3 Words English Needs to Adopt Right Now

I was going through my recent blog posts the other day and realized I haven’t done a language piece in a while. Well, I hope you are ready for some fun because I came across an article that made me laugh till I cried the other day.

 

Ever been in a situation where you know exactly what you are feeling and want to say but somehow the words escape you? In my opinion, people who speak another language in addition to English, have a slight advantage in a situation like this. Reverting to precise words in a language you are intimately familiar with can save the day. At least for you, that is.

English has survived the Viking invasion and  the Norman conquest, both of which left the language with many words that we use today and do not even think twice about their origin. For example, words like sky, egg and window come from Old Norse and castle, parliament and banquet have entered the English language from French. And while English is a rich language and adapts quickly to novelties, it has a few drawbacks in terms of specific vocabulary, which we could really use in our every day lives today. The original article by Dominik Zezula lists 8 words that English would benefit from, and if you are interested, the link to it is here.  But for the sake of saving space and time, I am listing only three. The three that, in my opinion, were the best from that list.

#1 Tartle (Scottish)

Definition: to hesitate in recognizing a person or thing, as happens when you are introduced to someone whose name you cannot recall; so you say, “Pardon my tartle!” 

I don’t know how about you, but this happens to me a lot lately. Must be the age. Or too much information housed in my brain. You see someone you haven’t seen in a while. You carry a conversation with them for the longest time and the whole time you rack your brain for their name, just so you can introduce him/her if, god forbid, someone approaches you two at the party; or pray that a mutual friend shows up to save the day. I distinctly recall a situation quite recently where my neighbor and her boyfriend came over and I was about to introduce the boyfriend to someone when I froze. I’ve known the guy for a while, he’s a friend, a boyfriend of my friend, I mean, seriously? Yep, I introduced him as Steve, because that was the first name that came to my mind. He looked at me in disbelief, and frankly, hurt, and I had to live with my tartle for the rest of the night. Still do, every time I see him.

#2 Farpotshket (Yiddish)

Definition: Completely ruined because you tried to fix it.

Farpotshket is the middle name of our household. Numerous attempts to improve furniture or appliances have ended in complete disasters many a time. One particular example comes to my mind. My youngest boy has an inclination to fix things but since nobody else shares that same passion in the house, the poor kid has to learn through his own mistakes. A big fan of his bikes, he recently took a critical look at this mode of transportation that is essential to his survival in the summertime, and decided that since the wheel on one bike does not function as well as it should, he can take off all the wheels from both bikes and switch them. That way the bike with the new set of wheels will be faster/more maneuverable/more functional. Needless to say, we now have two broken bikes. Because while the idea seemed like a great one, no one has the right screws to finish it up. This one’s really a farpotshket!

#3 En Yaourt (French)

Definition: When you try to speak or sing a foreign language that you’re not very good at, so you substitute words or lyrics you don’t know or mishear with familiar ones. 

It is hard even for native speakers of English to figure out some of the lyrics of the songs, never mind if you are attempting a song in a foreign language. The most recent example of en yaourt was this past summer, when Justin Timberlake’s hit song Can’t Stop This Feeling became a topic of hot debate between myself and my kids. I was a bit hesitant to acknowledge to them that I heard “balls” instead of “bones” but I finally gave in and expressed my indignation at the morality police that allowed such songs without bleeping certain parts on the radio. The roar of laughter that ensued after my rather innocent remark left no doubt to me that I had gravely misheard the lyrics. The song has been scarred, so to speak. To this day, every time it comes on the radio, I hear the fun version, and my kids enunciate the word bones to make sure it is clean.

And on a final note, I think probably the best example of en yaourt is Ken Lee. Who/what the heck is Ken Lee?  After you watch this video where a woman decided to “sing” a Mariah Carey song the way she heard it, you will totally get it. 

Been there, done that. All through my English learning childhood.

Have you ever experienced a tartle?

How about a farpotschket?

I am almost certain, you have a story with en yaourt, but still – what was it?

Really looking forward to your comments!