Kilig
Meaning: The butterflies-and-shivers feeling of romantic excitement — the giddiness triggered by a crush's attention, a flirty text, or a swoony movie scene.
Language: Filipino
Literally: giddy excitement
Category: Emotion
Origin: Tagalog; a physical-emotional flutter distinct from love itself.
More untranslatable words — Emotion
- Tampo — Pulling back your warmth and affection when you've been hurt — going quiet and distant, h…
- Avos' — A blind, hopeful trust that things will somehow work out on their own — leaving the outco…
- Vergüenza ajena — The squirming embarrassment felt on behalf of another person, who may be entirely untroub…
- Koselig — Warmth, intimacy and ease at once — a room, a meal or an evening can be koselig, and so c…
- Nadryv — An uncontrolled outpouring of buried feeling, often strained past anything the person tru…
- Saudade — A deep, nostalgic yearning for someone or something absent — tinged with the bittersweet…
More Filipino untranslatable words
- Gigil — The overwhelming urge to squeeze or pinch something unbearably cute.
From our idioms
- 脱裤子放屁 (tuō kùzi fàng pì) — Doing something completely unnecessary and pointless.
- 老虎屁股摸不得 (Lǎohǔ pìgu mō bu dé) — Don't provoke someone powerful or dangerous.
- 半斤八两 (bàn jīn bā liǎng) — Six of one, half a dozen of the other — equally bad.