This is a book full of interesting concepts that can be expressed in other languages using a single word but which we don’t have a word for in English. It’s a really good browsey type of a read.

It was first published in 1988 and includes a few words that I’ve learnt since then but I’m not sure how unusual they were in English in 1988. Schadenfreude was one of the words that I recognised.

My favourite so far is the Swedish word uffda which is to “ouch!” what “bless you!” is to sneezing. Much better than “oooh, that sounded like it hurt!” isn’t it?