Slang term for treasure hunt in different languages?
July 6, 2013 5:17 AM   Subscribe

ForeignLanguagesFilter: Looking for a name for a new project. It'll be a local 'treasure-hunting' sort of app for different cities around the world. What's some slang you know for 'treasure hunt', looking for something special, or the like?

Ideally, it'll be slang (not just a simple, literal translation of 'treasure hunt') for something along those lines. As long as it implies there's a light at the end of the tunnel or a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it's cool. Extra bonus points if it's a word or two in length, and easily pronounceable :)
posted by chrisinseoul to Computers & Internet (5 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
How about Boojum? From Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark:

In the midst of the word he was trying to say
   In the midst of his laughter and glee
He had softly and suddenly vanished away
  For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.


Of course, it implies that the treasure will never be found, but it's a really fun word.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:28 AM on July 6, 2013 [1 favorite]


Not sure there would really be a slang word in foreign languages for something so determinate as a treasure hunt (is there one in English?). But you could borrow the internationally-known first part of the German word for it: Schnitzel. (That it seems completely unrelated unless you know the translation, is something that goes well with the satisfying-though-silly sound of the word, and makes it, at least to me, a fun title for a treasure-hunting app.)
posted by progosk at 3:07 PM on July 6, 2013 [1 favorite]


There is a Chilean children's game called el tugar, played by 3 or more people. All but one hide a small object (a ring, a toy, a piece of candy...) in a room while the remaining one is blindfolded. When they're done hiding the object, the child takes off the blindfold and the children sing "tugar tugar, salir a buscar!!" (tugar tugar, go out to search!!) and while the child searches, they give hints: "cold" means the object is very far away, "warm" means they're getting closer and "hot" means they're almost there.

Tugar is pronounced in English as "too'gar", stressed on the last vowel (making it longer).
posted by ipsative at 7:13 PM on July 6, 2013 [2 favorites]


Other thought: why not reappropriate "Go seek"?
posted by progosk at 12:10 AM on July 7, 2013


Last thought: another international word that's associable is "Cache" (vis. Geo-); even doubled up doesn't sound bad, CacheCache (again borrowing Hide and [go] seek).
posted by progosk at 3:17 AM on July 7, 2013


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