The Untranslatable Word

There's that feeling on a rainy Sunday evening when candlelight, thick socks, and a warm drink come together, and the world seems perfectly fine for a moment. The Danes have a word for it: "hygge." There's that elusive longing for something you may have never experienced or may never see again—the Portuguese call it "saudade." And there's that pull towards faraway places that many languages can't quite capture—in German, it's called "Fernweh."

Some feelings only truly seem to exist when a language gives them their own word.

Why Some Feelings Remain Untranslatable

Languages develop words for what a culture experiences frequently enough and needs to name. A people who spent a lot of time at sea develop many words for wind and weather. A culture that thinks a lot about loss and distance develops a word like "saudade." Other languages may also know the same feeling—but not as a single, concise word, only as a cumbersome circumlocution.

This doesn't mean that people without this word don't know the feeling. It just means that they find it harder to grasp, harder to name, and thus harder to consciously perceive.

5 Words for Feelings That Other Languages Barely Know

• Fernweh (German) – the longing for distant places, the opposite of homesickness.
• Saudade (Portuguese) – a melancholic longing for something lost or absent.
• Hygge (Danish) – a feeling of coziness, warmth, and conscious well-being.
• Komorebi (Japanese) – the light that filters through the leaves of trees.
• Utepils (Norwegian) – the beer you drink outdoors as soon as the first warm rays of sun appear in the year.

Why These Words Stand Out to Us When Traveling

Abroad, we encounter not only new places but also new words for states that we were previously never so clearly aware of. You read about "hygge" and suddenly realize that you've often had this feeling without ever being able to name it. You hear "saudade" and recognize in it a mixture of melancholy and tenderness for which your own vocabulary simply has no apt word.

Traveling thus sharpens not only our perception of new places but also our perception of our own, previously unnamed feelings.

What This Reveals About Our Own Language

German also has such words – "Fernweh" is one of the best known, a term that many other languages have simply borrowed because there is no equally precise equivalent. This says something about German travel culture: a deep, almost philosophical longing for distant places, which was apparently so widespread and significant that it deserved its own word.

Can You Only Feel a Feeling Once You Have a Word For It?

Linguistically, it is disputed how strongly language actually shapes thought and feeling. What is certain, however, is that having its own word makes a feeling easier to recognize, easier to communicate, and easier to experience consciously. You don't have to know "saudade" to feel it – but those who know the word will recognize the feeling more quickly when it appears.

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly does "Fernweh" mean?

Fernweh describes the longing for distant places, for unknown places – the conceptual opposite of homesickness, the longing for the familiar home.

Why do some languages have words for feelings that others don't know?

Because languages develop words for what a culture frequently experiences and needs to name. A recurring, culturally significant feeling is more likely to get its own concise word.

Can you feel a feeling without having a word for it?

Yes, the feeling itself exists independently of language. However, having its own word makes it easier to recognize, communicate, and consciously perceive.

A Word as a Souvenir

Perhaps one of the most beautiful souvenirs you can bring back from a trip is not an object at all, but a word – a term from a foreign language that suddenly names a feeling you've known for a long time but could never quite grasp. You just have to use it so it doesn't fade again.