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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

​​Swedish word of the day: mareld

When you have milky seas you have a sea on fire.

Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

In English ‘milky seas’, also called ‘mareel’, is the phenomenon whereby the surface of the sea sometimes lights up or glows translucently in varying shades of blue. In Swedish this is called mareld.

Mareld, which can extend for hundreds of miles across the ocean, is caused by bioluminescence, light emitted by biological organisms. In the case of mareld, it’s caused by microscopic plankton, which glow brightly enough at night to be visible from satellites orbiting the Earth. You may have seen it in Kon-Tiki, the feature film about famed Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl. 

The plankton emit light when disturbed by boat propellers or swimmers, or more often by predatory fish. The light is actually a defensive reaction to small fish praying on them, and it has evolved to attract larger predatory fish that will feed on the fish eating the plankton, on the principle of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. 

Mareld comes from Old Norse.

But the mar- in mareld is not from mara, the female demon who rides on people’s chests in their sleep, causing night-mares, or, in Swedish, a mardröm

The Old Norse word for ‘sea’ was not hav, a word which first appears in the time of the Vikings, but marr, close to the Latin equivalent mare.

The word mareld in Danish and Norwegian is morild, in English, at least in the Shetland dialect, you get ‘mareel’, in Icelandic maurildi, and in Finnish merituli.

The -eld is of course from the Swedish word for ‘fire’, the origin of which is also old and Germanic.

Mareld can be breathtaking, but is unfortunately not something you will see that often. 

Many may not even know what mareld is, so ask your Swedish friends if they are familiar with it, or if they maybe have even seen it.

Example sentences:

Titta vad vackert! Vad är det? Det är mareld. 

Look how beautiful! What is it? It is mareel.

Visste du att mareld ibland syns från rymden? 

Did you know that mareel is sometimes visible from space?

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. It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.

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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: släkt

Here’s another Swedish word where it’s important to remember the difference between ä and a.

Swedish word of the day: släkt

Släkt is a useful word to know in Swedish, as it’s one of the ways Swedes refer to family. It’s used roughly where you’d say “extended family” or “relatives” in English, and refers specifically to family outside of your core family unit.

If you were visiting family back home, for example, you would say jag ska hälsa på min släkt. If you used the word familj instead of släkt here, it would sound like you were visiting your immediate family – partner and children, or parents and siblings – rather than other relatives.

You can also say jag ska hälsa på mina släktingar. Think of släkt as the collective noun and släktingar as the individuals.

When discussing a royal or noble family, you would use the word ätt instead.

Släkt can also be used as an adjective – vi är släkt (we are related) – and you’ll see it in a number of compound words, like släktforskning (genealogy, literally “extended family research”), släktled (lineage), släktträff (family reunion) and släktskap (relationship or kinship).

You may also come across the phrase släkt och vänner (family and friends), which featured in Björn Afzelius’ 1999 number one single Farväl till släkt och vänner (“Goodbye to family and friends”).

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Another word which is useful for Word of the Day articles is besläktad, used to describe words which are related to each other.

Släkt originally comes from Old Swedish slækt, which has its roots in Middle Low German slecht (meaning family or lineage). 

There are two other Swedish words which look similar to släkt. The first is släckt, which is used to describe a light which has been turned off, or a candle or fire which has been extinguished. The second word, slakt, means “slaughter”, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on your spelling.

Example sentences:

Har ni några planer för sommaren? Ja, vi ska besöka min frus släkt i Indien.

Do you have any plans for summer? Yes, we’re visiting my wife’s family in India.

Vi brukar ha en stor släktträff minst en gång om året.

We usually have a big family reunion at least once a year.

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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