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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: glögg

It's fun to say, and more fun to drink. Today's Swedish word of the day describes a favourite festive treat: glögg.

Published: 23 November 2018 15:03 CET
Updated: 20 December 2023 07:14 CET
the word glögg on a black background next to a Swedish flag
Have you had your first glögg of the season yet? Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Glögg is Swedish mulled wine: heated wine, usually red – although white varieties are available too – with spices, almonds and raisins added in. You’ll also see alcohol-free versions, made with juice or simply non-alcoholic wine.

It’s exceptionally popular, almost exclusively drunk around the Christmas season, and glöggfester (glögg parties) are common.

The pronunciation of glögg sounds ever so slightly like the noise you make while gulping down a mug of the stuff at a cold Christmas market, but the origin of the word is not onomatopoeic. It actually comes from the Old Swedish word glödg, a noun made from the verb glödga.

RECIPE: How to make your own Swedish glögg

Delving back even further, glödga has its origins in the verb glöder (to glow), and literally meant something like “to heat up until it glows”. Heated wine was popular even among the ancient Greeks and Romans, who also added spice to the concoction, very likely to counter impurities in the wine.

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

These days, glödga has a narrower meaning, “to mull”, and like the English verb this can refer to warming drinks or to considering something and “mulling it over” in one’s mind (although it’s unlikely you’ll actually hear Swedes use it in the latter context).

The oldest written record of the word glögg is from the early 19th century, even though Swedes have been warming up their wine in winter for centuries before that. Records of glödgat vin date back to the 1600s, and we know that Gustav Vasa, one of Sweden’s most famous rulers in the early 1500s, drank wine heated up with honey, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger.

Swedish mulled wine, and with it the word glögg, has been exported to neighbouring countries, giving rise to the word gløgg in Denmark and glögi in Finland.

Example sentences:

Glögg är en väldigt viktig dryck runt jul

Glögg is a very important drink around Christmas

Glögg dricks ur små koppar och serveras med mandel och russin eller pepparkakor

Glögg is drunk from small cups and served with almonds and raisins or gingerbread

Need a good Christmas gift idea?

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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For members

SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: nyckelpiga

These little red and black insects are starting to pop up in gardens and fields all across Sweden. But where does their name come from?

Published: 14 May 2024 09:18 CEST
Swedish word of the day: nyckelpiga

Nyckelpiga, or nyckelpigor in the plural, is the Swedish word for the red and black spotted insects known in English as ladybirds or ladybugs.

Their name is made up of two words in Swedish, nyckel, which is the word for key, and piga, meaning a maid or other female servant, so it could be literally translated as a “keymaiden”.

In many European languages, these insects have names which relate to the Virgin Mary. 

In English, legend has it that farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary asking her to protect their crops, and when ladybirds appeared to eat aphids (a common garden pest), they called them “Our Lady’s birds”, which over time was simplified to ladybirds.

They’re known as mariquita in Spanish and marieta in Catalan, while in Danish and Norwegian they’re called mariehøner or marihøner (literally: Mary hens), and in German they’re called Marienkäfer (Mary beetles).

The Swedish term has a less obvious relationship to the Virgin Mary, and dates back to Sweden’s Catholic past.

Mary is believed in Catholicism to have seven sorrows, which are all events in her life often depicted in art by seven swords piercing her heart. The most common ladybird in Sweden has seven spots, which were seen as representing these seven sorrows.

  • 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

Seven was also considered to be a holy number in general, and it was believed therefore that ladybirds held the keys to heaven on behalf of Mary. According to an old Swedish folk tale, anyone who releases a captured ladybird would be let through the gates of heaven, and in many countries they are believed to be able to reveal when someone will marry.

In Sweden, it was said that if one landed on your hand and walked along your fingers, it was measuring new gloves for you, which meant that you were either going to attend a wedding or a funeral, and in France, a woman could put a ladybird on her finger and count out loud until it flew away, with the number reached representing how many years would pass before she would marry.

Another word for ladybird in Swedish is gullhöna (yellow hen), which most likely refers to the less common yellow ladybirds with black spots.

These ladybirds were believed to be able to predict the weather in some parts of Sweden. In Bohuslän, ladybirds meant good weather, and if you saw one, you were supposed to say gullhöna, gullhöna, flyg, flyg, flyg, så blir det sommar och gott, gott väder (ladybird, ladybird, fly, fly, fly, then it will be summer and good, good weather). In Värmland, however, seeing a ladybird meant the opposite: bad weather and rain.

Example sentences:

Tycker du inte att det har varit ovanligt många nyckelpigor i år?

Don’t you think there has been an unusually large number of ladybirds this year?

Nyckelpigor är ett bra nyttodjur att ha i trädgården då de äter bladlöss.

Ladybirds are a good beneficial insect to have in the garden, as they eat aphids.

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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