untranslatable
1
8.6
- adjective
- /ˌʌntrænˈsleɪtəbl/
:
intraducible
- But Norwegian depends more on emphasis and repetition, with a dozen model adverbs that convey almost untranslatable shades of meaning.
- an untranslatable word
- an untranslatable term
Examples
-
Now, with the notion that our cultures of meaning are unique, mutually opaque, and untranslatable, we find opened before us whole vistas of satisfaction, for the pleasure of which we need not move a muscle.
Academic text (1996) -
Conversation between religions is pluralized or balkanized when they are seen as mutually untranslatable.
Academic text (2007) -
In European languages, however, particularly in French, too much of Russian popular speech and our literary fictional works is untranslatable and inexpressible.
Academic text (2003) -
She starts with all that Spanglish stuff, untranslatable, trust me, okay?
-
I knew how complex the culture was, how completely different from our own, how untranslatable the emotion behind even that marriage proposal was, and how my head and footnotes would never be enough.
Fiction book (2002) -
Evidently, whoever had translated the Endish word as "heaven" had used a shortcut for an untranslatable religious concept.
Fiction book (2000) -
On the other hand, however, all these stock motifs are at the same time invested with a specific, local, almost untranslatable meaning, each one functioning as an intertextual borrowing from the Bosnian culture, tradition, and experience, but pointing sharply to the unbridgeable cultural, semiotic gap between them.
Academic text (1996) -
The concept of "hygge" is often described as untranslatable because it embodies a distinct Danish cultural experience.
-
Some idioms are so unique to a language that they are deemed untranslatable in other cultures.
-
He expressed feelings that were too complex and personal, making them almost untranslatable into any language.
Antonyms
How Translatable
1
3.9
1
8.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
untranslatable = translatable (transparent) = un + translate + able
Formed by adding productive negative prefix 'un-' to 'translatable'; the meaning 'not able to be translated' follows directly from the parts.
Etymology
Untranslatable breaks into un- meaning 'not' and translate, where trans- means 'across' and the idea is of 'carrying' words from one language to another. Think of translate like transport — to 'carry' something 'across' — so untranslatable is something you cannot 'carry across' into another language without losing its full meaning.