This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science. I'm Steve Mursky.

I'm Steve Mursky.

Ick Swarpoc. If you've ever called in a pizza order and then stepped out the door a couple of times to see if the pizza delivery guy was there yet,

well, you've experienced Icked Swarpok.

It's an Inuit word that's what

refers to the anticipation one feels when waiting for someone,

whereby one keeps going outside to check if they've arrived.

End quote.

That's what University of East London psychologist Tim Lomis wrote in 2016 in the Journal of Positive Psychology.

Itswarpoc was just one entry in his paper titled,

Towards a Positive Crosscultural lexicography

enriching our emotional landscape through 216

untranslatable words pertaining to well-being.

Untranslatable as single words in English, that is.

Other examples include the Georgian word Shema'anajamo, meaning to be full but to keep eating

because the food is so good.

Bantus Mabuki-Mavuki, whipping off your clothes to dance,

and Waldeinsheim Kite.

That's a German word for the mysterious and possibly slightly creepy solitude you may feel when you're in the woods by yourself.

Early this morning Loma's tweeted another such single word that covers a lot of meaning, J-S-Y-U-S.

It's Indonesian, and it means, quote, a joke so unfunny or told so badly that you just have to laugh."

End quote. Why did he tweet that today?

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