Lira in Swedish is used colloquially to mean “play”, whether that’s playing a sport, like football, handball or bandy, or playing a game, whether that’s a video game or a board game. It’s essentially a more informal version of the word spela (to play).
If you were talking about playing in general, you would use the word leka instead: barnen leker (the children are playing).
So, how does this all relate to a millennia-old musical instrument?
Well, the roots of the word are in Low German liren, meaning “to play the lyre or similar”. A lyre is a stringed instrument, with the earliest known example dating from 2700 BC in Mesopotamia – a region which now covers Iraq and parts of Iran, Turkey, Syria and Kuwait.
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This word later came to refer to playing any kind of musical instrument – not just the lyre – as well as playing games. It’s also the Swedish word for the currency lira, both the defunct Italian currency and liras elsewhere, like the Turkish lira.
It can be used as a noun, lirare, to describe someone playing a game or instrument, for example matchens lirare, the player of the match – usually with a positive connotation, you wouldn’t really describe someone as a dålig lirare (bad player).
Another related word is finlir, literally “fine playing”, which can be used literally to describe someone playing with a lot of skill, but also as a noun to describe something finicky: det kräver lite finlir att sätta ihop den (it takes a bit of careful tinkering to put it together).
You might also see lirare used colloquially in a similar way to the word “player” in English, someone who “plays” with the feelings of a potential romantic partner, although in Swedish the word doesn’t always have a romantic element.
Instead, it describes something similar to a smooth operator – someone who has it all, gliding through life smoothly with a kind of carefree attitude. You could definitely say that legendary Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović is en lirare på och utanför planen – a player on and off the pitch.
A lyxlirare (literally: luxury player), for example, would be someone who enjoys the finer things in life and who may spend a lot of money on expensive products or services to be able to do so. If you actually did want to call someone a player in the English meaning of the word, you’d just use the English word.
Another lyre-related word in Swedish which you’ll often hear in the context of sport is lyra, which is not only the Swedish word for lyre, but also the act of throwing a ball in an arc towards another player.
Example sentences:
Hur dags ska vi lira i kväll?
What time are we playing this evening?
Du är skitbra på att lira gitarr!
You’re really good (literally: shit good) at playing the guitar!
Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is now available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it. It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.
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