Norrbagge

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Norrbagge (plural norrbaggar ) is a pejorative term used in Swedish for Norwegians . The standard Swedish name for Norwegian is norrmän .

etymology

Sheep in Norway.

According to the Svenska Academies ordbok , norrbagge was first attested to as an abuse of Norwegians in 1604, the short form bagge as early as 1525. Its derivation is uncertain because bagge has very different meanings in Swedish dialect, including something as innocuous as "young man, lad." however, it is based on the meaning that the word still has today in the standard Swedish language, namely “ram,” more precisely a castrated one, ie “ mutton ”. According to Dick Harrison , bagge meantin medieval parlance, however, it is not the ram as such but rather the testicles, which he loses during castration; the swear word (norr-) bagge actually means something like “(Norwegian) sheep's balls.” As a synonymous demonym , “ John Bull ” can be compared in this context . This national personification of the English is not a foreign name, but a self-designation represents and is worn with pride; A bull (English for “ bull ”) is different from the mutton and also in contrast to a bullock (“young ox”) in that it still has intact bollocks (“testicles”).

According to another hypothesis, the abusive word norrbagge goes back to a corruption of the Latin word for Norwegians, i.e. Norvagus , sometimes also Norbagus in medieval sources , other authors suspect a connection with the " baglers " who rebelled against King Sverre in the Norwegian civil war around 1200 , another one with the fortress Bagahus in the Swedish-Norwegian border region on the North Sea coast, which the Bohuslän owes its name to.

In the Middle Ages, Norrbagge is used more often as a family name, as a nickname of Svend Nordmand, Bishop of Roskilde in Denmark, even around 1080; the swear word arose without reference to these early namesake.

Use of language

Opinions vary as to how offensive the phrase is. In 2011 the Czech ice hockey player Martin Ševc was punished by the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation after he insulted an opposing player as jävla zigenare ("damn gypsy "); his Norwegian team-mate Marius Holtet complained that he himself was ceaselessly ostracized as a jävla norrbagge , without the referees doing anything about it. The cross-country skier Petter Northug , however, proudly appropriated the term and recorded a hip-hop track in 2013 with the title Jävla Norrbagge including a professional music video in which he pulled off the leather with gusto against the Swedes.

Other swear words for Norwegians

While numerous swear expressions are available in a wide variety of languages ​​to insult other nationalities and peoples ( e.g. the Germans, Irish, Poles, Jews or Italians), norrbagge is almost the only established ethnophaulism to insult the Norwegians, not only in Swedish, but globally . This noticeable deficiency is the subject of a gloss by the American writer Mike Royko ( Yes, Slur, That's Norwegian Now , 1986): after a Norwegian explained to him that there are no anti-Norwegian swear words because the Norwegian is generally very nice, polite and prudent, Nor did he tend to start wars, and therefore was liked everywhere, Royko decided to remedy the situation and invented the word noogin , which, however, did not catch on.

At least in Danish , however, the swear word fjeldabe , literally “mountain monkey” (cf. German island monkey for “Englishman”) has recently become popular. According to Store norske leksikon , it has been in circulation since the 1950s, especially in sport.

Return carriages : Norwegian swear words for Sweden

For his part, until not so long ago, the Norwegian tended to adopt a respectful tone to his neighbors. The Swedes and Danes have been referred to as “brother peoples” in Norwegian literature since the 19th century at the latest, although a special honorary title is reserved for Swedes, namely söta bror , “sweet brother.” It goes back to a prayer by Henrik Wergeland , who in 1836 longed for an end to the personal union with Sweden that lasted until 1905 in a very respectful tone: 'Min søta bror, Tilvisse det maa briste, som hænger daarlig together, Amen!' ("My sweet brother: What is badly put together has to burst at some point. Amen!"). The word svenskeradd , literally roughly “Swedish rogue”, which is marked as derogatory by the Norske Akademis ordbok , but is rarely used insultingly, but rather lovingly or jokingly, comes from the same period . On the other hand, the neologism Partysvenske , which first emerged in Oslo around 2008 and is directed against the numerous young Swedish labor migrants, who have poured into the neighboring country by the thousands since around 2000, when Norway's wage level exceeded that of Sweden for the first time in history, is derogatory.

Individual evidence

  1. Svenska Academies ordbok (online edition) s. vv. norrbagge, sbst. and bagge, sbst. 3
  2. a b c Entry norrbagge in: Elof Hellquist: Svensk etymologisk ordbok , CWK Gleerups förlag, Lund 1922, p. 524.
  3. ^ Dick Harrison : Jarlens sekel: En advise om 1200-talets sverige . Ordfront, Stockholm 2010, p. 391.
  4. OE Norén: Folknamnet norrbagge, Dess uppkomst och härledning , articles in Gothenburg aftonblad , output for the 29, 30 and 31 December as the 1,891th
  5. Per Egil Hegge: Norrbagge . Article in Aftenposten from December 8, 2010.
  6. Jonathan Ekeliw: "Jag blir kallad för 'jävla norrbagge' hela tiden ..." , article in the Sportbladet (online edition) of November 1, 2011.
  7. Pål Marius Tingve and John Rasmussen: Petter Northug angriper svenskene med egen hiphop-låt . Article in Dagbladet (online edition), December 23, 2013.
  8. Justin Peters: Olympics Jerk Watch: The Norwegian Skier Who Loves Mocking the King of Sweden , article in slate.com , February 20, 2014.
  9. ^ Mike Royko: Yes, Slur, That's Norwegian Now . First published in the Chicago Tribune on January 17, 1986.
  10. Entry fjeldabe in Den Danske Ordbog (online edition, accessed December 7, 2019).
  11. Article fjeldabe in the Norske Leksikon store (online edition), accessed on December 7, 2019.
  12. Liv Berit Tessem: Söta bror, rallare and partysvensker kommer i bølger . In: Aftenposten (online edition), June 18, 2015.
  13. Ida Tolgensbakk: Partysvensker; GO HARD! A narratologisk study of unge svenske arbeidsmigranters nærvær i Oslo . Institutt for Kulturstudier og orientalske språk at the University of Oslo, 2014.