What does it mean when people say there’s no proper translation from a non-English word to English?

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You see it quite often when someone will say ‘there’s a word for that…there’s no direct translation but it’s loosely like…’ then proceeds to give it a translation.

I saw one recently of kummerspeck, I think the commenter said it was ‘food you eat when you’re sad’ or ‘grief bacon’.

I would also like to preemptively apologise for my ignorance.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I just figured I’d like to add two things, though the titular question has already been answered!

First being – if you have the opportunity to do so, please try learning another language! It really is an avenue into seeing the world in a different way. Pretty much all languages evolved mostly organically, and they reflect a worldview and way of thinking that can be so very different than the world we grew up with.

The other is that – for those of us who have these ‘words/expressions that don’t exist in English/whatever-I’m-speaking-now’, it can actually be frustrating, because it places a limitation on our ability to convey the feeling or emotion to the other person.

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