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SWEDISH LANGUAGE

Our top picks of the 36 ‘new’ words that defined Sweden in 2021

A new list of the 36 words that defined Swedish society this year have been unveiled. Unsurprisingly, the Covid-19 pandemic dominated Swedish discourse in 2021.

Published: 27 December 2021 15:20 CET
a child playing with letters of the alphabet
Which of the Swedish words below is your favourite? Photo: Tomas Oneborg/SvD/TT

At the end of every year, the Swedish Language Council and language magazine Språktidningen choose a selection of words that became part of daily conversation over the last 12 months. 

Although it’s called “the new word list,” the words aren’t always completely brand new, and quite a few of the words are English loans.

This year, 36 words made the list, with most having something to do with the impacts of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic or the climate crisis. Here are The Local’s 10 favourites: 

Coronabubbla

One of the government’s main recommendations during the pandemic was to keep a distance from others and avoid spending time with people from different households. This meant people had to choose who would be in the tight circle of friends and family they could spend time with, or their “corona bubble”.  

Kommer du att vara i min coronabubbla? – Will you be in my corona bubble?

Coronahund

Did you get a dog this year? You’re not alone. According to the Swedish Kennel Club, the number of registered dogs in Sweden increased by 11 percent in 2020. But a dog is for life, not just the pandemic. As people head back to working from an office, kennels are struggling to keep up with demand. 

Han är min coronahund – He’s my corona dog

Domedagsskrollande

Bad news sells, and there’s been no end to the bad news in the last few years. We can’t stop ourselves from scrolling through negative news, mainly via social media. In English, we’ve taken to calling this doom scrolling. In Sweden it’s been called “doomsday scrolling”. 

Jag kan inte sluta mitt domedagsskrollande – I can’t stop my doom scrolling

Fono 

Remember when FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) was the new word one everyone’s lips? Well, now it’s FONO. Rather than missing out, it’s a Fear Of Normality that people are struggling with, if we ever return to more normal circumstances. 

Jag kan inte gå tillbaka till jobbet, jag har fono – I can’t go back to work, I have FONO

Gangfluencer

“If the gangsters of old were careful to keep a low profile, today’s criminals belong to a different school,” wrote Swedish magazine Allas in May. “They flash their money, expensive watches and designer clothes on social media and post stories from exclusive holiday trips.”

Gangfluencers lyxlivstilar finansieras av illegala aktiviteter  – Gangfluencers’ luxury lifestyles are funded by illegal activities

Generation corona

While it’s older people whose health has been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19, “Generation C” is increasingly defined by crises. Young people are reporting that they’re struggling with mental health and motivation for online learning. Those born after 1999 are coming of age in the midst of an unprecedented crisis and it’s their education and job prospects that are suffering. 

Det är en tuff tid för generation C / generation corona – It’s a tough time for generation C

Metaversum

The metaverse is a virtual reality where all digital content exists in an infinite multidimensional space. The word metaverse was coined in 1992 by American author Neal Stephenson in the novel Snow Crash. Today it looks more like online giants such as Facebook – newly renamed “Meta” – ruling over the entire internet. 

Jag vill inte vara med i Mark Zuckerbergs metaversum! – I don’t want to be in Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse!

Snällvägg

A nice news word! Växjö is among the growing number of cities that have a “nice wall” where you can give away winter clothes that you no longer need and pick up a coat if you need one. According to Språktidningen, the word is a translation loan from Persian ‘dīvār-e mehrabānī. The phenomenon originated in Iran in 2015 and has since spread around the world.

Jag skänker min gamla jacka till snällväggen – I’m donating my old jacket to the nice wall

Spökkök

This translates to “ghost kitchen”. It’s not that kitchens took Halloween extra seriously this year, but during the pandemic, famous restaurants relocated from city centres to offer take-away menus closer to where people live. People have been eating out less and taking away more, so kitchens are becoming quieter, and spookier.  

Det har förvandlats till ett spökkök – It’s turned into a ghost kitchen

Återförvildande

This is the Swedish word for “rewilding”; restoring nature to its so-called original state, before it was affected by human activity. But what that looks like remains to be decided.  

Vi borde återförvilda landsbygden – We should rewild the countryside

Here is the full list of this year’s 36 new words (in Swedish).

Do you want to learn more Swedish words? Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is now available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it – or join The Local as a member and get your copy for free. It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.

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SWEDISH LANGUAGE

New study reveals most offensive words in Swedish

Gender, age and political leanings all affected which words Swedes found most offensive, although racist and misogynist slurs came out on top, while religious swearwords were considered fairly mild.

Published: 12 June 2024 12:52 CEST
New study reveals most offensive words in Swedish

This article does contain several words that some readers may find offensive. Consider yourselves warned.

