SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

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.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
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.

SHOW COMMENTS