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DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish word of the day: Svedig

Feeling hot? It's time for the word of the day.

What is svedig?

Svedig is the adjective form of sved, “sweat”: in other words: sweaty.

The verb at svede, “to sweat”, also comes from the same root: Jeg sveder for meget når jeg cykler op ad bakken, så jeg er nødt til at tage bussen på arbejde (“I sweat too much when I cycle uphill so I have to take the bus to work”).

The adjective, svedig, can mean either to be soaked with sweat or to be sweating, much like you would use “sweaty” to describe either a thing or a person in English.

Why do I need to know svedig?

If you want a fresh-sounding slang adjective, equivalent to saying “cool”, “sweet”, “awesome” and so on, then svedig is a good option. It’s a bit more up to date than the somewhat tired-sounding fedt (literally “fat”, but also used to mean “cool” or “great” in the slang sense).

Other similar slang words are sej (“tough”), kanon (“cannon”) and stærk (“strong”). The least cool-sounding word for “cool” is probably super (“super”).

The new meaning of svedig as something too cool to actually sweat emerged relatively recently. Dictionary site ordnet lists examples from 1998 and 2003 which seem to suggest it underwent an evolution from describing music that can make you sweat from dancing, towards being a more general positive adjective.

In 2011 newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad reported that “the word svedig has taken a new meaning in the language of the youth”.

“Svedig (now) refers (not only) to perspiration and dripping foreheads, but means something more along the lines of exciting, fantastic, cool… in all cases, something really good,” it stated.

Examples

Svedige sko, mand!

Sweet trainers, dude!

Jeg var til koncert med Jada for leden, det var ret svedigt.

I went to a Jada concert the other day, it was pretty cool.

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DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish word of the day: Varmebølge

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

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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