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

  1. finally
  2. called
  3. greek
  4. horizon
  5. pronouncing
  6. 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

  1. called
  2. compulsively
  3. conversation
  4. correctly
  5. disaster
  6. dread
  7. english
  8. feel
  9. finally
  10. find
  11. german
  12. glad
  13. greek
  14. head
  15. holes
  16. horizon
  17. hunger
  18. hypothetical
  19. intensely
  20. kid
  21. kind
  22. language
  23. longing
  24. lot
  25. love
  26. magnificent
  27. mandarin
  28. means
  29. play
  30. polish
  31. pronouncing
  32. rooting
  33. speak
  34. sponge
  35. storm
  36. thunderstorm
  37. word