I just read that the Portuguese word "Desenrascanço" is used to describe MacGyverisms. It translates to "disentangle yourself out of a bad situation".

This got me thinking, that since we have quite a wide range of international members, it might be interesting to see what other words exist in your native languages to describe a MacGyverism.

I wonder what other tongues describe MacGyverisms.

well PORTUGUESE from Portugal is alittle bit diferent from THE SAME Portuguese
WE speak in Brasil. But IF someone in BRASIL say MACGYVERISMO , to another
person will understand ( BUT ) if you are from a small town lost in the
Jungle or you are too young , you won't have a clue....

Macgyverismo also could be translated in many other ways . The slangs change
from State to state , and as I said above , you only can undrstand if you are
old enough or you come from a Big city....

I will give you ONE of the many slangs that COULD be used in my Town
to express Macgyverism or MacgyverismO

Macgyverismo = GATILHO , ( same as trigger ) people that use cheap or
inteligent way ( sometimes NOT ) to solve a problem , with parts , tools that are
handy . So , ENGATILHADOR is the person that do that kind stuff. Macgyverism.

I hope we can find other ways to translate this...

We just put an n to the word and call it "macgyvern". A lot of English words are changed to German by this, like downloading - downloaden.

I see. ^^

In Greek there would be several variables, we don't use the term 'MacGyverism' because the show wasn't aired long enough. XD Though the term will be recognised regardless.

So... we could say: (with the verb 'do' or 'make' before the noun)

ματζαφλεράκιa (matzafleRAkia)

πατέντα (paTENta)

κολπάκια (kolPAkia)

or even use the expression 'I am going to fool the ___item to be bypassed/ circumvented/ fixed in unorthodox purposes____'

Hee hee hee! Hope the greek alphabet shows. In the brackets I got the pronunciation, caps for the stress syllable.

MacGyverism in Norwegian is just simply ''MacGyverisme''
I tend to use ''macgyverish''... ''Very macagyverish!'' and that would be ''macgyversk''

i think the meaning of this topic is more like "what word in your language means macgyverysm", and no "translate macgyverysm to your language"...

if am i correct, the brazilian portuguese translation will be "gambiarra" ou "jeitinho"... and havent nothing about triggers.....

Brazilian people have a inner sense of "gambiarra", doing almost anything with simple things.....

and about regions: im in são paulo, and all people i know uses "gambiarra" as a term like macgyverysm... but not only in my town...

as i ever say, GAMBIARRA RULES!!

MacGyverism in Finnish is "MacGyverismi".

Is MacGyverisms even in the dictionary?

No it's not. In fact if you look in official dictionaries such as Oxford and Merrium-Webster, MacGyver isn't in the dictionary either, to spite a common belief that it is.

I think the closest single word to MacGyverism would be improvise.

In my favorite language (Latin) the term "To Improvise" would be ad subitum. Or maybe a more descriptive subitum cum temere frusta "improvise with random pieces"

Thank for the info KiwiTek.

No it's not. In fact if you look in official dictionaries such as Oxford and Merrium-Webster, MacGyver isn't in the dictionary either, to spite a common belief that it is.

I think the closest single word to MacGyverism would be improvise.

In my favorite language (Latin) the term "To Improvise" would be ad subitum. Or maybe a more descriptive subitum cum temere frusta "improvise with random pieces"

That's unbelievable and an outage. Perhaps if he were a she had 'twerked' an improvisation with a SAK in a highly rated episode - things might be different within the Oxford Online Edition et al presently. Can we start a petition? How, when, where .....?

I was just looking at the criteria the Oxford English Dictionary use for inclusion of words.

It goes something along the lines of the word having to be in use for at least 10 years and should have a general currency where it is unselfconsciously used with the expectation of being understood. Meaning they look for examples of uses of a word that are not immediately followed by an explanation of its meaning for the benefit of the reader. They also require a number of citations (preferably print for easy future reference) showing the word in use.

It's a long drawn out process apparently.

Yes, twerk (for example) has it well beat in that respect having evolved in the 80s and kept prominent and in the mainstream through various music genres. 'Selfie' has been more fast tracked though and I'd never heard of it til it suddenly became the word of the year .... and not surprising that it originated DownUnder where they've made a whole new language out of tagging on IEs/Ys/Os to commonplace words.