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June 3, 2016

Strange But True!

Q. Drawing on some practically untranslatable words from the world's languages, what are a few that might be welcome additions to English?

A. Let's start with the Yiddish word “kvell,” meaning “to glow with pride and happiness at the success of others (often family members),” says Steve Mirsky in Scientific American magazine, citing psychologist Tim Lomas's cross-cultural linguistics study for the Journal of Positive Psychology. Other languages lack a single word to express this idea.


 
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