Words/Language Every Travelers Should Know

Words/Language Every Travelers Should Know

By Oluwatoyin Ajayi
 Have you ever tried to describe a travel experience and then you find it difficult to express it. Well... Travel does that a lot, it certainly entangles us in its beauty, makes us feel a myriad of emotions we've never yet felt, and leaves us speechless and yearning for more.
This is why we choose this week to exam some of these travel words/language below:

1. Livsnjutare (n.)
    Origin: Swedish

 One who loves life deeply and lives it to the extreme.
Always strive to be this type of person. Does it matter that you can't pronounce it? Nope, just be it.

2. Numinous (adj.)
Origin: Latin
A powerful feeling of both fear and fascination, of being in awe and overwhelmed by what is before you.

 Describing an experience that makes you fearful yet fascinated, awed yet attracted; the powerful, personal feeling of being overwhelmed and inspired. For example, you may have a numinous experience in so many tourists in Nigeria, especially those scary high mountains and hills that looks scary and as we gaze at them causes wonders.     

 3. Resfeber (n.)
Origin: Swedish
 The nervous feeling you get before a journey.
Yes, there's a name for those jittery butterflies that flutter through your stomach as you pack your bags .

4. Eleutheromania (n.)
Origin: Greek
An intense and irresistible desire for freedom.
 
 5. Fernweh (n.)
Origin: German

Feeling homesick for a place you've never been.
I love this word because it puts a name to a feeling I've never before been able to describe.

6. Trouvaille (n.)
Origin: French
  
  When you discover something lovely by chance like "stumbling on a waterfall in 

7. Hireath (n.) 
Origin: Welsh


A homesickness for a home that you can’t return to, a home that perhaps never was. Which is kind of a downer, but a good excuse to keep travelling.

 8. Hygge (n.) 
Origin: Danish
  The cozy feeling of relaxing with friends while having a meal or drinks.
















9. Sonder (v.)
   Origin: Unkonwn
  The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. If we   take the time to consider that each person in this world is living a life as important as our own, this     world will be a much brighter place.

 10. Schwellenangst (n.)
       Origin: German
  Fear of embarking on something new; fear of crossing a threshold. But you know what? You should totally just go with it, and cross that threshold. However, you should not be afraid of crossing or embarking on something, especially when its would have a positive impact in ones life, just as Travels does. Remember, the creator of the universe didn't give you the spirit of fear...

11. Quaquaversal (adj.)
    Origin: Latin
 Moving or happening in every direction instantaneously. It’s a little like when you think your passport is in your      handbag but it’s not and your flight’s leaving in three hours. 

 12. Novaturient (adj.)
     Origin: Latin
 Desiring or seeking powerful change in one’s life, behaviour, or situation.

 13. Sehnsucht (n.)
     Origin: German
     The inconsolable longing in the human heart for we know now what”; a yearning for a far, familiar, non-earthly land one can identify as one’s home. 

14. Vagary (n.)
      Origin: Latin
      An unpredictable instance, a wandering journey; a whimsical, wild or unusual idea, desire, or action. 

15. Onism (n.)
      Origin: Danish
      The awareness of how little of the world you'll experience.
   
16. Waldeinsamkeit (n.)
    Origin: German
The feeling of being alone in the woods.

Such feelings comes when you wander alone in a forest or woods.

17. Meraki (adj.)
 Origin: Greek

Putting a part of yourself into what you're doing.

Whether you are a cook, an artist, an athlete, even an accountant try much as possible to do your work with your whole heart.

18. Yugen (n.)

Origin: Japan
 An awareness of the universe that triggers emotional responses too deep and mysterious for words.

 19. Commuovere (v.)
 Origin: Italian

 Only in Italy would you find such a sensual word meaning to stir, to touch, to move to tears

  20. Peregrinate (v.)
 Origin: Latin
 To wander from place to place, especially on foot. Every of your movement either short or long are journey (transportation by foot).

 21. Nemophilist (n.)
Origin: English
 One who is fond of forests; a haunter of the woods. Not like a spooky ghost; more like a guy with a top-knot who enjoys spending his weekends writing poetry under an old oak tree and drinking black coffee from a vintage thermos.

 22. Peripatetic (n.)
 Origin: Greek
  There's nothing pathetic about being peripatetic, just embrace the wanders wholeheartedly.

23. Gadabout (n.)
 Origin: English

 You can aspire be a professional Gadabouters when you travel often and for pleasure.

 24. Eudaimonia (n.)
Origin: Greek
A contented state of being happy, healthy and prosperous. 

 25. Dérive ( n.)
Origin: French

 A spontaneous journey where the traveler lets the spirit of the landscape and architecture move them.This kind of journey is my favorite. The kind where you don't have any really solid plans. The kind where you wander into cute coffeehouses and picnic in parks. The kind where the day is yours to do with it as you'd like.

26. Forelsket (n.)
Origin: Norwegian
The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love. I'd like to think that this word could refer to a person or a place, as both give me butterflies. Find out how traveling makes your relationships stronger.

27. Yu yi (n.)
Origin: Chinese
The desire to feel things just as intensely as you did when you were younger -- before expectations, before memory, before words.One reason travel is so addicting is that you're able to experience a place for the first time. You see colors more vividly, and see everything with a fresh set of eye.

28. Sehnsucht (n.)
Origin: German
The inconsolable longing in the human heart for we know now what; a yearning for a far, familiar, non-earthly land one can identify as one’s home.

 29. Cockaigne (n.)
Origin: French, medieval trope

An imaginary land of luxury and idleness.

 30. Solivagant (adj.)
Origin: Latin

Wandering alone. Although we think it's better when you're Solivagant a small group of other Solivagant types.
A solitary adventurer who travels or wanders the globe.

 31. Saudade (n.)
 Origin: Portuguese

A nostalgic longing to be near again to something or someone that is distant or that has been loved and then lost; “the love that remains”. For example, I have a nostalgic longing for the real Hausa Rice Cake, called Masa, right now.

32. Sturmfrei (adj.)
Origin: Germany
The freedom of being alone and being able to do what you make.

This is the freedom you get of not being watched by a parent or guardian or someone superior. Being alone at a place and having the ability to do what you want.

 33. Yoko Meshi (n.)
Origin: Japan

The peculiar stress of speaking a foreign language (literally means ‘a meal eaten sideways’).

I remembered an experience shared by one of my friends, when she visited a local market in Germany. She told me what she went through as she try to communicate what she wanted to buy to a typical German woman. "I felt embarrassed tho", as she ends her story.

 34. Selcouth (adj.)
Origin: English
Unfamiliar, rare, strange, and yet marvellous.

When everything feels strange and different yet you find it marvelous anyway.

 35. Acatalepsy (n.)
Origin: Greek
 The impossibility of comprehending the universe

36. Coddiwomple (v.)
Origin: English slang

To travel purposefully towards an unknown destination.

More updates coming your way...

However, Let's know if you have heard any of these travel words before?  and Which is your favorite?
Do you also have any word to add to the list?
We love to hear from you, Kindly use the comments box below!

Embracing eudaimonia in Japan. Photo by Stephen Parry

Happily quaquaversal in Guatemala. Photo by Nathan Landers.

16. Solivagant (adj.)SolivagSaudade (n.We want to hear from you!