Epiphanies

[dickens]

I grew up knowing what Sisu means (it's a Finnish thing) and that I can't translate it well. But Wikipedia's cross reference both fits and never really occurred to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisu#See_also

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, okay.

I am also amused by this sentence: "It is, like sauna, one of the few Finnish words to be commonly used in American English."

Um. It's commonly used in my American English, but I suspect that if I said to the person in my guest room, who grew up in Hawaii and California and went to college in Oregon, "Sisu is one of the few Finnish words to be commonly used in American English," after he got done saying, "What the hell are you doing up at this hour, and why are you tormenting me with it?", he would say, "What is? Huh? No it isn't."

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

Guessing the writer of that particular sentence was from MI or MN.

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

In other news, my spell check is not Finnish enough to recognize sisu, which argues against "commonly used in American English".

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

velleity? velleity is my new favorite word.

i hadn't known what sisu meant before, but now i have to go get it tattooed on my mother.

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it is a fun word. No idea why they're relating it to sisu except that it is a close-to-opposite, but a fun word.

You could just get her a button, she might appreciate that more.

[thorr-kan.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes....sisu.

Translated in Da Yoop as, "Hey, we found a place that's even rockier, swampier, and mosquito-ier than the homeland. Let's settle here!"

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

Don't forget colder.

[thorr-kan.livejournal.com]

That's...debateable.

But certainly cold enough to feel homelike!