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DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish word of the day: Blunder

Here's a Danish word which might have passed you by if you've been asleep during lessons.

What is blunder? 

The present tense of the verb at blunde, meaning “to doze”, to “be half asleep” or “to nap”.

Like the English “nap”, it can also be used as a noun, en blunder, although this is much less common than the most popular word for “a nap” in Danish, en lur. The latter is a word any parent to small children will be very familiar with.

Old Norse had the word blundra, meaning “to shut one’s eyes”, and the word probably shares an origin with the word blind (unable to see), found in Danish, German and English among other northern European languages.

In Swedish, blunda still means “to shut one’s eyes” and can be used literally or figuratively, an example of how the definition of a word can shift in different directions in closely related languages over time, which often happens if there are other competing synonyms.

Swedish also has the related word blund, which like the Danish blunder refers to a sleep. You often hear it in the negated sense, as in jag har knappt sovit en blund i natt (I barely got a wink of sleep last night).

Why do I need to know blunder?

It appears that blunder is another example of a false friend with the English word “blunder”, which means an error or careless mistake.

While this is essentially true, in some cases blunder can be used in a context which means something close to “blunder” in a figurative sense, although the literal meaning is still to doze off.

For example, a situation in which somebody loses concentration, resulting in them squandering an advantage or position, might be put down to a blunder:

Hun var omkring 50 meter i front da løberne nærmede sig målet, men tog en blunder og blev overhalet i sidste strækning.

She was in the lead by around 50 metres as the runners approached the finish, but fell asleep and was overtaken on the final stretch.

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DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish word of the day: Middelmådig

Today’s word of the day, ‘middelmådig’, is not often gladly received by Danes.

Danish word of the day: Middelmådig

What is middelmådig?

Middelmådig is the Danish word for mediocre, and literally means “something of a quality which is largely less than average”.

Similar words and phrases include halvdårlig (“half-bad”) or jævn, meaning “even” but taken as “mediocre” in the right context; af tvivlsom kvalitet (“of dubious quality”) and ringe, which means “poor” but can have connotations of “disappointing”.

The structure of the word is also interesting. Middel translates simply to “middle” or “mid” in English. Mådig is related to måde, which can mean “method”, “mode” or “way” in English, but also closely relates to the characteristics of something or someone.

You can, for example, talk about den bedste måde at gøre det på (”the best way to do it”). A standard phrase in response to someone wishing you a good morning or pleasant day is i lige måde, literally “in the same way”, meaning “the same to you”.

Another interesting use of måde is in the phrase det skal være med måde, meaning to do something neither excessively nor insufficiently: du må gerne spise chokolade, med alt skal være med måde (“you can eat chocolate, but everything should be done in moderation”).

Why do I need to know middelmådig?

To say something is middelmådig is certainly not a complement in Danish, where people generally set their standards quite high, especially when it comes to things like restaurants, architecture or design.

If you hear someone say maden var middelmådig (“the food was mediocre”) about the taste of the wine or main course they had when they went out last week, they probably actually mean it was terrible. Danes do not tend to exaggerate or overstated, regardless of whether they are praising or criticising.

Similarly, someone that possesses the quality of ren middelmådighed (“pure mediocrity”) is not likely to stand out at all in their field.

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