9 Foreign Words We Really Need to Start Using

Kummerspeck, and other great options
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 3, 2012 4:20 PM CST
9 Foreign Words We Really Need to Start Using
Kummerspeck: grief bacon.   (©Symic)

The German language is officially richer, thanks to its adoption of the English word "shitstorm." Now that we've given, it's time to take: Cracked argues that the English language is in desperate need of these nine foreign words, for which there is absolutely no English equivalent:

  • Kummerspeck: Kicking things off with a word from our German friends, this literally means "grief bacon," or, in Cracked's translation, the extra pounds we pack on thanks to emotional eating.

  • Iktsuarpok: An Inuit word whose meaning is both depressing and relatable—to go outside again and again and again to check if the person you're expecting has arrived. Very applicable to the FedEx guy, the cable guy, Santa Claus.
  • Pochemuchka: What does this mean? Where is it from? Can I start using it? It's Russian, and means a person who asks too many questions.
  • Pilkunnussija: This Finnish word doesn't translate in a very PG manner—it apparently means comma f**ker, or, as Cracked more softly translates, grammar Nazi. You know, the people who make it their mission to strike errant apostrophes whenever possible.
Click for the entire list, which includes another term related to eating way too much. (More language stories.)

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