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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Swedish word of the day: hemester

Here's a word that's sure to spark some debate around the fika table this month.

Published: 19 July 2019 06:00 CEST
Swedish word of the day: hemester
Image: nito103/Depositphotos

Hemester is a portmanteau (the linguistic term for two words smashed together to combine their meanings) made up of hem (home) and semester (holiday — we've looked into the origin of the Swedish term here). So it literally means 'holiday at home', but the English equivalent would be 'staycation', also a portmanteau.

Fun language fact: in Swedish, the word for portmanteau is teleskopord (literally 'telescope word'), probably because the parts of words are combined just like lenses in a telescope.

A hemester can mean you literally stay at home and simply explore your own neighbourhood like a tourist, perhaps attending local events or going to that museum you've always walked past but never set foot in. But it can also be used to talk about any vacation spent in the same country you live in. 

Like semester, you can turn hemester into a verb, for example vi har vält att hemestra i år (we've decided to take a staycation this year).

An alternative word is svemester, from Sverige (Sweden) + semester (holiday).

Hemester is a concept that's been around for a while, and was named one of the New Swedish Words of the Year back in 2009, but it's seeing a boost in popularity this summer thanks to a recent trend towards sustainable travel. Climate activist Greta Thunberg has urged Swedes to ditch international flights, and the hashtag '#hemester' has thousands of posts on Instagram. 

But how popular is the concept really? After a heatwave that brought record warm summer weather to Sweden in 2018, many people apparently planned to stay at home this summer, but a cooler than usual start to July saw rocketing numbers of families book last minute package holidays further south.

READ ALSO: Seven must-do activities to add to your Swedish summer bucket list

Examples

I stället för att resa utomlands, varför inte ta en hemester? 

Instead of travelling overseas, why not take a staycation?

Jag hade planerat att hemestra, sen blev juli mycket kallare än vanligt

I had planned to staycation, but then July was much colder than usual

Do you have a favourite Swedish word you would like to nominate for our word of the day series? Get in touch by email or if you are a Member of The Local, log in to comment below.

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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: annandag

Today is annandag pingst, but what does annandag actually mean?

Published: 20 May 2024 11:16 CEST
Swedish word of the day: annandag

Many Swedish religious holidays last three days, starting with the afton celebrated the day before the holiday, then the dag, which is the actual day of the holiday, then annandag, the day after the holiday.

Some examples of these are Christmas (jul), Easter (påsk) and Pentecost (pingst), where annandag refers to Boxing Day, Easter Monday and Whit Monday, respectively.

Annandag itself is a compound word consisting of two words: annan and dag. Let’s look at annan first.

Annan comes from the Old Swedish word annar, meaning “second”, “other” or “one of two”. In the accusative case, this became annan, which has hung on in modern Swedish. (For the purposes of this article I’ll be skipping the explanation of Old Swedish grammar, but the grammatically-inclined can read more on the accusative case here.)

It can be complicated to translate into English, and the fact that the word can appear as annat, andre or andra, too, depending on the object it refers to, doesn’t make this easier. 

Here are a few ways it can be translated: 

Vill du ha någonting annat? (Would you like something else?)

Jag vill ha en annan tröja (I want a different top)

Har du några andra leksaker? (Do you have any other toys?)

Den andre prinsen heter André (The second prince is called André [you could use andra here, too])

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Dag, meanwhile, comes from the Old Norse dagr via Old Swedish dagher, with the same Proto-West Germanic root as the English word “day”. 

It differs from the word dygn, which refers specifically to a 24-hour period (as an aside, there is a rarely used word for this in English, too, nychthemeron, from an Ancient Greek term meaning “lasting a day and a night”). 

As far as annandag is concerned, the annan here means “second”, so it literally translates to the second day of whatever holiday it’s referring to.

Usually, an annandag will be written alongside the name of its respective holiday, like annandag påsk or annandag pingst. If you see it written alone, it’s probably referring to annandag jul, which is December 26th or Boxing Day.

Although most holidays in Sweden have an afton and a dag, not all of them have annandagar, so you’ll probably raise a few eyebrows if you ask your colleagues about their plans for annandag midsommar. 

We won’t stop you trying to get your friends and family to celebrate you for an extra day on annandag födelse (second birthday), annandag mor (second mothers’ day) or annandag far (second father’s day), though.

Example sentences:

Annandag pingst var allmän helgdag i Sverige fram till 2004

Whit Monday was a public holiday in Sweden until 2004

Vi brukar fira med min pappas familj på annandagen

We usually celebrate with my dad’s family on December 26th

Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is 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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