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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: tupplur

Today's Swedish word is especially useful if you've got young children or are feeling a little bit sleepy.

Swedish word of the day: tupplur
Wouldn't mind one of these right about now. Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Tupplur means “nap”, or a short period of sleep, usually taken during daytime, and you’ll usually hear it used in the phrase ta en tupplur (to take/have a nap). It’s a compound noun, made up of two different words: tupp + lur

Lur on its own can be used to mean “nap” or “doze”, although it also has several other meanings. It can mean “bell” or “horn”, while the set phrase på lur means something like “on the lookout” or “in wait”.

The strange part of tupplur is tupp, which means “cock” – in the sense of a male chicken.

According to the word experts at the Swedish Language Council, the term comes from the fact that chickens tend to sleep in short periods, often while standing. An earlier Swedish word for nap, in fact, was hönssömn, literally meaning “chicken sleep”, and similar nouns are found in Norwegian (høneblund), Danish (hønsesøvn) and Icelandic (hænublundur).

Tupplur is believed to date back to at least the early 1800s, and is a common word in Swedish. It’s not that surprising if you consider that the Nordic nations were agricultural economies for much longer than many other European countries. In English, meanwhile, the usual animal-inspired term for a short sleep is “cat nap”, based on the fact that cats often doze for just a few minutes at a time, although in total they sleep far more than chickens.

If you’re looking for more poultry-themed idioms, the Swedish language has a plentiful supply: early-risers might say they’re uppe med tuppen (up with the cockerel), and one way of describing someone with a big ego is to say they’re stolt som en tupp (proud as a rooster).

In Swedish, you’ll also hear the direct English loan word powernap (all one word) used to refer to especially short snoozes, and the direct translation kraftlur is also sometimes used in spoken or online Swedish. By the way, “snooze” has also been borrowed into Swedish as the verb snooza, but it refers specifically to pressing the “snooze” button on an alarm clock.

Examples 

Jag är jättetrött, jag måste ta en tupplur och sen en kopp kaffe

I’m really tired, I need to take a nap and then have a cup of coffee

Är det ok att ta en tupplur på jobbet?

Is it OK to take a nap at work?

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

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For members

SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: shit

Before you get offended by this potty-mouthed word of the day, we should probably tell you that this English swear word is a lot milder in Swedish.

Swedish word of the day: shit

The word shit in Swedish is, as you may have guessed, a loanword from English. It has its roots in Middle English schit and scythe, meaning “dung”, which in turn originated in a Proto-Indo-European word meaning to split, divide or separate.

There are a number of words in other European languages which have the same root, like schijt in Dutch, Scheiße in German, skidt in Danish, skit/skitt in Norwegian and the Swedish word skit.

So, why does Swedish have two words for shit? Essentially, they’re used (and pronounced) in different ways.

Shit, pronounced similarly to the English word but in a Swedish accent, is essentially only used as an exclamation, whether that’s for something good or bad, and most adults in Sweden wouldn’t bat an eyelid if they heard a small child saying it. 

  • Don’t miss any of The Local’s 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

It normally indicates some sort of surprise or shock, similar to “wow” or “oh my god” in English. You might also hear it in the phrase shit pommes frites, which literally translates as “shit, French fries!” which a Swedish speaker might use to express surprise: shit pommes frites, har du fått en ny mobil?! (“shit French fries, have you got a new phone?!”)

If you accidentally bumped into someone in a queue, for example, you could say shit, förlåt (shit, sorry), and if you came to some sort of realisation, you could say oj shit! (oh shit!). In general, saying shit would be acceptable even in professional situations with Swedes.

Skit, on the other hand, is pronounced with the sort of whooshing sj or sk-sound at the beginning, kind of like the word wheat, but with a whistle at the start.

It’s used in Swedish in broadly the same ways you’d use shit in English, both in the sense of actual faeces (as a noun and a verb) but also as a vulgar way to describe some sort of undesirable material or thing: jag har tröttnat på den här skiten (I’m tired of this shit) or ta bort din skit från bordet (take your shit off the table).

You may also have come across it in the term skit samma (the milder variant would be strunt samma), which can be translated as “never mind” or “forget it”, or skit också if something unfortunate happens (skit också, jag missade bussen – damn it, I missed the bus).

You can also describe something as being skit, use it in phrases like jag förstår inte ett skit (I don’t understand shit) and as an intensifier: han bankade skiten ur honom (he beat the shit out of him).

In contrast to shit, skit is generally considered less acceptable to use in a professional situation… although you will probably still hear children say it.

Example sentences:

Oj shit, spelar du in det här? 

Oh shit, are you recording this?

Ska vi inte åka snart? Shit, ja, klockan är redan 12!

Shouldn’t we leave soon? Shit, yeah, it’s already 12 o’clock!

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 USAmazon UKBokus or Adlibris.

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