Prozvonit: There’s a Name For It

By Laurel Sutton June 26, 2009

We love language, and this series features words from various languages around the world that capture universal, but complicated, human emotions or situations. It’s fun and (gasp!) educational, too!

We welcome your contributions!

Today’s lesson, useful worldwide:

Prozvonit— In both the Czech and Slovak languages, this word means to call a mobile phone only to have it ring once so that the other person would call back, allowing the caller not to spend money on minutes. This concept has names in other languages as well:

Toque – Spanish

Cimanje – Croatian

Wangiri – Japanese

Toque – Brazilian Portuguese

Squillo – Italian

Prank – Australian English, some parts of England

Drop-call – Northern Ireland, some parts of England

Cimnuti – Serbian

Tizntuk – Hebrew

Scotch – South African English

Trznuti – Bosnian

Flash – some parts of Africa

Anklingeln – German

Source: Beyond Words, the ALTA Blog