Scandinavian Dictionary Review

Molboland/Gotham/Place where simpletons are from

2010-11-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

molboland noun Mols, about the same as Gotham
In Kunnskapsforlaget's Norsk-engelsk stor ordbok. This definition refers to Gotham, the village in Nottinghamshire, England. There is a nursery rhyme about the residents of the village being imbeciles. I had never heard the nursery rhyme and am sure many others have not either. When I hear "Gotham" I think of New York City or the fictional city that his home to Batman. And I am sure many more people have these associations than the village in Nottinghamshire. This definition should include a description (home of fools, imbeciles, simpletons, etc.), because I suspect a majority of English speakers would not have the intended association with "Gotham." And if you don't know about this meaning of Gotham, the definition doesn't help you understand the significance of "Mols" or "molboland."

springa på bio/keep running to the cinema/go to the movies

2010-03-04T15:15:00.000-08:00

springa på bio (toaletten) keep running to the cinema (lavatory)

This is from Norstedts stora svensk-engelska ordbok. And predictably just the dictionary's use of cinema and lavatory, which I find to be extremely uncolloquial mely in American English, bugged me. But obviously cinema and lavatory are actual English words that are fully intelligible. What bugs me is that the two don't seem to mean the same thing.

To "keep running to the lavatory" would imply that you are continually being interrupted by your need to go to the bathroom. I have no idea what it would mean to "keep running to the cinema." That would seem to imply that you don't stay there very long, like not long enough to see a movie, which begs the question: why the heck are you going there if not to see a movie? So, wondering if perhaps I'm crazy to object to this phrase (maybe it's a completely common thing to do in the UK--how would I know?), I looked up "keep running to the cinema" on Google. Zero hits. I am vindicated. Zero Internet hits for an English phrase is pretty much proof that no one says it.

If you search the Swedish phrase "springa på bio," however, you will find that people do indeed use that phrase. In fact, I got 174,000 hits for it. That's a lot of hits for a smallish perfusion language like Swedish. Based on context, it would appear that this is a completely normal way to say "go to the movies" in Swedish.

Not sure why the good folks at Norstedts couldn't include a viable translation for the phrase. "Go to the movies" gets well over a million hits.

My teeth are icing!/Det iser i tennene mine/[Dental] sensitivity to cold

2009-10-02T14:59:00.000-07:00

From Kunnskapsforlaget's Norsk-Engelsk Stor Ordbook:

å ise verb 4. (about teeth) ice • det iser i tennene mine my teeth are icing

I just looked this verb up and was shocked by the fourth definition. What the heck does that mean? My teeth are icing? Please. No one says that. I'm a pretty well educated native speaker of English and I don't even know what it means. Help! My teeth are icing! Sounds terrible whatever it is.

So, I did a search on google, and I can assure the publisher that their English translation gets ZERO hits on google. And that's hard to do. Zero hits is impressive.

Then I investigated in Norwegian, on Norwegian sites, what the Norwegian expression refers to. It refers to dental sensitivity to cold. Like when you drink a cold or eat ice cream and feel a shooting pain from a sensitive tooth. In English we call this "sensitivity to cold." Kunnskapsforlaget, take note!

Gammeldags/old fashioned/square

2009-08-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

From Kunnskapsforlaget's Norsk-Engelsk Stor Ordbok:

gammeldags old-fashioned, out of date, outdated, dated, antiquated, square (colloquial)

My beef with this definition is the inclusion of the word "square." This sense of "square" as meaning dated is itself quite dated. This use probably peaked around 1960 and certainly fell out of fashion by the 1980s. Which means that it has not been used this way for 30 years! And if you were a native speaker of Norwegian, relying on this dictionary to help you use decent-sounding English. The use of this word in this sense would make you sound silly. And quite out of date...

Methinks the dictionary could use a little updating.

Vicka på foten/wag one's foot/swing one's foot

2009-04-01T11:29:00.000-07:00

This one is from Norstedt's Big Swedish-English Dictionary.

vicka vicka på foten wag one's foot

This is being used of someone who is nervous. She is sitting in a chair, fidgeting and doing this with her foot. And I say, huh? As a native speaker of English, I would never say she was "wagging" her foot. But the English speaking world is vast, so I turn to Google. Perhaps other people do, just not in any of the areas I've ever lived.

