The Meaning of Tingo by Adam Jacot de Boinod (2007, Paperback, Reprint)

I bought this book after seeing it on the Graham Norton Show on BBC America. I'm sure glad I did. I probably would have never stumbled across it on my own.

BBC researcher Adam Jacot de Boinod noticed that an Albanian dictionary contained 27 different words each for eyebrows and mustache and after his obsessive 18-month journey through hundreds of foreign dictionaries, he has produced a funny and informative guide to the world's strangest words.

Who couldn't find a use for "neko-neko," an Indonesian word for "one who has a creative idea which only makes things worse," or "skeinkjari," a term from the Faroe Islands for "the man who goes among wedding guests offering them alcohol"?

Having spent much of my life in Hawaii I can attest that there are word in other languages that just don't translate: my favorite Hawaiian one being "lolo."

Any page you open to in The Meaning of Tingo pays tribute to the inventive genius of the world's peoples. The Meaning of Tingo is a UK bestseller that by all rights should become equally popular in the States. I call it the perfect bathroom book; and it would also make a great gift for anyone interested in language and cultural differences.