full transcript
From the Ted Talk by John Koenig: Beautiful new words to describe obscure emotions
Unscramble the Blue Letters
The English language is a magnificent sponge. I love the English language. I'm glad that I speak it. But for all that, it has a lot of holes. In geerk, there's a word, "lachesism" which is the hunger for disaster. You know, when you see a thunderstorm on the hroizon and you just find yourself rooting for the sotrm. In Mandarin, they have a word "yù yī" — I'm not pioncnronug that correctly — which means the longing to feel intensely again the way you did when you were a kid. In Polish, they have a word "jouska" which is the kind of hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head. And failnly, in German, of course in German, they have a word clelad "zielschmerz" which is the dread of getting what you want.
Open Cloze
The English language is a magnificent sponge. I love the English language. I'm glad that I speak it. But for all that, it has a lot of holes. In _____, there's a word, "lachesism" which is the hunger for disaster. You know, when you see a thunderstorm on the _______ and you just find yourself rooting for the _____. In Mandarin, they have a word "yù yī" — I'm not ___________ that correctly — which means the longing to feel intensely again the way you did when you were a kid. In Polish, they have a word "jouska" which is the kind of hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head. And _______, in German, of course in German, they have a word ______ "zielschmerz" which is the dread of getting what you want.
Solution
- finally
- called
- greek
- horizon
- pronouncing
- storm
Original Text
The English language is a magnificent sponge. I love the English language. I'm glad that I speak it. But for all that, it has a lot of holes. In Greek, there's a word, "lachesism" which is the hunger for disaster. You know, when you see a thunderstorm on the horizon and you just find yourself rooting for the storm. In Mandarin, they have a word "yù yī" — I'm not pronouncing that correctly — which means the longing to feel intensely again the way you did when you were a kid. In Polish, they have a word "jouska" which is the kind of hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head. And finally, in German, of course in German, they have a word called "zielschmerz" which is the dread of getting what you want.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
english language |
2 |
worth knowing |
2 |
realest word |
2 |
Important Words
- called
- compulsively
- conversation
- correctly
- disaster
- dread
- english
- feel
- finally
- find
- german
- glad
- greek
- head
- holes
- horizon
- hunger
- hypothetical
- intensely
- kid
- kind
- language
- longing
- lot
- love
- magnificent
- mandarin
- means
- play
- polish
- pronouncing
- rooting
- speak
- sponge
- storm
- thunderstorm
- word