Busy in Different Languages
Discover 'Busy' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Busy
Afrikaans besig | ||
Albanian i zënë | ||
Amharic ስራ የሚበዛበት | ||
Arabic مشغول | ||
Armenian զբաղված | ||
Assamese ব্যস্ত | ||
Aymara jan pachani | ||
Azerbaijani məşğul | ||
Bambara degu | ||
Basque lanpetuta | ||
Belarusian заняты | ||
Bengali ব্যস্ত | ||
Bhojpuri व्यस्त | ||
Bosnian zauzeto | ||
Bulgarian зает | ||
Catalan ocupada | ||
Cebuano busy | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 忙 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 忙 | ||
Corsican occupatu | ||
Croatian zaposlen | ||
Czech zaneprázdněný | ||
Danish travl | ||
Dhivehi ބުރަ | ||
Dogri मसरूफ | ||
Dutch druk | ||
English busy | ||
Esperanto okupita | ||
Estonian hõivatud | ||
Ewe le dɔ wɔm | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) abala | ||
Finnish kiireinen | ||
French occupé | ||
Frisian drok | ||
Galician ocupado | ||
Georgian დაკავებული | ||
German beschäftigt | ||
Greek απασχολημένος | ||
Guarani hembiapoheta | ||
Gujarati વ્યસ્ત | ||
Haitian Creole okipe | ||
Hausa aiki | ||
Hawaiian hana | ||
Hebrew עסוק | ||
Hindi व्यस्त | ||
Hmong tibneeg hu tauj coob | ||
Hungarian elfoglalt | ||
Icelandic upptekinn | ||
Igbo na-arụsi ọrụ ike | ||
Ilocano adu ar-aramidenna | ||
Indonesian sibuk | ||
Irish gnóthach | ||
Italian occupato | ||
Japanese 忙しい | ||
Javanese sibuk | ||
Kannada ನಿರತ | ||
Kazakh бос емес | ||
Khmer រវល់ | ||
Kinyarwanda ahuze | ||
Konkani व्यस्त | ||
Korean 바쁜 | ||
Krio bizi | ||
Kurdish bikar | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) سەرقاڵ | ||
Kyrgyz алек | ||
Lao ຄາວຽກ | ||
Latin occupatus | ||
Latvian aizņemts | ||
Lingala mosala mingi | ||
Lithuanian užsiėmes | ||
Luganda bize | ||
Luxembourgish beschäftegt | ||
Macedonian зафатен | ||
Maithili व्यस्त | ||
Malagasy be asa | ||
Malay sibuk | ||
Malayalam തിരക്ക് | ||
Maltese għandi x'nagħmel | ||
Maori pukumahi | ||
Marathi व्यस्त | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯊꯕꯛ ꯆꯤꯟꯕ | ||
Mizo buai | ||
Mongolian завгүй | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) အလုပ်ရှုပ်သည် | ||
Nepali व्यस्त | ||
Norwegian travelt | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) tanganidwa | ||
Odia (Oriya) ବ୍ୟସ୍ତ | ||
Oromo muddamuu | ||
Pashto بوخت | ||
Persian مشغول | ||
Polish zajęty | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) ocupado | ||
Punjabi ਵਿਅਸਤ | ||
Quechua ruwanayuq | ||
Romanian ocupat | ||
Russian занятый | ||
Samoan pisi | ||
Sanskrit व्यस्तः | ||
Scots Gaelic trang | ||
Sepedi tsene fase | ||
Serbian заузет | ||
Sesotho phathahane | ||
Shona ndakabatikana | ||
Sindhi مصروف | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) කාර්යබහුලයි | ||
Slovak zaneprázdnený | ||
Slovenian zaseden | ||
Somali mashquul | ||
Spanish ocupado | ||
Sundanese sibuk | ||
Swahili busy | ||
Swedish upptagen | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) abala | ||
Tajik банд | ||
Tamil பரபரப்பு | ||
Tatar мәшгуль | ||
Telugu బిజీగా | ||
Thai ไม่ว่าง | ||
Tigrinya ዝተጨናነቀ | ||
Tsonga gingirika | ||
Turkish meşgul | ||
Turkmen meşgul | ||
Twi (Akan) adaagye nni hɔ | ||
Ukrainian зайняте | ||
Urdu مصروف | ||
Uyghur ئالدىراش | ||
Uzbek band | ||
Vietnamese bận | ||
Welsh prysur | ||
Xhosa uxakekile | ||
Yiddish ביזי | ||
Yoruba nšišẹ | ||
Zulu matasa |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | The word 'besig' shares its origin with 'busy' and means 'at work' or 'engaged' in Dutch. |
| Albanian | The Albanian word "i zënë" is also used to describe a person who is "distracted" or "occupied with other thoughts". |
| Amharic | In Amharic, ስራ የሚበዛበት can also mean "full of work" or "having a lot to do". |
| Arabic | The word "مشغول" can also mean "preoccupied" or "engaged" in Arabic. |