Google hits:
wag one's foot - 0
wags her foot - 2
wags his foot - 5
wagging her foot - 10
wagging his foot - 10

I hardly think this is a good translation if it gets so few hits on the Internet. And honestly, a couple of those hits seem to come from foot fetish web sites and another is quoting a badly translated Chinese proverb. When I get in the middle of one of these muddles it's always hard to stop and think of what I would actually say. So, I'll try a few options that come to mind:

Google hits:
shakes her foot - 1280
shaking her foot - 3150
tap her foot - 773
+"tapping her foot" +nervous - 980
+"swinging her foot" +nervous - 626

I'm going to go with "swinging her foot" because "vicka" means "wobble, rock or sway." But, yet again, I would like to complain that I don't think "wag one's foot" is a viable translation option.

sockerdricka/lemonade/7 Up/Sprite

2009-03-30T15:03:00.001-07:00

This one is from Norstedt's Big Swedish-English Dictionary.

sockerdricka noun lemonade

So, when millions of English speakers hear the word "lemonade" they picture a drink made out of lemon juice, sugar and water. Is that what Swedes are picturing when they hear "sockerdricka"? No. First of all, "sockerdricka," which literally means "sugar drink," is carbonated! They used to make it bubbly with yeast, but now it's just done with carbonated water. Second of all it traditionally contained ginger.

I just don't think lemonade is a viable translation. 7 Up or Sprite are much closer. Or maybe citrous soda or lemon soda. Possibly even ginger ale. Honestly, I think Norstedt's was negligent on this one...

umgås med en plan/revolving a plan/hatching a plan

2009-03-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

This one is from Norstedt's Big Swedish-English Dictionary.

umgås: "umgås med en plan" be nursing a scheme, be revolving a plan

I categorically reject "revolving a plan." And it's easy to see that the rest of the world does, too. Here's a quick tally of the Google searches for a number of the possible translations that come to mind:
working on a plan - 2,260,000 Google hits
hatching a plan - 144,000 Google hits
mulling over a plan - 4,510 Google hits
hatching a scheme - 799 Google hits
nursing a scheme - 124 Google hits
revolving a plan - 36 Google hits

Once again, I'm ready to scream at my dictionary. It's like Norstedt's has gone out of its way to try to find the least common possible translations and then decided to put their money on those. It's like they have no working knowledge of English. Who's coming up with this stuff?

Although it gets the most hits, I'm not sure "working on a plan" is really the best translation. There's something very matter of fact about "working on a plan" and there are much more matter of fact ways to say this in Swedish. I'm probably going to go with "hatching a plan" because it feels a little more, I don't know, conspiratorial. Like the Swedish.

Møddingplads/dung yard/manure storage area

2009-01-28T16:26:00.000-08:00

The large Vinterberg & Bodelsen Danish to English dictionary provides the following translation:

møddingplads, noun dung yard

First of all, let me say that it's funny what all comes up in the course of normal translation work. This one struck me because "dung yard" sounds quite old fashioned to me. So I did a little search on Google, one of my standard procedures in hunting for the right word.

Google hits for +"cattle" +(the following term)
dung yard = 490
manure store = 657
manure storage facility = 637
manure storage area = 2510

I guess I'm going to go with "manure storage area." While I usually complain about the dictionary, in this instance, I would like to praise it for including the term. It's a lot easier for a native speaker of English (raised in cities) to figure out a more modern sounding way to say "dung yard" than it is to just pull a great translation for "møddingplads" out of thin air.

Venskabsby/sister city/twin town

2008-12-29T20:22:00.000-08:00

From Gyldendal's big Danish-English dictionary:

venskabsby sb adopted town, twin town
-er (også)paired towns, twinned towns, twin towns; være ~ med be twinned with.

Once again, this should be marked as UK English. Twin town just sounds plain silly in American English. There are twin cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul for example), but twin towns? The entry should have included the North American term: sister city.

Google hits:
twin town - 254,000
sister city - 835,000

It drives me crazy that they don't include the term that is actually way more common! I'm not saying "take the UK" terms out. I'm saying, mark them as being what they are: unintelligible to the majority of US English speakers. And include the US term. Please!

følgebrev/cover letter/covering letter

2008-12-07T19:12:00.000-08:00

From Gyldendal's big Dansk-Engelsk dictionary:

følgebrev covering letter; (advisseddel) letter of advise, delivery letter.

I've never heard it called a "covering letter." I've only ever heard it called a "cover letter."
And, indeed, if we take a look at the number of Google hits each version receives:
covering letter = 1,120,000
cover letter = 7,190,000
You will see that the form I'm familiar with is about seven times as common. Why does Gyldendal not include it?

