Untranslatable German Words

You are an expat new to Berlin. You have processed official documents, found an apartment, so what’s next? Learning the German language!

You learn the basic pronunciation and grammar rules, and practice everyday. Everything is going smoothly until you come across a word that does not have a direct translation in English. Kummerspeck? There’s a word that means “excess weight gained from emotional eating.” In fact, there are quite a few words in German without an English equivalent. Check them out!

Fernweh
Feeling homesick for a place you have never been to

Backpfeifengesicht
A face badly in need of a fist

Packesel
The person who is stuck carrying everyone else’s bags on a trip

Weltschmerz
Mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state

Torschlusspanik
The fear, usually as one gets older, that time is running out and important opportunities are slipping away

Fremdschämen
The horror you feel when you notice that someone is oblivious to how embarrassing they truly are

Erklärungsnot
The state of having to quickly explain yourself

Treppenwitz
The things you should have said but only occur to you when it is too late

Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung
The struggle to come to terms with the past

Rabenmutter
A bad mother

Have you encountered other German words without an English equivalent?

(sources: http://hellogiggles.com/10-fabulous-german-words-english-equivalent, http://www.boredpanda.com/untranslatable-words-found-in-translation-anjana-iyer/, http://www.thelocal.de/galleries/culture/1509)