Racist slur most offensive

Almost a third of respondents (32 percent) in the survey carried out by Novus on behalf of Språktidningen said that the most offensive word in Swedish was the Swedish version of the racial slur commonly referred to as the n-word, referred to in Swedish as n-ordet.

Attitudes towards this word varied depending on age. Almost two thirds (65 percent) of Swedes aged 18-34 considered it the most offensive word in Swedish, while only 5 percent of Swedes aged 65-84 were of the same opinion.

This may be due to the fact that the Swedish n-word was historically perceived as a neutral term used to refer to anyone with darker skin.

“When people who were older today were younger, the word was in use without being as loaded as it is now,” Kristy Beers Fägersten, English professor at Södertörn University, told Språktidningen.

Since the 1990s, the Swedish n-word has been perceived as more offensive, equivalent to the English racial slur ending in -er.

“I think many older people are aware that the word is problematic, but maybe don’t feel it at such a visceral level as young people do, who have grown up in a climate where you can’t even utter the word, but you say n-ordet instead,” said Beers Fägersten.

“Times have changed but it’s difficult to shake off the way you were raised.”

Views also varied among followers of different political parties. Only 11 percent of the far-right Sweden Democrats considered n-ordet to be the most offensive word, while 71 percent of Left Party voters saw it as the worst Swedish word.

Other groups who were more likely to rate this word as the most offensive word in Swedish were those with a university education and women.

The study did not ask respondents for their race or ethnicity, so it is not clear from the results whether white Swedes found the word more or less offensive than black Swedes, for example. 

Sweden Democrats were also the most likely group to consider svenne (a slang term for Swedes) the most offensive word in Swedish, with over a fifth (21 percent) ranking it highest, compared to only 4 percent of Moderates, Christian Democrates and Liberals, and one percent of the four other political parties.

Many Sweden Democrats consider svenne to be a racist word used by people with an immigrant background against ethnic Swedes, said Torbjörn Sjöström, CEO of Novus.

“Sweden Democrat voters consider themselves to a greater degree to be marginalised in Swedish society and see themselves as victims who have had to make way for other groups,” he said.

Misogynist terms more offensive to men

The next two most offensive words were hora (whore) and horunge (literally: “child of a whore”, but also an old term for a bastard, a child born out of wedlock).

Over a fifth of respondents (21 percent) said hora was the most offensive word in Swedish, while 17 percent considered horunge to be the worst. Men and elderly respondents were more likely to rate these words as the most offensive, which may be due to the fact that the word has been reclaimed by young women in particular.

“Of course, it’s a terrible slur to hear from someone who doesn’t mean well, but in younger age groups the word is also used in a friendly way,” Södertörn University Swedish professor Karin Milles, who specialises in language and gender, told Språktidningen.

“Girls sometimes call each other horor in a jokey way between friends. Using it in a playful way, like hörru din jävla hora (“listen up you bloody whore”) can have made the word less offensive for girls. But it’s still a loaded word for boys.”

Like other slurs reclaimed by different communities, it can still be extremely offensive when used by outsiders.

“It would be completely different if a man said it to a woman. That would make it offensive,” Fägersten said.

Sex and genitals more taboo for older groups

Words to do with sex and genitals were also considered offensive, with fitta, a word for the female genitalia, ranked most offensive by 11 percent of respondents. Just three percent of respondents considered the male equivalent, kuk, to be the most offensive word. In general, women considered both of these words to be more offensive than men.

These words can both be used to describe to the body part in question or as offensive terms for people of the body parts’ respective gender.

Women over 50 generally thought fitta was more offensive than those under 50, with 22 percent of women aged 65-84 ranking it the most offensive word. This group reacted more strongly to fitta than any other word, which Milles puts down to taboo in this age group around female sexuality. 

“For young people words to do with genitals aren’t considered as rude, because there’s been so much discussion around the fact that sex is normal and a beautiful thing, and that there shouldn’t be any shame in talking about it,” she said.

Just one percent of respondents felt idiot was the most offensive word in Swedish, with almost all people in this group aged over 65. This is probably due to the fact that it used to refer to people with intellectual disabilities, whereas now it refers to someone doing something stupid.

Religious words relatively mild

One thing which all genders, age groups and political groups had in common was the fact that traditional swear words to do with religion, like fan (devil), helvete (hell) and jävlar (also devil) were not perceived as offensive as swear words which related to sex, genitalia and ethnicity. Less than one percent of respondents in the whole study ranked one of these three words as the most offensive.

Fägersten believes this is in part due to the way in which the words are used. 

“Jävlar, helvete and fan are just words you’d say, they’re not something you’d call another person,” she said.

English speakers may also have realised that Swedes often use imported English swearwords. like “shit”, relatively liberally. These are also considered quite mild.

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