Snip!t from collection of Alan Dix

<p>There are many, many more conditions out there that English has failed to find words for. Which made me curious: What are those conditions, exactly? What are some other emotions and situations for which the grand technology of the English language has proven inadequate?&nbsp;</p><p>Here, selected from the blog <a href="http://sobadsogood.com/2012/04/29/25-words-that-simply-dont-exist-in-english/">So Bad So Good</a>, are some of my favorites:</p> <blockquote><p><strong>Age-otori (Japanese)</strong>: To look worse after a haircut</p> <p><strong>Arigata-meiwaku (Japanese)</strong>: An act someone does for you that you didn't want to have them do and tried to avoid having them do, but they went ahead anyway, determined to do you a favor, and then things went wrong and caused you a lot of trouble, yet in the end social conventions required you to express gratitude</p> <p><strong>Backpfeifengesicht (German)</strong>: A face badly in need of a fist</p> <p><strong>Forelsket (Norwegian)</strong>: The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love</p> <p><strong>Gigil (<em>pronounced Gheegle</em>; Filipino)</strong>: The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute</p> <p><strong>Litost (Czech)</strong>: A state of torment created by the sudden sight of one's own misery</p> <p><strong>Manja (Malay)</strong>: "To pamper," it describes gooey, childlike, and coquettish behavior by women designed to elicit sympathy or pampering by men</p> <p><strong>Pena ajena (Mexican Spanish)</strong>: The embarrassment you feel watching someone else's humiliation</p> <p><strong>Sgriob (Gaelic)</strong>: The itchiness that overcomes the upper lip just before taking a sip of whisky</p> <p><strong>Tatemae and Honne (Japanese)</strong>: What you pretend to believe and what you actually believe, respectively</p> <p><strong>Tingo (Pascuense language of Easter Island)</strong>: To borrow objects one by one from a neighbor's house until there is nothing left</p> <p><strong>Waldeinsamkeit (German)</strong>: The feeling of being alone in the woods</p></blockquote> <p>But my personal favorite -- only because I have occasion to use it approximately 10 times a day -- is this: </p> <blockquote><p><strong>L'esprit de l'escalier (French)</strong>: Usually translated as "staircase wit," the act of thinking of a clever comeback when it is too late to deliver it</p></blockquote>