Vocabulary For Travellers

We have all heard of Wanderlust, but do you know about other good words relating to travelling and places? Let’s take a look at some vocabulary from around world about travelling.

Smultronställe is a Swedish word referring to a place one wants to return to (often little known to others). It’s often a place where one can relax. The word smultron means wild strawberry and plats means place.

Speaking of berries.

In Finnish one can say Oma maa mansikka, muu maa mustikka. A direct translation would read “Own country is strawberry, other country is blueberry”. In other words, no other place is quite like home. Well, I enjoy blueberries more than strawberries. What can I say…

Sputnik (спутник). You know Sputnik, the spacecraft? In Russian, the word means fellow traveller. Would you like to travel to the moon with me?

Travellers sometimes need to be firm and plan ahead. Do as the ancient Romans would advise you to do: Aut inveniam viam aut faciam. “I shall either find a way or make one.” For some reason, they also have a lot of quotes about stars… Non est ad astra mollis e terris via.

Romance languages and quotes. Have you thought about the similarity between via and viajar? Spanish writer Miguel de Unamuno once wrote: Se viaja no para buscar el destino sino para huir de donde se parte. Maybe travelling is a form of escapism? What is it that makes us want to travel, really? Is it because of curiosity or are we influence by some deeply rooted dissatisfaction and a hope for something better?

Let’s move on to Hungarian. A language where knowing one word helps immensely when trying to learn more words. Utazik means to travel. Utazás is a journey, as well as the act of travelling. And how do you say traveller? Utazó. What a wonderful language!

When travelling, I love to look at languages and try to increase my knowledge and vocabulary. Analysing signs is a fantastic way to do this (thus the photos). Learning phrases here and there is a good way to learn more about a country and its people – an essential part of travelling.