A glorious Eskimo word for feeling deeply happy – I wish you many moments of quviannikumut.
‘Sitting high on a sea cliff in sunny, blustery weather in late June – the familiar sense of expansiveness, of deep exhilaration such weather brings over one, combined with the opportunity to watch animals, is summed up in a single Eskimo word: quviannikumut– to feel deeply happy.’
For more on deep happiness, inspired by another Eskimo word, please see www.nuannaarpoq.com
See also my bestellar review of this wonderful book, complete with a mosaic of quotations, metaphors, triologisms and other alluring Eskimo words.
Source: Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams (London: Picador, 1987), p. 135