| Armenian | The word "զբաղված" originally meant "occupied" and could refer to both physical and mental states. |
| Basque | The word "lanpetuta" is a compound, derived from "lan" ("work") and "petuta" ("incessantly") in Basque. |
| Belarusian | The word "заняты" in Belarusian can also mean "occupied" or "engaged". |
| Bengali | ব্যস্ত (byasta) literally translates to 'occupied' and means engaged in an activity, typically one that requires attention. |
| Bosnian | The word "zauzeto" is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "zajeti", which means "to take" or "to occupy". |
| Bulgarian | The word "зает" in Bulgarian originally meant "taken" or "occupied". |
| Catalan | Originally, "ocupada" meant a pregnant woman in Catalan as the word derived from Latin "occupare", meaning "to fill, to occupy. " |
| Cebuano | The Cebuano word "busy" can also mean "talkative" or "noisy". |
| Chinese (Simplified) | "忙" not only means being physically busy, it can also mean looking after someone. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | "忙" is also used to represent "fly" and a surname commonly pronounced "Mang". |
| Corsican | Corsican "occupatu" also means "taken over" or "engaged in conversation" |
| Croatian | The word "zaposlen" in Croatian is derived from the Proto-Slavic word *zapolno, meaning "filled" or "full". |
| Czech | The word "zaneprázdněný" comes from the Old Church Slavonic word "zana" meaning "on" and "prazdný" meaning "empty", hence its original meaning was "not empty", i.e. "full" or "occupied". |
| Danish | The 13th-century word "travl" meant "difficulty" or "affliction", and not until the 19th century did it acquire its present meaning of "busy". |
| Dutch | The Dutch word "druk" may originate from the term "drucken" in Middle Low German, meaning "to press" or "to weigh down." |
| Esperanto | "Okupita" is derived from "okupi", meaning "to occupy", hence "busy". |
| Estonian | Hõivatud is a compound word, meaning "occupied" or "taken possession of". |
| Finnish | Kiireinen originates from Finnish "kiire" meaning 'hurry' or 'haste', and is thus not related to the English word "keen" of the same spelling. |
| French | "Occupé" can also mean "engaged" in the sense of being in a relationship |
| Frisian | The Frisian word "drok" likely derives from the Middle Dutch "droch" or "droech" meaning "sad" or "sorrowful". |
| Galician | In Galician, "ocupado" has an alternate meaning, "possessed by spirits", a usage unique to the language. |
| Georgian | The verb |
| German | The word "beschäftigt" is derived from the Old High German word "biscafti", meaning "assigned to a task" or "burdened with work". |
| Greek | "απασχολημένος" derives from the Ancient Greek word απασχολία, which means "employment" or "engagement". |
| Gujarati | "વ્યસ્ત" or "vyast" in Gujarati can also mean "involved" or "engaged in" an activity or task. |
| Haitian Creole | Haitian Creole "okipe" also means "to occupy" in French. |
| Hausa | "Aiki" can also mean "trouble" or "problem" in some contexts in Hausa. |
| Hawaiian | "Hana" also means "work" in Hawaiian. |
| Hebrew | In Hebrew, the word "עסוק" can also mean "engaged" in a conversation or otherwise occupied. |
| Hindi | The word 'व्यस्त' is derived from the Sanskrit word 'विस्तार', meaning expansion or extension, suggesting a state of being engaged in multiple activities. |
| Hmong | The word "tibneeg hu tauj coob" (busy) in Hmong is composed of the words "tibneeg" (work) and "hu tauj coob" (a lot of), and can also refer to someone who is very talkative or noisy. |
| Hungarian | Elf is a supernatural being from German folklore, so the Hungarian word 'elfoglalt' could be literally translated as 'elf-occupied' or 'bewitched by elves'. |
| Icelandic | "Upptekinn" in Icelandic originally meant "to be fully occupied with work," but it has since come to mean "busy" more generally. |
