Lume

From the Latin word "lumen", meaning "light" ("lumen solis" meant "sun light" for the Romans) there is the Romanian word "lume" - meaning "people", "world" ...

Hafiz

Ar. <hafiz> means "the guardian" and it is an Arabic word used for somebody who has completely memorized the Qur'an. But practice and understanding of the text has much to do with being a hafiz / hafiza...

Love in Arabic

There are more than 20 words in Arabic for the concept of "love", as my friend told me - who can beat that?!

Kefi

If you mind your <kefi> it means you take care of your spirit of joy, passion, frenzy and exhilaration. As a result of achieving kefi, you might feel like smashing plates in a very Greek way... Let it be KEFI!

Sakura

Aren't we all enchanted by this Japanese miracle every year?
The best thing about sakura, the cherry trees, is that they are natural and unmodified genetically, as my Japanese friend explained it to me - beautiful!

Neam

Ro. <neam> means family, kinship, people, nation, nationality. It is a "word in progress" because it covers a very large area of identity.
The young nations of Eastern Europe have been created as independent units because of some strong families that gave identity to a whole community and then they were able to preserve, protect and adapt it...

Dor

Ro. <Dor> means a mix between pain and pleasure, search and un-find. It can be connected to love but in a very large sense. Many traditional songs deal, in fact, with this state of mind and heart.

have you got a 'sunao' mind?

The sunao mind is the free mind, ready to adapt to new situations and, despite the fact that it implies certain naivety, it primarily involves one's open heart and desire to be honest with yourself and others in terms of life values.
As my Japanese friend, Etsumi, explained it to me, " sunao na hito ( person ) is the person who has very pure heart, takes a thing as it is and accepts somebody's advice with good grace. However, sometimes we say too sunao is not good. Do you know what I mean? [...] I know Matsushita and he succeeded in his business with his good heart. Lots of people respect him not only as a success man but as a great heart man." (see more in "Matsushita Leadership" John P. Kotter, Free Press, 1997)

Cumpat (Ro)

To have cumpat means to have the essential element in your life. Coming either from the Latin computus (thinking) or compitum (crossroads), it develeoped in time concentrating multiple meanings: reflection, foreseeing, just judgement, self-control, spiritual balance.
What would we be without cumpat?

Rostire (Ro)

There are words that simply do not have equivalents in other languages - either because the meanings are multiple and another combination of letters in a different language did not reach the same level of sophistication, or the concept might be missing altogether from the second language.

Romanian language has a wealth of words that run deeper than the concrete level. One first example I particularly like is rostire (from Lat. rostrum, rostra - mouth) having multiple meanings: language, speech, discourse, order, arrangement, lifestyle, meaning, story, aim, purpose,justification, reason.

A rosti something means "two things at the same time: to utter a thing and to put another one in order." (C. Noica)

There is no doubt that a whole life philosophy can rest behind only five letters. Are there any other examples you might know in your own language?