10 weird, wonderful and unusual words in other languages

1.       The French have the phrase 'l'esprit d'escalier', which translates to spirit of the staircase. This is used to describe the precise moment a person comes up with a clever retort to an embarrassing insult.

2.     In Chinese if you tell a man they are 'dai lu maozi', meaning "he wears the green hat", it means that his wife is sleeping with someone else.

3.     It's weird that English doesn't have words for the German 'vorgestern' [the day before yesterday] and 'ubermorgen' [the day after tomorrow].

4.     A favourite word, and not for its literal meaning, is the Spanish 'puente' meaning bridge. Unlike ourselves, the Spanish hold their bank holidays on a Tuesday so that Monday will, on most occasions, be treated as a bridge day [an extra day of holiday] ensuring a four day weekend.

5.     Another favourite is 'faire du leche-vitrines' which literally means 'to lick the windows' and translates as window-shopping in France.

6.     The German word 'luftkissenfahrzeug'. The literal translation being 'air cushion vehicle', but to you and I it is the simple 'hovercraft'.  Jude, Birmingham, UK

7.     In Cyprus, the instrument used to remove staples from paper is termed a 'petalouda', literally translated into 'butterfly'.

8.     In Japanese, 'amakudari', literally translates as descent from heaven, describes the phenomenon of being employed by a firm in an industry one has previously, as a government bureaucrat, been involved in regulating.

9.     The Spanish for handcuffs: 'esposas', mi esposa means 'my wife'. So 'mi esposa, mis esposas' means 'my wife, my handcuffs'.

10.  There are a few more interesting German words such as 'handschuhschneeballwerfer', which literally means somebody, who wears gloves to throw snow balls. It is used in general for all cowards.