No Equivalent

Every time a word appears in another language, something gets lost in translation. Here's what's missing.

 
 

“The English word translation...descends from the Latin translatus: trans, across or over, and latus, which is the past participle of ferre, to carry, related to the English word ‘ferry.’ The translator, then, is the ferry operator, carrying meaning from words on that shore to words on this shore.”

—Teju Cole