I met Eva a few summers ago after a two-month absence. I had stayed with her family when I came to Slovakia the previous fall. How was her mom? I wanted to know. Her brother? Her little sausage dog?
"Well," she said. "My brother's unhappy you haven't called."
"Oh," I said, searching for an excuse. "I've been busy. You know, new job."
"It's okay," she said. "He's not angry. He's just ješitný."
"Ješitný?" I said.
"Yeah," she said. "I think it means 'fussy' in English."
I pictured her brother folding his socks and underwear before going to sleep in a nightcap. I didn't think fussy was quite what she meant, but I added ješitný to my Slovak vocabulary anyway because I liked the sound of it. I used it to mean sensitive, ornery, or unhappy with Matthew J. Reynolds in any way for no good reason.
Two years of trial and error later, I think I've zeroed in on the correct meaning. Ješitný is an adjective I could hardly do without now that I understand it, but one which has no commonplace equivalent in English. I define it as prone to taking offence because of overweening pride.
Others define ješitný simply as easily offended, but that robs the word of its true brilliance, which is that the person in question is not likely to be offended because of anything I have done, but because of a flaw in his own character. Ješitný is especially useful in describing people who are touchy because of deep-seated feelings of inferiority or incompetence.
I have discovered more concept-words used regularly in Slovak with no English equivalents. Last summer I was biking with a friend to Čunovo Lake outside Bratislava. Her shoelace got caught in the peddles. She fell, I laughed.
"You are škodoradostný," she said.
