Love Languages

Love - be it unrequited, mutual, dangerous, or beautiful - seems a constant in pop music, poetry, and literature. Our language has plenty of words to accommodate this powerful emotion - Old German roots lend us love, fondness, and friendship. From Latin loans come the A series: adoration, amity, affection, appreciation. Over the years, poets and playwrights have exhausted this arsenal - there are only so many ways to wax on love, be it fondness, devotion or desire. It’s time we update our language, and what better way to do so than plagiarism? Here are some lovely words from other languages to thoroughly confuse the recipient of your future letters.

Perhaps the most famous foreign phrase for love is the Portuguese Saudade, a state of melancholic longing for a now-absent person. You can find this emotion when reliving fond memories of lost loved ones and yearning for their return. In a way, the word reflects Portuguese culture and history. The Portuguese empire once spanned half the globe, and the great distance between colonies led to voyages that separated sailors and their wives, giving rise to this emotion. The frequent use of Saudade (especially in Brazilian texts) makes it a uniquely Lusophone phenomenon.

When a romantic word becomes your language’s most famous, it's probably  something special. The Yahgan language of Tierra del Fuego contains a sixteen-letter word that won a Guinness world record for Most Succinct: Mamihlapinatapai - the understanding look given between two people sharing an intimate moment. Following the death of its last native speaker in 2022, this lengthy yet concise phrase may be Yahgan’s legacy.

It’s not just romantic love that foreign words can supplement. Speakers of the Philippines' Tagalog language have a perfect word for that irrepressible joy you feel when seeing something cute - gigil. You can find gigil in plenty of places - the huge eyes of a puppy, the waddle of a baby penguin, or the carefree rolling of a panda. Personally, I find it in an hour-long video of a seal spinning, but to each their own.

The Arabic language has a less effervescent but more fiercely romantic phrase: Ya'aburnee, which means "You bury me". It conveys the message that you would rather die than live without the person you love. Though intense, it makes for an effective way to express your passion. The feminine version of this phrase is Ta'aburnee.

Let’s end with a phrase that goes beyond love - one that can refer to most anything in life.  The Japanese Wabi-Sabi is at once an art movement, worldview, and romantic phrase. Wabi-Sabi is accepting and even celebrating flaws in nature and humanity. The concept evolved from Buddhist philosophy in the 15th century and has influenced architecture and art throughout the country.