Newley Purnell

Here’s a fabulous collection of unusual words from foreign languages.

Two to add: In Spanish (at least in Ecuador), the word for hangover is the Quechua-inspired chuchaqui. I always thought it sounded more like what a hangover feels like — it’s more guttural.

I don’t know how to say it, but in Mandarin Chinese, my Taiwanese students used to say that someone with ugly or smelly feet had Hong Kong feet. As in, “teacher, you have Hong Kong feet!”

(Via Kottke.)