How to say “skin” in 41 languages
Every one of these is a word that turns up in ordinary speech, not a dictionary curiosity — the number beside it is where it ranks in that language.
It is commonest in English, where feel is the 189th most used word.
- Afrikaans vel A skin, a hide #1,075
- Albanian lëkurën #1,857
- Arabic جلد skin, hide #2,133
- Armenian քերթել to skin, flay #1,012
- Basque azal #884
- Bengali ছাল skin, bark, rind #2,495
- Bosnian kožu #2,087
- Bulgarian кожа #1,810
- Catalan pell #1,040
- Croatian kožu #2,020
- Czech kůži #1,746
- Danish hud #1,850
- Dutch zweer a purulent boil, skin injury containing pus,… #983
- English feel To become aware of through the skin; to use… #189
- Esperanto haŭto #1,632
- Estonian nahka #1,343
- French peau skin of a person or animal #1,061
- Greek δέρμα #1,479
- Hebrew עור #1,241
- Hindi त्वचा #1,633
- Indonesian kulit #767
- Italian pelle #1,226
- Korean 살 flesh; skin #249
- Latvian ādas skin body #1,744
- Lithuanian oda #1,025
- Macedonian кожа #1,255
- Malayalam തൊലി skin, the outer protective layer of the body… #864
- Norwegian huden #2,302
- Persian پوست #674
- Portuguese pele #1,207
- Romanian piele #1,620
- Serbian kožu #2,006
- Slovak kožu #1,272
- Slovenian koža #1,021
- Spanish piel #1,319
- Tagalog negro having dark pigmentation of the skin #1,321
- Tamil திரை to become wrinkled, as skin by age; be… #952
- Telugu తోలు #1,896
- Turkish ten #877
- Urdu کلو black, dark, someone of dark skin #1,470
- Vietnamese da #592
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.