English is the richest language by far. We have more words than any other, a result perhaps of a thousand years of blending and borrowing and importing words from all over. But there are some ideas and expressions we don’t have in our language, and I’ve always been interested in what we’re missing. For instance, didis is an Indonesian word that means to search and pick up lice from one’s own hair, usually when in bed at night. Actually, I’m rather glad I’ve never needed a word for that.

Amaeru is a Japanese word that means to seek affection through doing things like clinging or pleading, which describes every middle school romance that ever was.