As it happens I don't really accept "letter of advise" or "delivery letter" as proper English either. "Letter of advise" should be spelled "advice" (as it is under the Gyldendal's entry for "advisbrev." I'm not sure how either of these should be translated into English. Honestly, I bought the dictionary so I wouldn't have to figure things like this out...

ovenlys/roof light/skylight

2008-12-03T12:48:00.000-08:00

Finally, a word from a Danish dictionary. And not just any Danish dictionary, but Gyldendal's enormous Dansk-Engelsk Ordbog, the Vinterberg & Bodelsen behemoth.

ovenlys et overhead light; (i tag) roof light.

I've never heard of a "roof light." So I did an image search on Google and guess what? Apparently "ovenlys" should be translated as "skylight" in U.S. English. And sure enough, if you do a Google image search for "roof light" you get a bunch of hits for British pages showing skylights and also a bunch of pages for the lights that go on top of police and taxi cab roofs.

Google hits:
roof light 155,000
skylight 6,040,000

So, my point once again, is that the UK term should be marked as such since it is essentially unintelligible in US English and the dictionary should provide the (overwhelmingly more widespread) US term: skylight.

apoteker/dispensing chemist/pharmacist

2008-12-01T14:53:00.000-08:00

drogerihandler subst; slightly old-fashioned (=apoteker) dispensing chemist; US: druggist.

OK, again the American in me has to say, what the heck? This is from Kirkeby's Stor Norsk-Engelsk Ordbok. What gets me is that they give a specific American translation, but they give "druggist." I found the term "druggist" in Merriam Webster, but I have to say this is pretty much the only place I've ever heard it. The everyday American term is "pharmacist." Why doesn't Kirkeby include the translation "pharmacist"? And why does Kirkeby mark "druggist" as the US term?

A quick Google search really says it all:
dispensing chemist: 46,300 hits
druggist: 784,000 hits
pharmacist: 18,400,000 hits

I just don't understand why my Norwegian to English dictionaries so frequently don't include the most normal, most common translation for these terms. Seriously. Eighteen million hits is a lot of hits.

Scotch collops/scotch a rumor

2008-11-17T20:23:00.000-08:00

When I looked up “avlive” today in my Kunnskapsforlaget’s Stor Norsk-Engelsk Ordbok, I found this definition:

avlive verb 1. kill, put to death, put to sleep (especially of pets)
2. (by extension) put an end to, scotch (about rumors and the like)
• han prøvde å avlive ryktene som hadde oppstått he tried to scotch the rumours that had started

I’ve never heard the expression “scotch” used as a verb. So, as is so frequently the case when I look things up in my Norwegian to English dictionary, I had to look up the English term. I can’t help but feel that that would not be necessary with a good Norwegian to American English dictionary. Sigh.

Merriam-Webster assures me that it’s been used this way since the 15th century. So, as usual, my ignorance is part of the problem. But I do want to point out that I’m a very bookish person. I have a PhD in literature. I read a lot. So if I find something to be an obscure term, it’s probably not a term that is necessary in the Norwegian to English dictionary. If I, a native speaker of English, don’t have the term in my active vocabulary, I don’t recommend that Norwegians with English rusty enough that they need to use this dictionary go flinging the term around. Primarily because there’s a significant risk that the English speakers they’re trying to communicate with won’t understand it.

I did a quick search on Google to see how common the expressions are. Here are the number of hits I got:
“scotch the rumours” 604
“scotch the rumors” 190
“end the rumours” 1,670
“end the rumors” 21,700
This clearly shows that the use of “scotch” is more common with the UK spelling of “rumour” and thus probably chiefly British. If 21,000 people say “end the rumors,” I’m going to have to go with that.

As a fluke, however, I discovered something amazing while researching this in the OED. Although I am an American, my ethnicity is mostly UK in origin. And I grew up eating a meal we called “Scotch scallop” or “Scotch shlop” which was a bed of mashed potatoes, with a sautéed ground beef and onion mixture and a can of Leseur peas. I loved it. But I never had any idea what the scallops referred to or why no one else had heard of this meal.

Well, in researching “scotch” in the OED, I found the following meaning for “scotch”:

locally. Meat cut into small pieces. Scotch collops: ‘a savoury dish made of slic'd veal, bacon, forc'd meat and several other ingredients’ (Bailey 1730-6); now, a steak with onions. minced collops (Sc.): minced meat, mince.

svindler/fraudster (what about cheat? or con artist?)

