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NORWEGIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Norwegian word of the day: Uvær 

Given the weather recently, it should come as no surprise that 'uvær' is the latest Norwegian word of the day.

Pictured is the latest Norwegian word of the day, Uvær, on a white board with a Norwegian flag on it.
Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash and Nicolas Raymond/FlickR

What is uvær

Uvær is a useful Norwegian term without a direct one-word equivalent in English. Depending on the context, you could translate it as ‘bad weather’, ‘inclement weather’, or even ‘storm’.

The word can be used to describe windy, rainy weather, even if the wind speeds don’t qualify as a storm. The Norwegian word for storm is the same as English. You will also hear storms referred to as ekstremvær, meaning extreme weather. 

More mild rainy conditions can be described as yr. Yr is the word used to describe drizzle. If you are into the specifics and are willing to challenge yourself to measure raindrops – drizzle is precipitation with a drop size of less than 0.5 mm and is a transition between rain and clouds.

On its own, vær means weather and comes from the Old Norse term veðr and is related to the equivalent words in many other languages: English’ weather’, German Wetter, Swedish väder and Dutch weer, to name a few. The root of the Old Norse word means ‘gust’ or ‘breath’. It eventually became generalised to refer to both good and bad weather conditions.

The prefix u is most often used in Norwegian as a form of negation for adjectives. For example, lykkelig (happy) becomes ulykkelig (unhappy), mulig (possible) becomes umulig (impossible) and so on. It can also be used as a prefix to denote an abnormal, extreme form of the root noun, implying judgment from the speaker. For example, the word udyr means ‘beast’ or ‘monster’ from u + dyr (animal). 

In this case, u isn’t a negation but a sign of abnormality and undesirability, a distorted form of the root word. And uvær falls into this category: it doesn’t refer to a lack of weather but rather weather that is unusual and extreme, with negative consequences.

Another form of a ‘u prefix’ would be ukulturThe word refers to bad behavior or a generally hostile culture for work and education.  

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For members

NORWEGIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Norwegian word of the day: Middelmådig

Given that Norwegians don’t like to kick up too much of a fuss, they sometimes settle for less.

Norwegian word of the day: Middelmådig

What does it mean?

Middelmådig is the Norwegian word for mediocre. The word is borrowed from Danish, but this should come as no surprise.

Swedish, Danish and Norwegian are considered mutually intelligible, meaning users of the languages should be able to understand one another.

Norwegian, particularly, borrows plenty of words from Swedish and Danish. This was due to the country’s various historical unions with the other two nations.

This led to a large influence of Swedish and Danish on the Norwegian language, as Norway was typically the poorer and less influential country.

Things have changed these days , and the countries stand on a more even footing with one another, mostly thanks to oil. Still, the impact of Swedish and Danish has remained, despite various movements to make the language moreNorwegian

Back to the word middelmådig, Norwegians typically don’t like confrontation. Therefore, some may settle for mediocrity. This is most likely to happen at a restaurant when the food isn’t totally awful (helt dårlig), but it’s not great – or arrived colder than it was meant to. 

The word isn’t used just for mediocrity. It directly translates to the middle level or middle strength. Therefore, you can use the word to describe being adequate at something. In this sense, you would “være middelmådig begavet,” or “be moderately gifted” when translated to English.

Use it like this:

Mine fotballferdigheter er middelmådige.

My football skills are mediocre.

Kunnskapen min om dette emnet er middelmådig.

My knowledge of this subject is mediocre.

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