Hunglish.orgWhat the hell is the word for that dried-out crusty stuff in your eyes when you wake up? An easy-to-say convenient term for it exists in Hungarian!
Written by Scott Savoie
One of my favorite words in Hungarian is the word „csipa,” pronounced „CHEE-pa.”
A „csipa” is a piece of the stuff that accumulates around one’s eyes when they sleep.
When I was first asked what it was called in English, and someone described this word to me, I did not know its English equivolent offhand. I came up with „dried eye-booger,” which admittedly doesn’t sound nearly as nice as „csipa.”
I thought about it some more and I came up with „dehydrated occular mucous accumulation,” but that doesn’t sound much better.
Finally I consulted a dictionary, which gave the English equivolent as „rheum,” which is pronounced „room,” as in „rheum without a view.”
„Rheum” was a word I was unfamiliar with, so I googled it, and it came up with „watery discharge from the mucous membranes,” But that isn’t quite right, as that is a *watery* discharge.
A csipa isn’t watery. So that is not quite right.
I guess I have heard it called „sleep.” As in, „you have ’sleep’ in your eye.”
One of the interesting things about learning a new language is getting a new perspective. This word is a good example of something I had never given much thought to (dried eye boogers), but that some Hungarian had given a lot of thought to. The guy was probably probably a poet writing a Easter „watering verse” and desperately needing a rhyme for „pipa.”
Regardless of who invented it, I am richer now because I too use the word „csipa.”