| Igbo | The Igbo phrase "na-arụsi ọrụ ike" (literally meaning "doing heavy work") connotes the idea of being extremely busy. |
| Indonesian | The Indonesian word "sibuk" has cognates across the Malay archipelago, most likely derived from Proto-Austronesian *sibuk, signifying "heavy" or "weighty". |
| Irish | The word "gnóthach" also means "a small thing" or "a trifle" in Irish. |
| Italian | "Occupato" in Italian derives from the Latin "occupare," meaning "to hinder" or "to prevent," and thus can also mean "engaged" or "involved." |
| Japanese | The word "忙しい" (busy) is derived from the Japanese word "いそぐ" (to hurry), and also refers to a state of being engaged or occupied. |
| Javanese | The word "sibuk" in Javanese can also mean "pretentious" or "pompous." |
| Kannada | The word also means involved, engaged, or intent in Kannada. |
| Kazakh | The word “бос емес,” meaning “busy” in Kazakh, also refers to someone who is very important or high-ranking. |
| Khmer | "រវល់" also means "noisy" and is derived from the Sanskrit word "ravana" meaning "demon" or "noise". |
| Korean | The word "바쁜" (busy) was originally a slang term used by gisaeng (female entertainers) in the Joseon Dynasty. |
| Kurdish | "Bikar" also derives from an Old Kurdish term for a "beehive" and can mean "busy like bees" in a metaphoric usage. |
| Kyrgyz | Kyrgyz "алек" derives from Proto-Turkic *aγlïg ("fast, agile"). |
| Lao | The word "ຄາວຽກ" is derived from the Pali word "kavija", meaning "work" or "occupation". It is also related to the Sanskrit word "karma", meaning "action" or "deed". |
| Latin | The Latin word "occupatus" also means "possessed" or "seized," with the latter sense being the origin of the English word "occupied." |
| Latvian | The word "aizņemts" in Latvian can also mean "taken" or "occupied" and derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *em- "to take". |
| Lithuanian | The Lithuanian word "užsiėmęs" derives from the Proto-Indo-European root "*sem-", meaning "to hold" or "to seize". |
| Luxembourgish | "Beschäftegt" can also mean "engaged" or "involved" in a figurative sense, such as being engaged in a conversation. |
| Macedonian | The word "зафатен" is an adjective in Macedonian that means "very busy" and derives from the verb "фати" which means "to take" or "to grab". |
| Malagasy | The word "be asa" also means "to be doing something" or "to be occupied". |
| Malay | The word "sibuk" in Malay, also means "to have a lot on one's mind" or "to be mentally occupied". |
| Malayalam | "തിരക്ക്" (busy) derives from the word "തിര" (shore), and thus also means "the edge of the sea" or "the crowd at the shore". |
| Maltese | "Għandi x'nagħmel" literally translates to "I have something to do" and is often used interchangeably with "busy". |
| Maori | The word 'pukumahi' has various meanings, including 'dizzy', 'confused', 'stupefied' and 'stupid'. |
| Marathi | व्यस्त in Marathi has connotations of involvement in a ritual or ceremony, as well as being occupied with a task. |
| Mongolian | The Mongolian word "завгүй" (busy) is commonly confused with the Chinese word "忙" (mángx), due to their similar pronunciation and meaning, but they have different etymologies and characters. |
| Nepali | The word "व्यस्त" (byasta) can also refer to being preoccupied, engaged, or involved in something. |
| Norwegian | The Norwegian word "travelt" is also occasionally used to describe a person who is talkative or chatty. |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | The word "tanganidwa" in Nyanja can also refer to something that is difficult or tiresome to do. |
| Pashto | The Pashto word "بوخت" (busy) is thought to derive from the Proto-Iranian root "*buxtā-," meaning "to be pressed, burdened, or cramped." |
