Learn new words

Are you familiar with morgenfrisk, the Danish word describing the satisfaction of a good night’s sleep? Or otium, Latin for the happiness of being in control of your own time? How about the Dutch pretoogjes, describing the twinkling eyes of someone engaged in benign mischief? If not, we know a man who is: Tim Lomas, senior lecturer in positive psychology at the University of East London, author of The Happiness Dictionary: Words from Around the World to Help Us Lead a Richer Life. His work involves uncovering psychological insights by collecting untranslatable words for pleasurable feelings we don’t have language for in English.

Lomas has unearthed 1,000 so far. They can be found at drtimlomas.com/lexicography. Reading them makes us so happy we feel like making Lomas a feestvarken (party pig) — a Dutch word meaning “someone in whose honour a party is thrown”.