Curious words

What is "meraki" and why do we need it? 10 words with deep meaning

Image: JACQUELINE BRANDWAYN

Languages often have words uniquely tailored to describe feelings, situations, or objects that would require too many words to explain in English. These bizarrely specific words from around the world give us a glimpse into different ways people interact with the world through language. Here are 10 incredibly specific yet useful examples that may leave you wondering why English doesn’t have them.

Image: CHUTTERSNAP

Meaning: The art of repairing broken pottery with gold or silver lacquer.

That being said, kintsugi is not just a repair technique —it symbolizes the acceptance of flaws and the passage of time.

This method not only enhances the object's true value but also leaves a beautiful testament to its history.

Image: Surface

Meaning: The pleasure derived from someone else’s misfortune.

While not entirely negative, schadenfreude describes the peculiar satisfaction we sometimes feel when others suffer. If you've ever laughed when someone accidentally tripped, you've partaken in schadenfreude.

It’s a complex emotional reaction, most often triggered when no real harm or damage is done to the other person.

Image: Louis Hansel

Meaning: The period of relaxation after a meal when people remain at the table, chatting.

More than just hanging out or lingering after a meal, the sobremesa is a cherished part of social life in both Spain and Latin America.

It’s a time for bonding, reflection, and conversation —without the rush to move on to the next activity.

Image: Mesut Kaya

Meaning: A strong longing or desire to travel to far-off places.

Often translated as "wanderlust," fernweh is a deep, almost painful yearning for distant lands and adventures.

It's distinct from the common desire to travel, as it speaks to a craving for unfamiliarity, exploration, and the discovery of new cultures and landscapes.

Image: bruce mars

Meaning: The act of borrowing things from a friend’s house, one at a time, until there is nothing left.

This unusual word from the native Easter Island language points to an almost comical sense of gradual loss. Tingo suggests a certain slyness, as the borrower systematically takes things until there's nothing left to take.

Image: tabitha turner

Meaning: Doing something with soul, creativity, or love.

Meraki is about putting your heart and soul into what you do.

It could be anything; cooking a meal, creating art, or even cleaning the house, but to count as meraki it must be done with such attention and passion that it becomes an expression of who you are.

Image: Rich Brown

Meaning: The feeling of being out of one’s home country, experiencing unfamiliar surroundings.

While traveling can be exciting, dépaysement captures that disorienting feeling of being "out of place" in a new environment.

It’s not necessarily negative —rather, it’s a mix of confusion and thrill, as one navigates the unknown.

Image: Aidan Smith

Meaning: A deep emotional state of nostalgic longing for something or someone that is absent.

Saudade is often described as a melancholic feeling, but it also carries a sense of love and gratitude for what was once present.

This word is central to the Portuguese and Brazilian cultures, representing a longing for both lost people and moments that can never be recaptured.

Image: NATHAN MULLET

Meaning: A sense of coziness and togetherness, often in a comfortable, intimate setting.

Gezellig describes a feeling that goes beyond simple warmth and coziness as we understand it. It refers to the feeling of being surrounded by loved ones, enjoying simple comforts, or relaxing in the intimacy of your own house.

Image: Prince Patel

Meaning: A profound and mysterious sense of the beauty of the universe.

Yūgen is a word that probes the depths of an experience that’s often beyond words. It’s not about directly experiencing beauty in the world, but rather about intuiting (and enjoying) the fleeting, impermanent nature of the universe.

Missed chronicles

From Ice Age dogs to digital flies: 10 recent stories you probably missed

Between political updates, economic shifts, and the relentless speed of the modern news cycle, it’s incredibly easy for fascinating breakthroughs and heartwarming stories to slip through the cracks. While the world was looking elsewhere, scientists were rewriting history, and everyday heroes were quietly accomplishing the extraordinary. If you need a break from the usual headlines, here are 10 amazing, recent news stories that you probably missed.

For centuries, the Kraken was a terrifying myth spread by sailors. However, a groundbreaking paleontological study published by scientists at Hokkaido University in Japan changed everything. By analyzing well-preserved fossilized jaws from Late Cretaceous sediments, researchers identified a colossal, prehistoric finned octopus species named Nanaimoteuthis haggarti. Scientists estimate this ancient cephalopod reached a staggering length of up to 62 feet, making it the largest invertebrate ever discovered.

