mamihlapinatapai
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
27
Scrabble Score
16
Letters
5
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A situation in which all participants want something to be done, but none want to do it.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "By contrast, if that same face looks away from us, the activity in this area diminishes, lire heightened dopamine activity is not rooted in the attractiveness of the gazer per se, but in the potential for interaction signaled by eye contact, mamihlapinatapei."
- "The Volunteer's Dilemma, or mamihlapinatapai, is a game of Chicken with many participants."
- "As two people stand at a doorway each gesturing 'After you', that is mamihlapinatapai."
- "We knew of this, the secret language grew between my yearning, between her submission, temporary and fleeting, only to be caught again. And there was that word; Mamihlapinatapai"
- "Mamihlapinatapai. A naming word. It meant the wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start."
Etymology
From a Yámana word mamihlapinatapai, which The Guinness Book of Records listed as the "most succinct word," defining it as "looking at each other hoping that either will offer to do something which both parties desire but are unwilling to do." The word is a regularly-derived form of the verb ihlvpi /iɬəpi/, meaning "to feel awkward" or "to be at a loss for what to do": ma[m]- refl/recp + ihlvpi + :n[a]- stative + -at[a]- caus + -a:pai du. Its literal meaning is therefore roughly "to make each other both feel awkward".