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Cougar, IPA and swag: more English creeping into Danish language

Christian Wenande
March 8th, 2019


This article is more than 5 years old.

Meanwhile, ‘penis skin on fingers’ and an anal sex reference were also approved

“Oh yeah, you definitely have penis-skin fingers (photo: Pixabay)

There’s little doubt that English is influencing the Danish language more and more these days – an expert recently found that upwards of 10 percent of the Danish language is influenced by English.

That trend looks set to continue following the adoption of 780 new words into the official Danish dictionary today. Once again, a number of the new additions hail from English.

Among the approved English-borne words that will have the same meaning in Danish are: cover, clue, daybed, expat, cougar, donut, device, IPA, mobilehome, rockefeller, streetsmart, voiceover, networker and swag.

READ MORE: Super fedt or f*****g lort? English invading the Danish language

Other oddities
Furthermore there were also some IT-inspired words that were adopted, including internetbrowser, VPN, Vlog, videoblogger and youtuber.

Elsewhere, several expressions were also greenlighted this year, including ‘have pikhud på fingrene’ (‘to have penis skin on the fingers’), which means that one has soft hands or sensitive fingers.

Another addition is a new reference to anal sex, ‘sport i toeren’ (‘sport in number 2’), which is a clever reference to back when there were only two TV channels in Denmark and there was sport being shown on TV2.

‘Banditter i habitter’ (‘bandits in suits’) is another new and rather pertinent expression, given the recent money laundering scandals in Denmark.

Other interesting additions include Truckerbad (‘trucker bath/shower’), which is just spraying on deodorant instead of taking a shower, and ‘betonlebbe’ (‘concrete lesbian’), a masculine-looking lesbian.

There were also three new words relating to immigrants – ‘indvandrersprog’ (‘immigrant language’), and ‘indvandrerfjendtlig’ and ‘indvandrerfjendsk’ (which both mean having a negative view of immigrants).

See all the new 780 words and expressions here (in Danish).


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”