Tingo and Crazy Words for the Face from around the world

November 18, 2007 by dr. lam

I was given a book named Tingo by Emina, my hair-transplant coordinator. For a full name of the book, what Tingo means, and some crazy words about hair, check out my blog on my hair transplant site. Okay, basically, the author of this book, Adam Jacot de Boinod, wrote a book on foreign words that have funny meanings. Let’s explore a few of the ones that relate to the face:

For eyes: makahakahaka (Hawaiian) deep set eyeballs; mata ego (Rapa Nui, Easter Island) eyes that reveal that a person has been crying; ablaq-chashm (Persian) having intensely black and white eyes; jegil (Malay) to stare with bulging eyes; melotot (Indonesian) to stare in annoyance with widened eyes.

For ears: tapawising (Ulwa, Nicaragua) pointed ears, a suentola (Italian) floppy ears; mboboyo (Bemba, Congo and Zambia) sore ears. Also Indonesians have a word for flicking someone’s ear with one’s middle finger (nylentik).

For lips, zunda (Hausa, Nigeria) to indicate with one’s lips; catkhara (Hindi) smacking either the lips or the tongue against the palate; die beleidigte Leberwurst spielen (German) to stick one’s lower lip out sulkily (literally, to play the insulted liver sausage); ho’oauwaepu’u (Hawaiian) to stick the tongue under one’s lip or to jut out the chin and twist the lips to the side to form a lump (as a gesture of contempt).

for the nose: irgham (Persian) rubbing a man’s nose in the dirt; hundekuq (Albanian) a bulbous nose, red at the tip; nuru (Roviana, Solomon Islands) a runny nose; engsang (Malaysian) to blow the nose with your fingers; ufuruk (Turkish) breath exhaled through the nose.

Hope you enjoyed these silly words. Apparently, we have some pretty creative languages out there in the world. Again, if you want to read some examples about hair, visit my hair transplant blog.

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