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In Other Words
by: C. J. Moore

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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 413.21
EAN: 9780802714442
ISBN: 0802714447
Label: Walker & Company
Manufacturer: Walker & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 128
Publication Date: October 01, 2004
Publisher: Walker & Company
Sales Rank: 383638
Studio: Walker & Company

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:

When ideas fail, words come in handy. But sometimes you can’t find the right word, and what you want to say can’t be found in the dictionary. English has its limitations, but the expression you’re searching for may exist in another language. In Other Words is a unique collection of well-known and absolutely obscure “untranslatables”—linguistic gems that convey a feeling or notion with satisfying precision yet resist simple translation.

This quirky lexicon of hard-to-translate words gives the reader a new way to look at the world and how words relate to us. The words are arranged by region or country of origin, and a brief introduction to each section—each done by a respected translator—gives insight into the culture of the people as well as the language. Each of these singular words is cleverly and thoroughly defined, with interesting details and references throughout. The search for that elusive mot juste may be over.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Lighten up, everyone!
And try translating my title into a foreign language.

I read this informative little book while using a friend's bathroom (the perfect setting), and I must say, I enjoyed it immensely. I looked through the Italian, a language that I do speak, and recognized all the expressions except for "attaccabottoni," literally a button attacher, but figuratively, someone who sticks like glue to one, at a party for instance. Such idioms are fun, as well as important (I'll never forget trying to explain in Italian that commercial American bread [as opposed to Italian] is full of preservatives, and learning the hard way, as my friends were rolling around on the floor with laughter, that I had just informed everyone that American bread was full of condoms!). The proper word for food preservatives is "conservanti".

My German friend, to whom the book "In Other Words" belongs, had never heard of the word "Drachenfutter," ... Read More

Rating:

- Fun book, but don't take it very seriously.
Michael, another viewer, wrote: "As someone who has devoted much of his life to learning foreign languages, I am a little bothered by people who try to present other cultures as inscrutable and existing on a different plane from our own." He even tries to state that the Chinese invented democracy and cites a word (sorry, I don't have the book in front of me) that means (more or less) the rule of a king who cares for his people. A benevolent dictator is a far cry from the idea of democracy as invented by the ancient Greeks, which is also a far cry from what we mean by the term today in the USA. And "democracy" could have been one of his words at one point. After all, we borrowed it from Greek, as have many other languages. So attributing the idea to the ancient Chinese may or may not be correct. And since it took off not with the Chinese but with the Greeks, who can claim ownership? I mean, the Vikings got to the new world ... Read More

Rating:

- A feast of insights
This is a wonderfully enriching collection of juicy words from cultures around the world. The author is to be commended for the breadth of his trolling in the waters of many nations to bring together this feast of insights - into national and cultural diversities, humor, pathos, and creativity, suggesting aspects of the human condition that we may have overlooked, and enhancing our appreciation of life in its infinite variations.

Here are but a few of the many new terms I learned:

Drachenfutter [drach-ern-foot-er] (noun) Meaning the "dragon fodder," this is the offering German husbands make to their wives-breathing raging fire at the cave entrance-when they've stayed out late or they have otherwise engaged in some kind of inappropriate behavior. A nice box of chocolates, or some flowers perhaps to mask the beer fumes. (German; p. 27)

ilunga [ee-lun-ga] (noun) This word from the Tshiluba language ... Read More

Rating:

- A veritable buffet for logophiles
Believe me, I really wanted to give this book five stars. It is five-star quality in almost every respect. The only reason I didn't is, IMO, it gives unduly short shrift to Spanish. And of the handful or so Spanish words that are included, at least three are characteristic of Spain. It seems to me the author missed a great opportunity to introduce readers to the multifaceted Spanish of Latin America. I for one would have loved to see the word "carteluo" in there, since I have yet to find a satisfactory definition/description anywhere else. Yet try as I might to identify other shortcomings, that is the only criticism I have of this book.

Moore somehow manages to make up for all the deserving words that didn't make it. He shows particular deference to German and French, and I absolutely reveled in his selections from the lengua franca of the Deutschelanders. Surely my auto insurer wouldn't mind being introduced to a geisterfahrer ... Read More

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