Adam Jacot de Boinod first became entranced by language when he discovered 27 words for “moustache” in an Albanian dictionary – and another 27 for “eyebrows”. A world of bushy machismo and stolid dignity sprang to life before his eyes. He began hanging out in second-hand bookshops, looking for foreign dictionaries and the tiny revelations contained therein. He made lists of his favourite “words with no equivalent in the English language” – like, say, tsuji-giri, a Japanese word from samurai days meaning, “to try out a new sword on a passer-by” (thanks a bunch, Toshiro), or the stoic German term Torschlusspanik, meaning “the fear of diminishing opportunities as one gets older”. —John Walsh —Weird and wonderful vocabulary from around the world (The Independent)

A & L Daily did my blogging for me today.