Robots are no longer those chunky machines we used to watch in films and TV shows. At the Beijing E-Town Half Marathon, a humanoid robot named "Lightning" shocked sports and tech enthusiasts alike. Competing autonomously alongside 12,000 human runners, Lightning completed the 13.1-mile race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. Not only did it win its category, but it also ran faster than the official human men's half-marathon world record of 57:31. The event was designed to test advanced robotic cooling systems and structural endurance under real-world conditions.

In a huge leap for neuroscience, researchers at Eon Systems—a San Francisco-based neurotechnology startup—successfully built a digital brain emulation of an adult fruit fly. Scientists uploaded this computational brain into a simulated environment called NeuroMechFly v2, thanks to the "FlyWire" project, a Princeton-led connectome that mapped all 140,000 neurons and 50 million synaptic connections of the insect.

The result? The digital fly began moving its virtual body, grooming itself, and seeking out food. This marks the world's first embodiment of a brain emulation producing multi-behavioral actions without direct programming.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has been roaming Gale Crater since 2012, but it just pulled off one of its most historic achievements. Using an onboard chemical asset known as TMAH, the rover conducted an unprecedented experiment on Martian clay.

The analysis uncovered more than 20 organic compounds. Most notably, Curiosity detected a nitrogen-bearing molecule with a chemical architecture similar to the precursors of Earthly DNA. While scientists cannot yet confirm if these molecules stem from ancient alien life or unique geological processes, it proves Mars has the fundamental building blocks of life.

If you are looking for the fountain of youth, you might want to look across the dinner table. A study using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) analyzed biological age acceleration using "epigenetic clocks".

The study revealed a fascinating link between marital status and aging. It found that never-married males exhibited significantly accelerated biological aging compared to their married peers. The data for females showed that experiencing a stressor, like widowhood, drastically accelerated biological age markers due to chronic inflammation and oxidative stress.

Frustrated by bureaucratic delays after a close friend went missing, an 18-year-old high school student from Oaxaca, Mexico, took matters into his own hands. Jesús Alejandro Jiménez López developed a facial recognition prototype called Encuéntrame 72 (Find Me 72).

The AI maps unique facial markers and scans real-time security feeds and databases to generate instant alerts. The technology is optimized to exploit the critical first 72 hours of a disappearance. The project recently won first place in a prestigious international engineering competition in Peru.

In the southern city of Tarnów, Poland, a 50-year-old resident finally passed the written theory portion of his driver's license exam on his 139th attempt. The man had been stubbornly taking the test since 2017, spending roughly €1,800 in exam fees over nine years.

Testing center officials eventually discovered the reason behind his historic losing streak: the man had been studying using a limited demo version of the practice software. Once he finally switched to the full version covering all the questions, his scores skyrocketed.

We have always known that dogs are man’s best friend, but an international genetic investigation led by the Universities of Oxford and Liverpool proved the bond goes back much further than we believed.

By analyzing ancient DNA and 3D scans of over 600 canid skulls spanning 50,000 years, scientists established clear genetic and structural evidence of domestication dating back 14,000 to 16,000 years ago. This places the origin of domestic dogs in the last Ice Age, thousands of years before human societies transitioned into agriculture.

In most major cities, losing your wallet or smartphone on a subway means it’s gone forever. Not in Tokyo. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department operates a specialized Lost and Found Center in Bunkyo City to manage the millions of items turned in by honest citizens every year.

Driven by deeply ingrained cultural values of civic duty and integrity, the center processes everything from umbrellas to wallets full of cash. Thanks to an incredibly organized database, the return rate for high-value items like electronics and official documents is around 80% to 90%.

In the vast agricultural plains of the Argentine Pampas, a spectacular aerial image can be seen from space: a perfectly manicured, third-of-a-mile-long forest in the precise shape of an acoustic guitar.

The living masterpiece was created by a local farmer named Pedro Martin Ureta. In 1977, his 25-year-old wife, Graciela, tragically passed away from a sudden brain aneurysm. Years before, she had mentioned wanting to design their ranch into her favorite musical instrument. To fulfill her wish, Pedro and his four children spent years planting over 7,000 trees: dark cypresses to outline the body and soundhole, and vibrant eucalyptus trees to represent the strings.