Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: tisdag

Maybe the only world you'll need today.

Published: 9 November 2021 10:44 CET

the word tisdag written on a blackboard next to the swedish flag

Tisdag is the Swedish word for Tuesday, but what does it mean? Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Tisdag is the Swedish word for Tuesday.

It’s named after the Old Norse god Tyr; in other words tisdag means “Tyr’s day”.

Tuesday is dies Martis in Latin, Mars’ day, which you’ll see in languages with Latin roots such as French (mardi) and Italian (martedì). There is a clear connection between the two: Tyr is often thought of as the counterpart to the Roman god of war, Mars.

Tyr isn’t one of the most famous Norse deities today. In Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, the most important source material from the 13th century, his crowning glory is an incident where he gets his hand bitten off by Fenrir, a wolf in Norse mythology.

During Ragnarök, the great battle of the end times, the prophecy states that Tyr will fight – and kill and be killed by – Garm, the dog that guards the gates of death kingdom Hel.

For now, his main contribution to Sweden other than giving Tuesday its name, is that he appears in several place names across Scandinavia, such as the Swedish east coast town Tierp, Tyringe in southern region Skåne, or Thisted in Denmark and Tysnes in Norway.

Tuesday is, since 1972, the second day of the Swedish week.

Examples:

Vi ses på tisdag!

I’ll see you on Tuesday!

Brukar du äta semlor på fettisdagen?

Do you usually eat semlor [a popular Swedish pastry] on Shrove Tuesday?

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Swedish word of the day: själv

The word själv means “self”, as in han gjorde det själv (he did it himself), jag tycker själv bäst om våren (I personally prefer spring), vad tycker du själv (what do you yourself think?) or as parents of Swedish-speaking two-year-olds will know too well, kan själv (“can self!” or “I can do it myself!”).

Själv can also mean “alone” – not necessarily implying that the speaker is feeling lonely – such as jag var hemma själv (“I was home alone”) or jag gick på bio själv (“I went to the cinema on my own”). If you’re feeling lonely, you should instead say jag känner mig ensam.

It appears in several compound words, such as självisk (selfish) or osjälvisk (unselfish/selfless), självbehärskad (restrained, or more literally in control of oneself) or självförtroende (confidence).

Don’t miss any of our Swedish words and expressions of the day by downloading our app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Swedish Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button

A trickier word to explain is självaste.

Självaste can also mean him or herself, but think of it as a more extreme version, implying that the speaker has some sort of reaction to the person in question, perhaps they’re impressed or shocked. Other translations can be “in the flesh” or “none other than”.

For example: jag vände mig om och då stod självaste drottningen där (“I turned around and the Queen herself was standing there”) or de vann mot självaste Barcelona (“They won against none other than Barcelona”).

You also often hear it when Swedes swear. Det var då självaste fan (“It was the devil… in the flesh”) may be said by someone who is annoyed that something went wrong or isn’t working, although more often than not they’ll leave the last word unspoken: det var då självaste… (similarly to how an English-speaker may say “what the…” leaving out the cruder word “hell”).

Examples:

Själv är bästa dräng

If you want to get something done you’d best do it yourself

I själva verket

In actual fact (in fact, actually)

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.

Url copied to clipboard!