Yet more angst of lack of words for X

Tue Aug 19 20:30:04 UTC 2014

A student of mine recently pointed out that 'lols/lulz' could be understood as a very close translation of Schadenfreude. 

Geoffrey S. Nathan 
Faculty Liaison, C&IT 
and Professor, Linguistics Program 
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/ 
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT) 

Nobody at Wayne State will EVER ask you for your password. Never send it to anyone in an email, no matter how authentic the email looks. 

----- Original Message -----

> From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2014 4:06:30 PM
> Subject: Re: Yet more angst of lack of words for X

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Yet more angst of lack of words for X
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> On Aug 19, 2014, at 3:37 PM, victor steinbok wrote:

> > This one a bit more reasonable than most -- almost contrarian to
> > "conventional wisdom".
> >=20
> > http://goo.gl/X5jRD4
> >=20
> > The punchline should be revealing:
> >=20
> >> I'm still looking for one more ... a word for the mistaken belief
> >> =
> that
> > there is no English equivalent for a non-English word, such as
> > Schadenfreude, which many people believe doesn't translate, but
> > which =
> of
> > course simply means epicaricacy. Suggestions welcome.
> >=20

> "Epicaricacy", a new one on me, does show up via Googling with the =
> relevant gloss, but isn't in the OED, and dictionary.com thought I
> must =
> have meant "epicranium".

> LH

> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org