Baksheesh?

[Elidor]

Poll question: Baksheesh?

How do you say it?

[jeff30997]

1. Badshit ?

:hurts:

[democracyindanger]

2. Sorry. I left my wallet back at the hotel.

[Elidor]

4. Surely, you have a few rupees in your pocket, bwana.

:D

[democracyindanger]

5. Here's some gum. Go away.

No baksheesh for you, or your twelve friends!

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. You forgot "lagniappe" (n/t)

[Elidor]

6. Not to worry, I saved a spot for other contributions

It's now part of the poll. I've never heard that one before.

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. That one's Cajun French.

Pretty much local to the New Orleans area. Means "a little extra" or "gift" or "present" or, sometimes, "bribe".

[Elidor]

8. Reminds me of La Mordida

"The Little Bite" is a friendly favor for a Mexican official, although that's a simplification of a complex idea, as is lagniappe, I suppose.

Baksheesh is my favorite. I can't even convey in english everything it implies. It is more than just a bribe or favor. There is a connotation to it that is almost semantically ineffable in english.

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. Yeah, I'm partial to "baksheesh", too...

but then there are a lot of concepts that we just can't express succinctly in English (it is sometimes a singularly inelegant language, that way). Just think of all the French and German words we use for things that'd take a sentence or two to explain in English......"deja vu", "schadenfreude", "bete noire", and so on...

[Elidor]

10. Indeed. We must appropriate such words wherever possible

We must incorporate them. Schadenfreude is one of the most useful words ever created.