Schlurking around the interweb today, pawing over Green Fairy who had a link to the BBCnews and an article concerning the translation of words and what are the most difficult. Top of the list was the word "Ilunga" which 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". Both Rosie and I agreed this seemed to translate well enough but I suppose 1000 linguists can't be wrong.
Second most difficult word to translate is "shlimazl" which is Yiddish for "a chronically unlucky person". I found this most interesting because many years ago my sister and I saw an infomercial for a "shmozzle" which sounds so similar.
We phoned the 0800 number to find out more about this "shmozzle" because the infomercial had the strange effect on the both of us, giving us light-headed, uncontrollable giggles. I'm glad the lady who answered our call wasn't an ilunga-type otherwise she might have grown tired of our inability to articulate our questions on the phone due to the shortness of breath the shmozzle infomercial was having on us. Turns out shmozzle is a Yiddish word meaning "to clean the middle of the roof of your car" for only 4 payments of $39.95 [unless you called within the next 15 minutes and they knocked one WHOLE payment off the purchase price] you, too, could have a clean car roof and no arm strain.
Shmozzles must be very rare because I couldn't find one on the interweb.