What are some Japanese words that convey complex emotions with no English equivalent?

19 comments

1. 別腹 (べつばら) – you’re full but you have space for dessert

2. The one’s that come to mind off the top of my head here are a few.

   * 生き甲斐 (いきがい）- Reason for living / Living with a reason to live
   * 侘び寂び (わびさび) – Wabisabi
   * うま味 (うまみ) – “Richness of Flavor”
   * 猫舌 (ねこじた) – Literally “Cats Tongue”, meaning aversion to physically hot or spicy foods.
   * 口寂しい（くちさびしい）Literally “Lonely Mouth”, but means eating food even when your not hungry.
   * 積読（つんどく) – Buying a bunch of books, but then never actually reading them, Kanji for “gather” and “books”. Sometimes changed up for other items.

3. お疲れ様　not a word, but what do you think about it?

4. I always felt that ~てしまう has no English equivalent

5. 苦手. We have ways of expressing its various meanings, but I feel like it kinda occupies a space that no single English word or phrase perfectly encapsulates

6. 便意 – the need to poop

7. – 〜てしまった　like 電車に財布を忘れてしまった。like, oh no I forgot my wallet on the train

   – めんどくさい　I guess there are English equivalent like “pain is the neck”, or “too much of a hassle”, but I feel like めんどくさい is so convenient to say

   – もったいない　This might be a classic one

   – なつかしい means nostalgic but I feel like it’s slightly different than that.

   – もらい泣き means crying because you saw someone else crying. I don’t think I’ve heard this in English?

8. No English equivalent in a single word or completely indescribable?

   But anyway, 【刹那】, which can be roughly translated to “fleeting moment”. Always loved the concept of that vocab and I find it really beautiful. Melancholic, even.

9. Do 萌え and ヤバい count? lol. Not sure if you’re looking for interesting compound words, but some fairly pedestrian ones that come to mind that are hard to translate with a single word are 悔しい, もったいない, もやもや, and probably a ton of other 擬音語

   Not feelings, but some personal favorites are 木漏れ日, and 積ん読

10. トイレが近い – “the toilet is close”

    Used to mean you are peeing or pooing a lot, like if you’re sick or have diarrhea or something. It’s a nice neutral phrase that doesn’t really have a polite English equivalent.

11. I like the Japanese word マシ.

    In Japanese, it means ‘better,’ but the term ‘マシ’ can carry a nuanced meaning of ‘both options are undesirable, but if I have to choose, this one is slightly better.’

    It implies a situation where you have limited or unfavorable choices, but one option is still somewhat better than the other, even though neither is ideal.

12. 幽玄 （ゆうげん）

    Yūgen is a sense not to enjoy the superficial beauty of an object, which is in front of our eyes but to enhance the beauty more impressive by imagining its latent beauty. For example, we think a flower is beautiful when we see it. This beauty is the superficial beauty. The flower has a past of withstanding wind, rain, and snow until now, and will someday wither, however beautiful it is now. Although the beautiful flower itself impresses us, the beauty will be more impressive than the superficial beauty, when we can imagine its past and future.

    But when translated it means “mysterious profundity”

    I think many words with deeply rooted historical contexts would fit the criteria of the question.

13. 染み染み・しみじみ
    The English explanation is it refers to being touched or moved in a way that is introspective/reflective. Can refer to a quiet and thoughtful observational moment where you appreciate and understand something or someone.

    Example: Your power goes out and you realize the difference between what you can do when you have electricity available and when you don’t, and how that might impact your life if you never had it.

    I find this one to be particularly difficult to translate let alone have any equivalent.

    尊い・とうとい can be difficult to describe too, it is translated as being “precious” in English but doesn’t fit the situations that it gets used in. “Wholesome” comes to mind but misses the mark.

    Maybe there’s some easy go-to 四字熟語 like:
    罵詈雑言・ばりぞうごん　- abusive language and stream of insults
    阿鼻叫喚・あびきょうかん – agonizing cries from many people from like a field of war or some other situation

14. Not really emotions but I love the set phrases especially お疲れ様です and よろしくお願いします. I wish we had words or phrases like this in English. I find myself wanting to say them even to people who don’t speak Japanese bc nothing quite compares 😭😭

15. We have a great word for schadenfreude in English. It’s “schadenfreude.” Or if that one doesn’t do it for you you could also call it “satisfaction in the misfortune of others.”

16. not an emotion but I’m pretty sure english doesn’t have a word for this. prove me wrong I guess if there is one that’s actually used. 閂 (かんぬき) is the word

17. 幸せ　しあわせ, is a kind of eternal happiness, a feeling of contentment beyond your typical happiness that comes from deep love and friendship, or knowing you’ve lived a good life. It was so sweet using it used in the Japanese version of the Giving Tree.

18. No emotions but love this description
    Zettai ryōiki (Japanese: 絶対領域, lit. ’absolute territory’) refers to the area of bare skin in the gap between overknee socks and a skirt  or shorts.

19. You must be referring to no equivalent English word since it is unlikely that a foreign word cannot be translated to English (or in any other language for that matter) no matter how verbose or impractical it is.