Descriptive word for depression in another language?

March 1, 2022 9:10 PM

I seem to recall having read somewhere that there is a language which uses the same word to describe depression that it uses also to describe softshell crabs (or lobsters?) after they've just shed their hardshells. Or maybe it was a snake after it shed its skin?? Something like that... but Googling has failed to illuminate me further... Any ideas on the language and the word that I'm trying to remember?? Thanks!!!!!
posted by Misciel to Writing & Language (5 answers total)

A little distant, but "chagrin" in French means a very rough leather, sometimes from snake skin, and the secondary sense of anxiety or embarrassment comes from the painful sensation against rubbing against the chagrin.
posted by escabeche at 9:23 PM on March 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

Possibly more distant, "cafard" in French means both depression and cockroach.
posted by JimN2TAW at 12:34 AM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I found the answer! I had originally seen it on the subreddit TodayILearned: “TIL the Yaghan Indian word for ‘depression’ was the word that described the vulnerable phase in a crab's seasonal cycle, when it has sloughed off its old shell and waits for another to grow.” I don’t know if this factoid is accurate, but I hope so. The connection it makes between vulnerability, the discomfort it engenders, and the necessary space it makes for future growth is a beautiful one. ✌️
posted by Misciel at 3:17 PM on August 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: The citation for this factoid was taken from a now-defunct page that had quoted Bruce Chatwin’s Patagonia.
posted by Misciel at 3:36 PM on August 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: In Patagonia, that is.
posted by Misciel at 3:56 PM on August 6, 2022 [1 favorite]