Apropos of feelings that English needs a word for: the feeling of that awkward moment when you meet a stranger going in the opposite direction in a small space and you have to decide which way you’re going to go while silently coordinating with the other person so they go to the opposite side. And then you choose wrong, which is to say the same direction as the other person, and you meet in the middle. And then both of you try to rectify the situation by going in the other direction, so you meet again, exponentially increasing awkwardness each time. I’d use that word more often than I’d like.
I actually met an old man with a novel solution to this conundrum the other day: we were walking in opposite directions on a narrow sidewalk, and he stopped, made a weird swirling motion with his hand and pointed to his right, which I interpreted as “walk to that side.” Worked fine (we didn’t meet/invade each other’s private space in the middle), but I’d say the awkwardness factor was still uncomfortably high.
Oct 7, 2010