Norwegian word of the day: Agurktid
It's that time of year in Norway where you'll start seeing absurd and banal stories in the news.
Why do I need to know this expression?
Agurktid essentially means silly season in Norwegian. Tid is the word for time and agurk is the Norwegian word for cucumber.
In English, it is often referred to as “silly season” because the summer was when journalists would traditionally take their holiday, leaving editors sceptical of giving any serious reporting pieces to the summer stand-ins.
It's not just journalists who are off in the summer, its also politicians and experts on current affairs. Essentially this means there are very few people to create headlines and about as few to write them.
The word can be traced back to the German word Sauregurkenzeit, which directly translated means “sour cucumber time”. In German, this term was eventually used to describe a slow news day.
Silly season gives way to plenty of agurknyheter. Directly translated, agurknyheter means “cucumber news". agurknyheter is typically used to describe news that is unimportant and frequently about ridiculous events.
Though cucumber news originally was more popular in the summertime, you can find it used year-round nowadays.
Popular agurknyheter themes
- Objects that are similar to things they are not
- Norwegians acting embarrassingly during vacation
- Odd summer jobs descriptions
-The weather breaking some type of record
Use it like this
Det nærmer seg sommerferie, og det betyr at det også snart er høysesong for agurknyheter – “It’s getting close to the summer holidays, and that means it’s also high time for cucumber news."
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Why do I need to know this expression?
Agurktid essentially means silly season in Norwegian. Tid is the word for time and agurk is the Norwegian word for cucumber.
In English, it is often referred to as “silly season” because the summer was when journalists would traditionally take their holiday, leaving editors sceptical of giving any serious reporting pieces to the summer stand-ins.
It's not just journalists who are off in the summer, its also politicians and experts on current affairs. Essentially this means there are very few people to create headlines and about as few to write them.
The word can be traced back to the German word Sauregurkenzeit, which directly translated means “sour cucumber time”. In German, this term was eventually used to describe a slow news day.
Silly season gives way to plenty of agurknyheter. Directly translated, agurknyheter means “cucumber news". agurknyheter is typically used to describe news that is unimportant and frequently about ridiculous events.
Though cucumber news originally was more popular in the summertime, you can find it used year-round nowadays.
Popular agurknyheter themes
- Objects that are similar to things they are not
- Norwegians acting embarrassingly during vacation
- Odd summer jobs descriptions
-The weather breaking some type of record
Use it like this
Det nærmer seg sommerferie, og det betyr at det også snart er høysesong for agurknyheter – “It’s getting close to the summer holidays, and that means it’s also high time for cucumber news."
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