Sometimes there are words that cannot be translated into another language without losing some of its meaning. According to the BBC and 1,000 linguists, the most difficult word to translate is "ilunga". A word in the Tshiluba language, which is spoken in south-east Congo. "Ilunga", when attempted to translate into English means "a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time".
In second place was shlimazl which is Yiddish for "a chronically unlucky person".
Third was Naa, used in the Kansai area of Japan to emphasise statements or agree with someone.
Although the definitions seem fairly precise, the problem is trying to convey the local references associated with such words, says Jurga Zilinskiene, head of Today Translations, which carried out the survey.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by lilrawker.
BTW: "Salado" means salty literally.
However there is no word for "not thirsty" in German. Try that.
Regarding this topic, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilunga which says "When asked for confirmation by one reporter, representatives of the Congo government recognized the word only as a personal name." and see the commentary at Language Log at http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001104.html .
But there is one, very common Dutch word that is notoriously hard to translate or even explain: 'gezellig'.
'Gezellig' is a feeling, an atmosphere. It is usually translated as 'cozy', but it's more than cozy. A situation or room can be 'gezellig', but also people and objects. It's warm, peaceful, you forget time, there is togetherness, no complications or problems.
Some could even say Neatorama has a 'gezellige' quality to it.
I often use the word "shadenfreuden" - finding humor in others misfortunes.
It would be nice to see a larger list of words difficult to translate into English.
Lagom can be applied to many things. It could almost denote sufficient, enough, moderate, ample, appropriate but it is much more than that.
A portion of food could be 'lagom stor' (big enough), not too much, not too little. One's state could be lagom without being too rich or too poor. A conversation or meeting could reach a state of lagom to represent concensus.
It is difficult for me to explain, I personally think it is rooted in socialist culture where excess has no place.
The other is in ancient greek. I believe this is more common in attic and homeric greek than koine. In english, verbs have either an active(I am doing x) or a passive(x is being done to me) voice. Ancient greek adds a middle voice. If we take, for example, the verb "to loosen". In greek, with the active voice, it means you are untying something. With the passive voice, you are being let free. But, in the middle voice, it means you are being ransomed.
The middle voice simply has no direct parallel in english.