Tartle

Hello and welcome to Word of the Week! I’m your host, Liz. This podcast is dedicated to words and phrases that are untranslatable into English. Let’s discover the nuance of the world’s languages, shall we? 

This week’s word is tartle. A Scottish word that means to ‘postpone or hesitate’. You could hesitate to recognize a person or thing. Or you can postpone getting out of bed on a lazy Sunday morning. What’s your favorite thing to do when being lazy? For me, it’s doing the NY Times crossword. 

We’ve all been in that position when you’re talking to somebody you’ve been introduced to before, and you draw a total blank. At least temporarily. If you recover quickly enough to avoid complete embarrassment, you’ve committed an act common enough for the Scottish to coin a word for it.

You can even apologize for it! “Oh dear, you tartled, didn’t you?” … “Sorry about my temporary tartle!” … “Don’t worry about it, we all tartle at one time or another!” 

Rummaging around your brain for someone’s name can be exhausting. Which earns you a tartle on a Sunday morning. Hesitating to start your day officially by not getting out of bed for things other than the bathroom. 

Here’s to this week… May you all endeavor to adopt this Word of the Week and see the world a little bit differently. I’ll be back next week with a new word. Thank you for listening!