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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You may have heard of “Aloha” as the Hawaiian word for “hello”, maybe even as both hello and goodbye- and it is used that way. Direct translation of ‘Aloha’ is the presence (alo) of breath (ha). But it also means care, and respect, and a general good attitude. You can have aloha toward a person- to show a tourist aloha when they are lost- and toward the land- aloha aina- to love and protect the land.
Words are sounds meant to convey a concept and concepts are cultural. Direct translations don’t provide the cultural context needed to understand why a specific word is used in some situations but not others.
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