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The stain example is super interesting to me. Would a German person that spills red wine not acknowledge a resulting stain?

I don't know about Backpfeifengesicht, but both zeitgeist and schadenfreude are English words now.

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Of course they would acknowledge a stain. I meant that the word Fleck encompasses both stains and intentional spots including blind spots, spots on a map or drawing, spots in an animal's fur pattern, and stains on one's shirt. [0] Just because you don't have an exact word for something, doesn't mean you can't recognize it or try to express it - but that distinction must come from context around the word.

Conversely in English stain has to be distinguished in cotext from the words for shirt stains, wood stains (Holzbeize) and stained glass (Buntglas).

Perhaps a better word to demonstrate it is Gemütlichkeit. [1]

Zeitgeist and Schadenfreude are exactly words imported into English because no words in English came close to capturing these words' meanings. You'd have to say "pleasure derived from another's misfortune" every time.

[0] https://www.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/Fleck.html

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gem%C3%BCtlichkeit#Similar_wor...

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