How to define the undefinable? Use untranslatable words!

In some kind of elite, genius, Gnostic aikido move, Father Scott, who blogs at Eighth Sermon to the Dead opens with the difficulty of defining or describing gnosis or Gnosticism and then takes a sharp left-turn off the paved road by giving definitions of three unrelated terms from other languages: dépaysement (French), saudade (Portuguese) and duende (Spanish).
Apart from the delight that he's chosen words from three major Templar countries, this elliptical turn somehow works better than any other attempt I've made, read or heard to get close to the heart of Gnosticism.
It reminds me of an old post by Jason Miller about the twisting language of spirits (the blog seems to have disappeared, but here's a backup copy). He gives a quote from a shaman about how one must talk to spirits:

"With my koshuiti I want to see - singing, I carefully examine things - twisted language brings me close but not too close - with normal words I would crash into things - with twisted ones I circle around them - I can see them clearly. "

With normal words we often crash into things, with twisted ones, sometimes, we can see them clearly.