Some highlights from a new book of nuance-laden foreign words:

• "backpfeifengesicht" - German for "a face that cries out for a fist in it"
• "bakku-shan" - a girl who appears pretty from behind but not from the front (Japanese)
• "drachenfutter" - peace offerings made by guilty husbands to their wives (German; literally "dragon fodder")
• "koshatnik" - A seller of stolen cats (Russian)
• "Kummerspeck" - weight gained from emotion-related overeating (German; literally "grief bacon")
• "uitwaaien" - walking in windy weather for fun (Dutch)

And then there are the numerous Albanian words for types of facial hair, the name of an Inuit party game which literally translates as "frozen walrus carcass", and the Easter Island Pascuense word "tingo", as used in the book's title, which means "to borrow objects from a friend's house, one by one, until there's nothing left".

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