signs as untranslatable foreign words
Aries: Schadenfreude. German – the feeling of pleasure derived by seeing another’s misfortune.
Taurus: Cafuné. Brazilian Portuguese – The act of tenderly running one’s fingers through someone’s hair.
Gemini: Verschlimmbessern. German – to make something worse when trying to improve it.
Cancer: Mamihlapinatapei. Yagan/Tierra del Fuego – The wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start.
Leo: Kjæreste. Norwegian – A gender neutral term for girlfriend or boyfriend. It literally translates as “dearest”.
Virgo: Wabi-Sabi. Japanese – “a way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay.”
Libra: L’ésprit d’escalier. French – is the feeling of finding the perfect retort too late, though it literally translates to “staircase wit.
Scorpio: La douleur exquise. French – the exquisite pain that comes from loving someone who will never love you back.
Sagittarius: Fremdscham. German – Embarrassment you feel on behalf of someone who is too dumb to know they’ve done something they should be embarrassed by.
Capricorn: Geborgenheit. German – the feeling that, when with a certain person or in a certain place, that nothing could ever harm you.
Aquarius: Koev halev. Hebrew – Empathizing with someone else so deeply that it causes your heart to ache.
Pisces: Goya. Urdu – the transporting suspension of disbelief that can occur in a good storytelling.
