Prostor is a word in Russian that English speakers sometimes refer to as an untranslatable emotion. They describe it as something like friluftsliv, the feeling that comes from spending time immersed in natural spaces, but with a certain shade of difference. Prostor, they say, is a yearning for wide open spaces, not just in a literal sense, but in the metaphorical sense of expansive thinking.
Hold on a minute. Expansive is an English word, isn’t it? It can refer to space that’s wide open in a physical way, but also to the feeling of expansiveness that entering vast open spaces provokes. Metaphorically, an expansive mood is one in which a person is able to think and feel broadly, envisioning new possibilities and encountering people with a generous spirit.
Is that exactly what the Russians refer to as prostor? I don’t know. It sounds pretty close to me, but then, I’m not Russian. I’m in an expansive mood, so I’ll place these two concepts together while also allowing for the likelihood that someone else will understand these two concepts differently. That’s the whole idea of emotional granularity, after all, to acknowledge that people experience emotions differently, with some cultures perceiving emotional distinctions that others just don’t grasp.
