The Meaning of Tingo : And Other Extraordinary Words From Around the World

Amazon.com Review What began as a fortuitous discovery, when BBC researcher Adam Jacot de Boinod noticed that an Albanian dictionary contained 27 different words each for eyebrows and mustache, has become, after his obsessive 18-month journey through hundreds of foreign dictionaries, a very funny and genuinely informative guide to the world's strangest--and most useful--words. There are many books out there that invent, Sniglets-style, the words that the English language doesn't have but needs. What The Meaning of Tingo shows is that, like natural cures waiting to be found in the plants of the rainforest, many of the words already exist, in the languages of the world's other cultures. Who couldn't find a use for "neko-neko," an Indonesian word for "one who has a creative idea which only makes things worse," or "skeinkjari," a term from the Faroe Islands for "the man who goes among wedding guests offering them alcohol"? Some words that Jacot de Boinod has found are bizarre--"koro," the "hysterical belief that one's penis is shrinking into one's body" in Japanese--while others are surprisingly affecting, like the Inuit word "iktsuarpok," which means "to go outside often to see if someone is coming." And then there's "tingo" itself, from the Pascuense language of Easter Island: "to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by borrowing them." Nearly any page you open to in The Meaning of Tingo pays hilarious tribute to the inventive genius of the world's peoples. Like Eat, Shoots & Leaves and Schott's Miscellany , with which it shares a quirky British charm and a gift-friendly look and size, The Meaning of Tingo is a UK bestseller that by all rights should become equally popular in the States. --Tom Nissley The Man Who Swallowed 200 Dictionaries There is no word (that we know of) to describe someone who spends a year and half of their life poring through a library's worth of dictionaries in hundreds of languages, but that's exactly what Adam Jacot de Boinod did after a chance encounter with a heavy Albanian dictionary. Listen to our The Meaning of Tingo Language Learning Lab Adam Jacot de Boinod has chosen a handful of his own favorite words from The Meaning of Tingo Click nakhur , Persian a camel that won't give milk until her nostrils are tickled areodjarekput , Inuit to exchange wives for a few days only marilopotes , ancient Greek a gulper of coaldust ilunga , Tshiluba, Congo someone who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time cigerci , Turkish a seller of liver and lungs seigneur-terrasse , French a person who spends much time but little money in a cafe (literally: a terrace lord) Torschlusspanik , German the fear of diminishing opportunities as one gets older (literally: gate-closing panic; often applied to women worried about being too old to have children.) pana po'o , Hawaiian to scratch your head in order to remember something waterponie , Afrikaans jet ski Review At last we know those Eskimo words for snow and how the Dutch render the sound of Rice Krispies. Adam Jacot de Boinod has produced an absolutely delicious little book. -- _Stephen Fry, author of _Ode Less Traveled A divine gift for the word-obsessed—a deliciously eccentric world tour of words that have no English equivalentThe countless language freaks who've worn out their copies of Eats, Shoots and Leaves will find inexhaustible distraction in The Meaning of Tingo. Where else will they discover that Bolivians have a word that means "I was rather too drunk last night and it's all their fault"? As for tingo, on Easter Island it means "to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by borrowing them." Organized by themes such as food, the human body, and sex and love, this irresistible book combs through more than 254 languages in search of those gorgeous oddities that have no direct English counterpart—words so strange and apt that if they didn't exist, they would have to be invented.Highlights from The Meaning of Tingo:• mencomet (Indonesian): stealing things of small value such as food or drinks, partly for fun• scheissbedauern (German): the disappointment one feels when something turns out not nearly as badly as one had hoped• mono-no-aware (Japanese): appreciating the sadness of existence• mahj (Persian): looking beautiful after disease• plimpplamppletteren (Dutch): the skimming of a flat stone as many times as possible across the surface of the water• koshatnik (Russian): a dealer in stolen cats• ava (Tahitian): wife (but also means whisky) Did you know that in Hungary, pigs go rof-rof-rof, but in Japan they go boo boo boo? That there's apparently the need in Bolivia for a word that means'I was rather too drunk last night but it was all their fault'? Adam Jacot de Boinod's book on extraordinary words from around the world will give you the definitions and phrases you need to make friends in every culture. A true writer's resource and the perfect gift for linguists, librarians, logophiles, and international jet-setters.While there's no guarantee you'll never pana po'o again (Hawaiian for'scratch your head in order to help you remember something you've forgotten'), or mingmu (Chinese for'die without regret'), at least you'll know what tingo means, and that's a start. “A book no well-stocked bookshelf, cistern top or handbag should be without. At last we know those Eskimo words for snow and how the Dutch render the sound of Rice Krispies. Adam Jacot de Boinod has produced an absolutely delicious little book: It goes Pif! Paf! Pouf! Cric! Crac! Croc! and Knisper! Knasper! Knusper! on every page.”—Stephen Fry A garden of delights for the word obsessed: a world tour of the best of all those strange words that don't have a precise English equivalent, the ones that tell us so much about other cultures' priorities and preoccupations and expand our minds. Did you know that people in Bolivia have a word that means "I was rather too drunk last night and it's all their fault"? This collection of trivia from more than 254 languages also includes a frank discussion of exactly how many Eskimo words there are for snow. So, what in fact is "tingo"? In the Pascuense language of Easter Island, it's to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by asking to borrow them. Well, of course it is.--From publisher description A whimsical linguistic tour of foreign words and phrases that do not have precise English-language equivalents includes such entries as the world's longest-known palindrome, the Dutch rendering of the sound of Rice Krispies cereal, and the Bolivian word that means, "I was rather too drunk last night and it's all their fault." Reprint. 40,000 first printing. A garden of delights for the word obsessed, this book is a funny, amazing, and even profound world tour of the best of all those strange words that don't have a precise English equivalent, the ones that tell so much about other cultures' priorities and preoccupations