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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It’s not just the words themselves, it’s your lifetime of experience with them that gives them extra meaning.
If I say “winter wonderland” to an American they will likely think of Christmas and Santa and candy canes.
But if you translate it to someone living in the southern hemisphere, they’ll hear you talking about a snowy landscape and say “ah, yes, I get it” but their understanding would lack those extra cultural memories.
That’s an obvious example but it works on nearly every word to a small degree.
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