# Norwegian: Grisegøy



## The_Red_Lion

Hello,

I wonder if somebody could explain something. I'm not sure what *grisegøy* means. I'm guessing that if *griseflaks* means _unbelievable luck_ then *grisegøy* means _unbelievable fun_.

So I'm assuming that *gris-* merely functions as an intensifier, and doesn't really have anything to do with a pig. 

Unfortunately my little system seems to fall over because *grisevær* apparently means _awful weather_.

So in short what English meaning would a Norwegian give to *grisegøy.*

Cheers.


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## vestfoldlilja

”I'm guessing that if griseflaks means unbelievable luck then grisegøy means unbelievable fun.”

You can use unbelievable, but I think great and fun works best. I would use great as a translation. Vi hadde det grisegøy sammen – we had great fun together. 

Gris is also a word for mess, dirt, filth, but probably stems from the idea that pigs are dirty. 

It is used as an intensifier, but it doesn’t have to intensify anything positive, so it can therefore be used to describe bad weather as well.


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## The_Red_Lion

Mange takk vestfoldlilja. Nå forstår jeg!


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## vestfoldlilja

You’re welcome. 

We have another word for pig also; svin, and from that word we have:

Svinesti – (directly translated as pig path) Rommet ditt er en svinesti – you’re room is a mess

Svinaktig – terribly, awfully

Svineri – swinishness, filthiness, smut, also; annoyance, nuisance

Svineheldig – very lucky

Svinehell - stroke of good luck


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## hanne

About "svinesti" - I don't think it has anything to do with a path. Svinesti is simply the stable a pig lives in (pigsty in English). At least that's what it is in Danish (also used for a mess here), so if it isn't that (anymore) in Norwegian, I'm sure it comes from that meaning anyway, and not from anything with a path.


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## Wilma_Sweden

hanne said:


> About "svinesti" - I don't think it has anything to do with a path. Svinesti is simply the stable a pig lives in (pigsty in English). At least that's what it is in Danish (also used for a mess here), so if it isn't that (anymore) in Norwegian, I'm sure it comes from that meaning anyway, and not from anything with a path.


I agree 110%. The 'pig path' is a pigsty lost in translation! 

I learned something new, all the same:
No/Da: *sti* = path OR (pig-)sty OR stye (a kind of eye infection) 
(the Swedish words are different: stig, (svin-)stia and vagel)
I imagine some limited dictionaries not including the sty, and certainly not the stye, so: good try but crappy dictionary! 

In any case, svinkul (grisegøy) and svintur (griseflaks) exist in Swedish, too.

/Wilma


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## vestfoldlilja

I had this thought, that, maybe, it could have been much the same as kutråkk, cow track, cattle track, which in earlier days were used as pathways for humans as well. 

Pigsty in Norwegian is grisebinge, I wouldn't use svinesti in that way at all, and can't say I have ever seen it used to mean the same as grisebinge, but that doesn't mean you're not right Hanne. It seems unlikely that the meaning of the word would originally have had different meanings in Danish and Norwegian, it probably changed overtime. 

We also have svinaktig, an other intensifier; that my dictionary has this example of, det var svinaktig hyggelig av deg, that was very nice of you.


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## Pteppic

Bokmålsordboka defines *svinesti* as "inngjerding for griser".


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## vestfoldlilja

Ah, I stand corrected Learned something new today!


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