Re: You have a word for it?

nicole dobrowolski did write, quoting Elliot Belser:
> > I'd
> > like to know what cool untranslatable words are in your languages.
A few words that can't be translated with single words:
Vazia: To act out of rage
Uaavaava: The Agony; a phase all males of their species go thru in
    adolescence.  Most of the major changes of boy -> man compressed
    into a few weeks.  A dangerous period.  In the Classical period,
    almost one out of every six boys failed to survive it.  In later
    times, advanced medical care and the like brought the death rate
    down to around 5%, and the wealthiest, who could afford treatment
    for complications, had a death rate of around 0.7%  This word is
    related to uagava "agony, severe pain".
Zaldi: To do something for the sake of honor
Kapi: To beat to death
Tasiuin: To become a martyr OR to sacrifice oneself heroically (lit: to
    die for a good purpose)
Tlad'iuin: _Tasiuin_ from another perspective.  :-)  To sacrifice
    oneself for an evil purpose.  For example, most people would
    consider the people who attacked the WTC to have done _tlad'iuin_,
    but al-Qaeda would consider them to have done _tasiuin_ :-)  Lit.
    means "To die for an evil purpose"
These are examples of the prefixes tas- "for a good purpose" and
    tlad'i/tladai- "for an evil purpose"
Klaf: Be (X = Y)
Ianas: Be (X is an example of Y)
Safi: Give birth, be born, emerge from the pouch for the first time,
    give birth, lay an egg, be laid [of an egg], hatch, plant a seed, be
    planted, emerge from a seed, etc.
Likangli: To have intercourse with the intention of pregnancy; lit. "to
    make a child" (an example of the non-productive use of "gli",
    "create, make" used as a suffix)
Guadi: To have intercourse with contraceptives; there is no term for
    "have intercourse without contraceptives but without specifically
    intending to become pregnant"; guadi would probably be used in that
    case.  The Kassi's species is very fertile, so there's a very high
    chance of pregnancy if contraceptives aren't used)
Guguadi: Roughly equivalent to "to fornicate", "to commit perversion";
    specifically, "have intercourse outside of the accepted mating
    season"
Safai: To come into existence
Uasubanna: The Universe, the Cosmos, the Void, the pre-Creation chaos,
    the place where the unrighteous are cast to perish
Uabiila: Night sky (as opposed to uabiikadis, which can mean either
    "sky" in the generic or "day sky")
Pasga: To declare one's intentions (and the related noun Pipasgala)
Lau: To eat or drink in a social setting
Kafti: To eat or drink in a non-social setting
Tiai; Kuilitiai: To have faith in (as opposed to simply "believe" which
    is kuili)
Uanistukka, Uatisnani, Uazuniisa: All mean "family".  Uanistukka is the
    broadest, it refers to anyone who is known to have a relation to
    oneself.  Uatisnani refers to those who are descended from a common
    ancestress, usually 4-5 generations back, and Uazuniisa refers to
    those of a common ancestress and being members of the same House, I
    sometimes translate it as "lineage"
Sunistuu: A person of the same village as oneself.
Fakil: Go, of inanimate objects
Vulii: Go, in a non-social context
Kantus: Go alone, but of importance to the social group
Zaba: Go, in a social context
Uasani: House; refers to a group that is somewhere between an extended
    family and a clan.  Houses are normally founded by sisters (but
    sometimes by unrelated people), and daughters normally stay in the
    House of their birth.  Most houses are dozens of generations old.
Uanistukka: Obligations which come from kinship
Uatasklaa: Something which is inconvenient, but actually a good thing,
    e.g., having to wait in a lengthy line to donate blood.  An
    inconvenience, but actually good because that means many people are
    doing so.  (The word was actually inspired by that very experience
    shortly after 9/11)
Uabiitani: An inhabited place
Uabiibiu: An uninhabited place (no generic word for "place")
Ualii, Ualiibita: Ritual, more or less, but has none of the connotations
    of emptiness or mere repetition of the English, and may, in some
    circumstances, refer to a newly created ceremony, even if it's only
    intended for a single use.
Mangada: Save from destruction
Maada: Save from harm
Uasianassa: Eerie silence
Klusi: Stab to death
Uanakatu: Time (abstract)
Uiaza: Time (period)
Uinii: Time (point)
Nipali: Travel over water
Pidiala: State of being unaffected by something
Kuaa-/Kuag-: Prefix indicating "without a specific purpose; randomly;
    aimlessly"
Supiasunga: A young child, acquiring language

Then, of course, there's a number of words for various kinds of animals
and plants native to their world

Incidentally, in the case of _kapi_ and _klusi_ the -i there is a
vestige of a once-productive suffix meaning "to do something to the
point of completion", that is, to do an action to its logical end (for
example, chase -> capture, look for -> find).  For some reason, it's
mostly preserved in violent verbs such as these in which case it means
"to the point of death"

--
"There's no such thing as 'cool'.  Everyone's just a big dork or nerd,
you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
overheard
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