I was reminded of this word recently (possibly by someone else’s tumblelog, but I don’t recall). It means “a look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start” in Yaghan, one of the indigenous languages of Tierre del Fuego. It’s also listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the “most succinct word”. I often find myself jealous of languages like Yaghan and the Inuit languages that have words with such prosaic definitions.
Sweet. I will use this word a lot when it comes to the last, tiny fragment of poppadom that everyone’s too polite to take, even though we all want it.