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NORWEGIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Norwegian word of the day: Høstjevndøgn

Autumn has arrived in Norway, and winter is hot on its heels. You can expect the days to get colder and shorter. 

Chalkboard with the Norwegian word of the day on it.
Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash and Nicolas Raymond/FlickR

Høstjevndøgn is the Norwegian word for the autumnal or September equinox. It marks the end of astronomical summer and the beginning of astronomical autumn in the northern hemisphere. 

Jevndøgn means equinox, and høst means autumn. The word used in English, equinox, comes from Latin: aequus (equal) and nox (night). The Norwegian term is directly related to Old English and Norse. Jevn is an adjective similar to “even” and can be used to describe a physical quality (en jevn overflate is “an even surface”), as well as to mean “equal”.

Døgn is a useful Norwegian word that doesn’t have an exact English translation but can both mean “a day” or “a 24-hour period”. 

It’s usually used in preference to the more common dag (“day”) when talking about the amount of time within a day and not to the day in general. So, for example, a store that is open 24 hours a day is described as døgnåpent, “24-hour-open”. 

Why do I need to know this? 

The autumn equinox is on September 23rd 2023. From that date onwards, the days will become darker than lighter. 

The Norwegian word for solstice is solhverv, from sol (sun) and hverv, an archaic word for “turning”.

Example

I dag er det jevndøgn, når dag og natt er like lange.

Today is the equinox when day and night are the same length.

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NORWEGIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Norwegian word of the day: Hetebølge

Today's word hasn't always been associated with Norway, but instances have become increasingly common in recent years.

Norwegian word of the day: Hetebølge

What does it mean?

Hetebølge is the Norwegian word for a heatwave, and is a simple compound of the word for heat (hete) and the word for wave (bølge).

This word isn’t the most common for heat. Instead, the word varme is used when referring to heat. You would use varme in other compounds, such as a heat pump (varmepumpe).

Heatwaves, for obvious reasons, haven’t always been associated with Norway. Still, the country can see prolonged periods of 25c or 30c plus days.

In the summer, the warmest part of Norway is usually a village called Nesbyn, which holds the national heat record (varmerekord) as a temperature of 35.6c was recorded in 1970. The area’s unique microclimate means that it has also gotten as cold as -38c in the past.

Heatwaves will, unfortunately, become more common in Norway due to global warming. Even if Norway doesn’t experience super common heatwaves, plenty of Norwegians will feel the heat on the continent as they typically travel to the Mediterranean, or Syden, as Norwegians call it, every summer.

Use it like this

Jeg lurer på om det blir hetebølge i Norge i sommer.

I wonder if there will be a heatwave in Norway this summer.

Det var hetebølge i Hellas i juni med nesten 40 varmegrader.

There was a heatwave in Greece in June, and it was almost 40 degrees.

Det er meldt hetebølge neste uke.

The forecast is predicting a heatwave next week.

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