Xenophile's Swedish Word of the Day thread

[Xenophile]

I'll make a post at least once every day, explaining and translating a Swedish word with its interesting nuances and my fascination with it.

Requests are acceptable  O8)

Oh, and discussing the words or language in general is okay too.

[Xenophile]

The Swedish word of this post is... Lagom.

How is it pronounced? Lha-gohm.

How is it used? To describe an amount, or satisfaction with something. "I think this amount of soda in my glass is lagom." "This weather feels lagom."

I have been told that there exists no equivalent of this word in any other language on Earth. If we translated it crudely, it'll mean "just enough" in English. Problem is, "just enough" doesn't have a positive or uplifting ring to it. Lagom does.

Lagom means "not too much, not too little, not perfect, and it's good enough that it's impossible to not like it". It embodies the Swedish mindset that average is a virtue.

[Xenophile]

The Swedish word of this post is... Fan.

How is it pronounced? Faahn.

How is it used? It is a curse word, but it can be used as a name. "Fan, I hate this!" "Look at that Fan, what is he doing?"

The word has its roots in ancient Scandinavian, and every Scandinavian country used it (with little or no change). It is a word for the Devil, but today it maintains no connection with the devil or demons. Today, it is a simple curse word, and has about the same meaning and impact as the English curse word "Fuck".

Another variation exist of the word, which is Fy Fan (Füü Faahn), where Fy can be translated into "Shame (on you)!" or as a disgusted or disturbed reply, where Fy Fan works perfectly. "Fy fan, that's nasty."

[Xenophile]

The Swedish word of this post is... Skräp.

How is it pronounced? Scraep.

How is it used? It's a word for junk. It means translates into "junk" or "scrap" in English. "Man, why do you keep collecting all of this skräp in our living room?" or "I got skräp in my trunk".

It's that easy.