The Meaning of Tingo and Other Extraordinary Words from around the World

The countless language freaks who've worn out their copies of Eats, Shoots and Leaves will find inexhaustible distraction in The Meaning of Tingo. Where else will they discover that Bolivians have a word that means "I was rather too drunk last night and it's all their fault"? As for tingo, on Easter Island it means "to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by borrowing them." Organized by themes such as food, the human body, and sex and love, this irresistible book combs through more than 254 languages in search of those gorgeous oddities that have no direct English counterpart--words so strange and apt that if they didn't exist, they would have to be invented.

Highlights from The Meaning of Tingo:
mencomet (Indonesian): stealing things of small value such as food or drinks, partly for fun
scheissbedauern (German): the disappointment one feels when something turns out not nearly as badly as one had hoped
mono-no-aware (Japanese): appreciating the sadness of existence
mahj (Persian): looking beautiful after disease
plimpplamppletteren (Dutch): the skimming of a flat stone as many times as possible across the surface of the water
koshatnik (Russian): a dealer in stolen cats
ava (Tahitian): wife (but also means whisky)