| Persian | The word "مشغول" in Persian can also mean "taken" or "unavailable". |
| Polish | Zajęty, a Polish word for 'busy,' also means 'arrested' or 'occupied.' |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | Portuguese "ocupado" comes from past participle of Latin "occupare" ("seize, take up"), whence occupation, opaque, preoccupy. |
| Punjabi | The word "ਵਿਅਸਤ" (vyasta) is derived from the Sanskrit word "व्यास" (vyāsa), which means "to spread out or extend". |
| Romanian | Ocupat, the Romanian word for 'busy' can also mean 'occupied' in the sense of being employed or taken up, e.g. 'ocupat cu munca' ('occupied with work') or 'ocuparea funcției' ('job occupation'). |
| Russian | The word "занятый" can also mean "occupied" or "engaged" in Russian. |
| Samoan | Pisi also means 'tired' or 'lazy' depending on context. |
| Scots Gaelic | In Gaelic the word 'Trang' can also mean 'close', 'tight' or 'oppressive'. |
| Serbian | In the 15th century, the word "заузет" was used to describe someone who was "tied up" or "occupied". |
| Sesotho | Phathahane is also a town in South Africa that is named after the Tswana word for "many trees". |
| Shona | The Shona word "ndakabatikana" can also mean "occupied" or "involved in an activity." |
| Sindhi | Sindhi "مصروف" shares its root with the Arabic "صرف" (to spend), also sharing the meaning of "expense" in both languages. |
| Slovak | The word "zaneprázdnený" is derived from the Old Slavic word "zanimati", meaning "to occupy". |
| Slovenian | Etymology: possibly from Proto-Slavic *sęd- (“to sit”) + *-en- (“action, result”) |
| Somali | Mashquul in Somali can also mean 'preoccupied' or 'engaged in an activity'. |
| Spanish | "Ocupado" can also be used to describe a place or object that is taken or in use. |
| Sundanese | In Sundanese, "sibuk" can also be used to describe an object's condition, such as "heavy" or "firm." |
| Swahili | The Swahili word "busy" can refer to physical movement or mental preoccupation |
| Swedish | The Swedish word "upptagen" literally means "taken up", referring to one's time or attention being occupied. |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The Tagalog word "abala" can also mean "occupied" or "engaged". |
| Tajik | The Tajik word "банд" originates from the Persian word "باند" (band), meaning "bond" or "connection." |
| Tamil | "பரபரப்பு" is also used to describe a state of excitement or commotion. |
| Telugu | The word "బిజీగా" can also mean "involved" or "preoccupied". |
| Thai | "ไม่ว่าง" originally referred to the engagement of one's schedule, but has since expanded to include the idea of being emotionally unavailable. |
| Turkish | The word "meşgul" in Turkish is derived from the Arabic word "mashghul", meaning "engaged in work or study". |
| Ukrainian | The word "зайняте" in Ukrainian can also mean "captured" or "occupied". |
| Urdu | Did you know that "مصروف" can also refer to expenses in Urdu? |
| Uzbek | "Band" means "busy" in Uzbek, but it can also refer to a group of musicians or a strip of fabric. |
| Vietnamese | The word "bận" in Vietnamese is thought to have Chinese origins and can also mean "to wear" or "to be occupied with responsibilities." |
| Welsh | The noun "prysur" can also mean "haste" or "hurry". |
| Xhosa | Uxakekile can also mean 'occupied', 'involved in', or 'engaged with'. |
| Yiddish | The Yiddish word "ביזי" also means "angry" or "bad-tempered." |
| Yoruba | "Nšišẹ" can also mean "to be engaged in an activity" or "to be involved in something." |
| Zulu | The word 'matasa' in Zulu can also refer to the bustling activity of a crowd or the chaotic movement of objects. |
| English | The word "busy" comes from the Middle English word "besie," which means "occupied," and is related to the Old English word "bisgian," which means "to be occupied." |