“Toujours Tingo” (Adam Jacot de Boinod)
Oooh, sounds fun. Nothing like working in bizarre phrases into conversation
Toujours Tingo, a book by Adam Jacot de Boinod, lists weird words and bizarre phrases from around the world. The “tingo” of its title is an Easter Island word, meaning to borrow objects from a friend’s house one by one until there are none left.
some faves:
Layogenic: Filipino for someone good-looking from afar but ugly up close.
Mouton enragé : French for someone calm who loses their temper – literally, “an enraged sheep”.
Fensterln: German for climbing through a window to avoid someone’s parents so you can have sex without them knowing.
Stroitel: Russian for a man who likes to have sex with two women at the same time.
Okuri-okami: Japanese for a man who feigns thoughtfulness by offering to see a girl home only to try to molest her once he gets in the door – literally, a “see-you-home wolf
Les avoir a zero: French for “to have one’s testicles down to zero”, or be frightened.
Du kannst mir gern den buckel runterrutschen und mit der zunge bremsen: Austrian for “go to hell” – literally “You can slide down my hunchback using your tongue as a brake”.
[Continue reading Toujours Tingo: Weird words and bizarre phrases – Telegraph]
Perfect for the language maven on your Xmas list…
Dear Sir
Thank you for writing about my Tingo Books on foreign words.
I wondered if you might like a mutual link to my English word website or press release details of my ensuing book with Penguin Press on amusing and interesting English vocabulary?
http://www.thewonderofwhiffling.com
with best wishes
Adam Jacot de Boinod
(author of The Meaning of Tingo)
(www.themeaningoftingo.com)
[email removed by site editor]
or wish to include:
The Wonder of Whiffling is a tour of English around the globe (with fine
coinages from our English-speaking cousins across the pond, Down Under
and elsewhere).
Discover all sorts of words you’ve always wished existed but never knew,
such as fornale, to spend one’s money before it has been earned; cagg, a solemn vow or resolution not to get drunk for a certain time; and
petrichor, the pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a
dry spell.
Delving passionately into the English language, I also discover why it
is you wouldn’t want to have dinner with a vice admiral of the narrow
seas, why Jacobites toasted the little gentleman in black velvet, and
why a Nottingham Goodnight is better than one from anywhere else. See
more on http://www.thewonderofwhiffling.com
with best wishes
Adam