At the library this week I found a cool book about unique words from different languages called Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World.
It's a really fun book, and while I was reading it I learned my new favorite word:
Kummerspeck
According to the book, it is a noun, referring to "the excess weight we gain from emotional eating."
Isn't that such a great and useful word? You eat all of your feelings, and then you pack on the kummerspeck!
And get this: the literal translation is grief-bacon. Grief-bacon!
Now when I'm feeling emotional I like to come home and demand grief-bacon. (Even though that's not the meaning of kummerspeck. It's supposed to mean the weight, not the food. But I have taken the literal translation and now I use it to mean the food.)
My favorite grief-bacon is guacamole. One time when I was living with roommates I had a terrible day. I don't remember what went wrong, but I was in a dark, dark mood. I got home and my roommate just looked at me and said, "You know, I have the stuff for guacamole." And we made guacamole. And we ate guacamole and chips for dinner. It was amazing, and my dark mood was cured! That is grief-bacon at its finest.
I have other important grief-bacons. Queso. Salsa (my emotional needs are soothed mainly by Mexican dips). Chocolate (obviously, but now it's really good chocolate). Chocolate chip cookies. Yes yes yes.
What is your favorite grief-bacon? Does it make you feel better? Have you gained kummerspeck because of it?
Also, if you like these kinds of things, I found another beautiful book of untranslatable words called Other-Wordly: Words Both Strange and Lovely from Around the World. It's on my Christmas list.
And here is a t-shirt that really embodies that sweet grief-bacon lifestyle. I DO wish that I was full of tacos instead of emotions! Story of my life!
P.S. Another reason why I love kummerspeck is that my maiden name is Speckhard, which means, indeed, hard bacon. How cool is that?