4 Incredible Words with No English Equivalent: What Is Grief-Bacon? | Kory Stamper | Big Think

[Music] All right, so uh, one of the things you need to be lexicographer is uh, something called Shaka fuel, which is a word we stole into German, and it means a feeling for language. SOA fuel is the thing that tells you, for instance, that uh, the sentence "the cat are Ying" is grammatically wrong, but "the crowd are loving it" is just very British.

Sopra fuel is a great word because the Germans have—Germans have words for everything. Um, and one of—and so we stole Shaka fuel in with all a bunch of other German words that also describe these things that it's just great to have one word for.

So one word that German has that uh describes this great, great thing we don’t necessarily have a word for in English—the German word is kek, and it refers—it's a word sort of for flab, like the weight that you gain. But the words literally mean grief bacon in German, and so grief bacon is the sadness you feel at having all this flab.

So kesek is one. Um, let me think—there's a Danish word, uh, hug I think is how you say it, uh, h-y-g-g, which refers to the coziness of home. Uh, we don’t have that in English, but it's h, is also this very broad cultural phenomenon.

So hand-knit socks are hug, and fireplaces are hug. Um, oh, um, so another word is—it’s a Finnish word, uh, from Finland, and it’s sissu. Sissu is, uh, sort of generally refers to determination, but determination doesn’t quite capture it. It’s a spirit of determination and, uh, sort of quiet.

Uh, sissu is sort of like determination or, uh, the best that I could possibly come up with is piss and vinegar, but in a very quiet and Scandinavian way. So [Music].