2008-11-17T15:25:00.000-08:00

svindler noun swindler, fraud, fraudster (especially in business contexts), con artist (colloquial)

My argument with this term is “fraudster,” which should be marked as UK English and not “especially in business contexts”!) Merriam Webster explains that fraudster dates all the way back to 1960 and is chiefly British. So then I looked it up in the OED, which defines fraudster as “One who commits fraud, esp. in a business transaction,” dating it as far back as 1975! So, I suppose once again Kunnskapsforlaget’s Stor Norsk-Engelsk Ordbok is correct for British English. If I translated “svindler” as “fraudster” in the U.S., however, my clients would balk. The entry should specify that "fraudster" is UK English and should also include "cheat."

ta fart/take a run-up/get a running start

2008-11-16T13:28:00.000-08:00

Another expression I encountered in Kunnskapsforlaget's Stor Norsk-Engelsk Ordbok was:

ta fart take a run-up

This should be marked as UK English as it is completely unintelligible in U.S. English. Based on the OED my best guess is that it is a cricket term, meaning to get a running start. Which means that Kunnskapsforlaget's entry is incomplete. They should mark "take a run-up" as UK English and they should provide a viable US English translation as well.

gladgutt/sandboy

2008-11-13T16:28:00.000-08:00

While translating a while back, I encountered the word “gladgutt.” “glad” means “happy” and “gutt” means “boy,” so I figured I had a pretty good sense for what this word meant until I looked it up in Kunnskapsforlaget’s Norsk-Engelsk Stor Ordbok the other day and found:

gladgutt noun Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky, sandboy
• han er en skikkelig gladgutt he’s as happy/jolly as a sandboy

Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky made perfect sense to me, but I was stumped by “sandboy.” What the heck’s a sandboy? So, I looked “sandboy” up in the OED and found “sand-boy: 1. a boy who hawks sand for sale. In proverbial phr. as happy (or jolly, etc.) as a sandboy.”

And even now, having researched it, I’m still a little confused as to whether these boys are drunk and/or homeless. This is just not in my active or passive vocabulary. And I would argue that there are literally millions of native English speakers who probably have no idea what a sandboy is, thus making this a bad translation. Or maybe it’s a good translation, but just British English? In which case Kunnskapsforlaget should mark it as such.

The Dictionaries

2008-11-13T16:11:00.000-08:00

In this blog I will be giving examples of some of the crazy entries I've found in the Norwegian to English, Danish to English, and Swedish to English dictionaries I use in the course of my work as a professional translator. To my mind, as an American, they're all errors. Perhaps some of them are alright in British English. Or perhaps some of them were alright 100 years ago. Or even 50 years ago. But I consider them all errors now.

The dictionaries I'll be referring to (and what they themselves claim about how they deal with US/UK English) are:

Gyldendals Dansk-Engelsk Ordbog. 4th Ed. 1998

Does not mention British verses American English differences in the forward.
The forward from the first edition, which came out in 1954 and which is cited at the start of the dictionary, does mention:
“Ved Valget af Oversættelser af Ord fra Dagligsproget har det ofte været nyttigt at kunne raadføre sig med indfødte Englændere.”
[“In choosing translations of words from colloquial language it has often proven useful to be able to consult with native-born English people.”]

Kirkebys Stor Engelsk Ordbok: Norsk-Engelsk. 2nd Ed. 2003.

Concerning British verses American English the forward states:
“Amerikansk engelsk er registrert i en viss utstrekning, især I de tilfeller der misforståelser kan tenkes å oppstå (see opplaget bukseseler).”
Translation provided:
“American English has been recorded to some extent, notably in cases where there may be ambiguity (see bukseseler).”
Bukseseler subst; pl: braces; U.S.: suspenders; et par ~ a pair of braces (U.S.: suspenders); se hofteholder; sokkeholder; strømpestropp).

Kunnskapsforlagets Norsk-Engelsk Stor Ordbok. 2002.

Concerning British verses American English the forward states:
“Den engelske rettskrivningen følger The New Oxford Dictionary of English, med britisk-engelsk som standard, og med amerikanske former som likeverdige sideformer. Dette innebærer at amerikansk-engelske oversettelser er oppgitt der de avviker fra de britisk-engelske.”
[The English spelling follows The New Oxford Dictionary of English, with British English as standard, and with American forms as equally valid variants. This means that American English translations are cited where they differ from the British English [translations].]

Norstedts Comprehensive Swedish-English Dictionary. 3rd Ed. 2000.

Concerning British verses American English the forward states:
“Wherever American English differs from British English the American variant is given. For the choice of headwords and examples a great number of Swedish, English and American dictionaries have been used (see the Bibliography on page XXII), as well as authentic examples from newspapers, books and different text databases.” -page V