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DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish word of the day: Vovehals

If you're someone who is a bit of a daredevil and doesn't always live by the rules, you'll soon find yourself acquainted with this Danish term.

What is vovehals?

Literally translated, a vovehals is a ‘dare-throat’, the word taking the verb ‘to dare’ (at vove) and throat (hals) and putting them together. The best English equivalent is probably daredevil, or someone prepared to take (sometimes unnecessary) risks. 

You might use the word for someone who likes to take risks to show how daring they are — by jumping from the highest springboard at a swimming pool even though they can’t dive, for example.

However, vovehals can also refer to someone who takes a step into the unknown and starts that business they’ve always dreamed of. As such, the term can be used both in admiration and derision, though the latter is arguably the more common. 

Why do I need to know vovehals

It’s easy to think of Danes as being a pragmatic nation of people who don’t take risks often, and that is perhaps reflected in the use of vovehals as well as an adjective, dumdristig (literally, “stupid-brave”) to describe excessive risk taking. There are several other synonyms for vovehals, too: you might also hear chancerytter (literally, “chance-jockey”) and the loan word desperado.

All of these words can be used to describe someone who is liable to throw themselves with abandon into life-threatening or dangerous, or merely risky, situations.

Incidentally, Danish also has a colourful antonym for vovehals: bangebuks (literally a “scared trouser”) is someone who is a coward or without courage.

Examples

Maverick var kendt som en værre vovehals, men så lærte han at styre sine impulser og blev en bedre pilot.

Maverick was known as a serious daredevil, but he learned to control his impulses and became a better pilot.

En vovehals blev meldt til politiet af flere bilister onsdag eftermiddag efter han kravlede til tops på Storebæltsbroen.

A daredevil was reported to police by several motorists on Wednesday afternoon when he climbed to the top of the Great Belt Bridge.

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DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish word of the day: Kværn

This unassuming little word pops up surprisingly often in Danish, so it's a very good one to have in your vocabulary.

Danish word of the day: Kværn

What is kværn?

Kværn is a noun meaning “mill” or “grinder”, used to refer to any kind of tool or machine that breaks a substance down into smaller pieces.

kværn can be small, for example a peberkværn (pepper mill) or kaffekværn (coffee grinder).

There’s some overlap between kværn and mølle, the Danish word for “mill”. In the past, mølle might have been used to refer to household items like the coffee grinder. It’s now become the reserve of larger pieces of machinery like windmills (vindmølle), but there is stills a bit of interchangeability in Swedish, a sister tongue of Danish.

If you’re in Skåne – the Swedish province closet to Denmark — the word for “mill” in the local dialect is not kvarn but mölla.

Why do I need to know kværn?

The above describes how to use kværn as a noun, but it’s also a verb, at kværne, meaning “to grind” or “to mill”.

Apart from everyday uses like jeg kværner kaffebønnerne (”I’ll grind some coffee beans”), you won’t hear it too often in its literal sense, but it has a lot of figurative meanings too.

For example jeg var så sulten, at jeg kværnede maden uden at sige et ord means ”I was so hungry I gobbled down (literally ’crushed’ or ’ground’) the food without saying a word”.

This can also apply to drinking: han sad og kværnede bajere hele aftenen (“he sat there downing beers all evening”).

It can also be used to describe working very hard, as in jeg skal bare kværne, indtil projektet er færdig (“I have to keep grafting until the project is finished”).

Finally if someone kværner bare løs, it probably means they are talking non-stop.

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