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DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish word of the day: Sammenskudsgilde

This Danish word can help you to enjoy a potluck of tasty dishes at your next summer party.

Published: 3 June 2022 17:00 CEST

What is sammenskudsgilde?

Related to the English word guild, ‘gilde’ dates back to Viking-era Denmark, meaning a brotherhood, society or association in which peasants or subjects of the land united for a common benefit.

Guilds often met at large social occasions, at which a lot of eating and drinking took place, presumably including plenty of Viking-style throwing of gnawed bones over shoulders.

The root of the word in the old Nordic languages can also mean a payment or a fee, and this can be seen in the similarity with gæld (debt) in modern Danish.

Meanwhile, sammenskud is a contraction of sammen (together) and skud (literally, a shot, from the verb at skyde, to shoot). ‘Shooting’ something together in this context in Danish means to combine different contributions or components to form an overall product.

A social event, gathering or occasion in which everyone brings a dish to share with all the other guests is known as a sammenskudsgilde.

Why do I need to know sammenskudsgilde?

If you’re hosting a party or barbecue this summer and want everyone to bring a salad dish or their own contributions for the grill, you’ll need this word for the invitations. 

You can provide guidelines to guests so they know what to bring (asking some for salad, some to bring meat and so on), or leave things completely down to chance and enjoy the surprise.

It’s common for gatherings in Denmark to be planned as a sammenskudsgilde, saving the host the stress of preparing large quantities of food and minimising costs for all guests, as well as cutting waste should anyone not be able to make it at the last minute.

The concept is at its best you want good variation of dishes, plenty to go around and low costs for yourself and all your guests.

Examples

Min fødselsdagsfest bliver en international sammenskudgilde, hvor alle medbringer en typisk ret fra deres hjemland.

My birthday will be an international food party where everyone brings a classic dish from their home country.

Vi tænder grillen allerede kl. 17, så husk at tage kød med til sammenskudsgildet. Vi sørger for salat.

We’ll light the barbecue at 5pm, so remember to bring your own meat for the shared grill. We’ll provide the salad.

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For members

DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish word of the day: Varmebølge

Here's a Danish word to use when complaining about the hot weather.

Published: 24 June 2024 15:52 CEST
Danish word of the day: Varmebølge

What is varmebølge?

Varmebølge means “heatwave” in Danish.

Varme means “heat” or “warmth”, and bølge means “wave”, so it’s an easy translation. You’ll sometimes hear hedebølge used too, using another Danish word for “heat”. The word varme is the more common of the two, and can be used in situations where you might say either “heat” or “warmth” in English. Hede, on the other hand, implies a more extreme type of heat.

For example, the Danish words for “hot water bottle” and “central heating” both use varme rather than heat (varmedunk and centralvarme or just varmen, respectively) and “hot weather” is varmt vejr but the phrase i kampens hede means “in the heat of the battle”. 

Why do I need to know varmebølge?

While the above terms – varmebølge and hedebølge – are synonyms on first glance, there’s an important difference.

Denmark’s national meteorological agency, DMI, defines a varmebølge as a three-day period on which the average highest temperature is over 25 degrees Celsius.

For a hot spell to qualify as a hedebølge, on the other hand, the average highest temperature for the three days in question must exceed 28 degrees Celsius

People from southern parts of Europe might consider either type of Danish heatwave to feel more like regular summer weather – and perhaps this helps explain why extreme weather in southern regions in recent years, related to climate change, has led to speculation Denmark could become an increasingly popular summer destination for foreign holidaymakers.

The phrases also reveal a little about how Denmark’s climate influences language and the way Danes talk about the weather.

READ ALSO: Five Danish phrases you only hear in summer

While almost everyone gets quickly tired of long spells of cool, wet summer weather – like those seen during most of June 2024 – it also doesn’t take much for Danes to begin longing for more moderate temperatures to return once it heats up.

Anything over around 24-25 degrees Celsius is likely to be considered for meget (“too much”) what I would consider a regulation summer temperature of 26 degrees might be described as denne forfærdelige varme (“this dreadful heat”).

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