Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Missing words

The newspaper Svenska Dagbladet has a weekly updated column of "Lexikala luckor", missing words in the swedish language. A favorite:
Blygskryt [substantiv], att genom att framhålla sina enkla vanor, sin fantasilöshet, dåliga smak och sitt bristande kulturintresse få någon annan att känna sig som en fåfäng elitist eller snobb.

Modest bragging: Through the means of accentuating one's simple habits, lack of imagination, bad taste and lack of cultural interest make someone feel like he/she is a self-conceited elitist or snob.

One word: Luxury! ;)
The translation can probably be improved, english is not my "starkspråk" (strongest language, as in ability that is)...

Which words do you miss, swedish or english, besides the obvious "lagom"?

/O.K.
(Listening to while posting: Paul Giger - Chartres)

13 comments:

LS said...

I know some Swedish word we need in English:

fisförnämt
finlir
slickepott
dyngsur

(O.K. can try to translate :)

LS said...

And HOW did the label CARDBOARD BOX fit with this post??? ;)

O.K. said...

It was a _luxury_ I allowed myself... ;)

O.K. said...

I need a word for the phenomena when you remember tidbits of all kinds of useless information forever ("biostrath...") but can't remember the important stuff. "Partial memory" perhaps? I suffer greatly from it.

O.K. said...

"Dyngsur", that must be "soaking wet". There is a word for "finlir" (delicate maneuvering, in a broad sense) as well, but I can't remember it now. Partial memory!
"Slickepott" could be incorporated in english just as fartlek, smorgasbord and ombudsman when they are spread over there. "Fisförnäm" is a hard one however, "snotty" isn't quite right.

LS said...

For your tidbit word, how about 'chopped thinking' or 'randomized thoughts'?

I am a tidbit thinker too, my brain jumps all over all the time (just ask PP, he suffers from my brain's lack of ability to stay on track sometimes).

LS said...

For you English speakers:
'Dyngsur' literally means 'dungsoaked'.
Finlir = 'small play' (used both in politics, music, business, and sports)
Slickepott = 'licking pot'
Fisfornamt = 'farty snobbery' (imagine a mom with a brandnew expensive baby carriage passing a regular mom with a used carriage, the first mom keeps her nose in the air and won't even say hi to the other (poorer) mom - so she is fisfornam.

O.K. said...

I was had memory in mind, not thinking. How about "skip-thinking" for your non-followable associations? ?

LS said...

I like "skip-thinking". Sounds like skipping stones on water, thoughts bouncing off the brain surface sending waves around.

O.K. said...

Funny, very close to the image in my mind. I thought of the bounce as the clear(ish) thought and the resulting arc as the (sometimes seemingly random) association which leads to another thought.

O.K. said...

Another word for the occasions when you can't even follow your own associations: Flutter-thinking! Like the butterflies that flutters by...

O.K. said...

Flutter according to Webster: to move about or behave in an agitated aimless manner.

LS said...

But skip-thinking sounds more like what goes on in my mind - giant leaps and bounds between subjects and associations, not little fluttering like a butterfly among neighboring subjects. I think I'll start using 'skip-thinking', right now!