for Welsh gwiwer. That's gotta be a real bugger for Germans!]

Interestingly though, the word that video ended on was "psychophysicotherapeutics", which I'd never heard of before! From what I could tell googling it, it's listed in the OED as one of the longest English words, but no definition is ever given. The French speakers had a hard time with that, although one person eventually sounded out each component.

[Dormouse559]

tendax adj - (slang) (of a situation) tense, complex, delicate

[oho]

English: shlumpadinka

[linguoboy]

A-Promi A-lister
rústec rough, crude
drewi to stink

[dEhiN]

um pão-durismo meanness, stinginess

[Dormouse559]

maccarthysme - McCarthyism

The respelling of McCarthy's name is unexpected, though it does reflect the French pronunciation of the Mac/Mc- prefix.