Jugaad
Meaning: A creative, frugal fix — a clever improvised solution that gets things done with whatever is at hand, bypassing conventional methods.
Language: Hindi
Literally: hack / workaround
Category: Everyday
Origin: Hindi जुगाड़; celebrated in India as an approach to innovation and survival; adopted in global business.
More untranslatable words — Everyday
- Shemomechama — Eating well past fullness simply because the food is too delicious to stop.
- Prozvonit — To call someone's phone and hang up after one ring, so they call you back and you save th…
- Boketto — Staring off into the distance with your mind pleasantly empty, thinking of nothing at all.
- Pålegg — Anything you might put on a slice of bread — cheese, ham, jam, egg, whatever — gathered u…
- Pana poʻo — Scratching your head to help yourself remember something you've forgotten.
- Friolero — A person who feels the cold far more than everyone else — always the first to reach for a…
From our tongue twisters
- Barbara Ara bar Ara araba bara rabarbara. — An unbroken 'bar / ara / rab' roll built almost entirely from the same handful of syllabl…
- Ular melingkar-lingkar di atas pagar pak Umar. — A rolling 'l / r / ling' drill that loops like the snake it describes.
- ยักษ์ใหญ่ไล่ยักษ์เล็ก (Yák yài lâi yák lék) — A tonal 'yak / yai / lai / lek' drill that hops across Thai tones in four short beats.