Lagom

''Lagom'' (pronounced , ) is a Swedish word meaning or .

The word can be variously translated as , , , , and (in matter of amounts). Whereas words like ''sufficient'' and ''average'' suggest some degree of abstinence, scarcity, or failure, carries the connotation of appropriateness, although not necessarily perfection. The archetypical Swedish proverb "", literally , is also translated as , or as .

Etymology

The origin of the term is an archaic dative plural form of (), in this case referring not necessarily to judicial law but common-sense law. Literally meaning , a more close translation would be or . The earliest attestations of the word are from 17th-century texts.

A common false etymology claims that it is a contraction of (); according to this myth, the phrase was used in Viking times to specify how much mead one should drink from the horn as it was passed around in order for everyone to receive a fair share.

Use

is most often used as an adverb, as in the sentence "" (literally ). can also be used as an adjective: "" (literally ), which would be equivalent to . The adjective form is never inflected.

Cultural significance

The value of "just enough" can be compared to the idiom "less is more", or contrasted to the value of "more is better". It is viewed favorably as a sustainable alternative to the hoarding extremes of consumerism: "Why do I need more than two? t is" It can also be viewed as repressive: "You're not supposed to be too good, or too rich".

In a single word, is said to describe the basis of the Swedish national psyche, one of consensus and equality. "My aunt used to hold out her closed fist and say, "How much can you get in this hand? It's much easier to get something in ''this'' penhand".

Comparable terms in other languages

The word "" also exists in Norwegian, in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. The connotations in Norwegian, however, are somewhat different from Swedish. In Norwegian the word has synonyms as . While some synonyms are somewhat similar in meaning (e.g. and , and ), many present in Swedish do not exist in Norwegian and vice versa. The Norwegian words and the more common are very similar, translating roughly as in English. can be used in every context where the Swedish is used, e.g. (), (), etc.

Finnish has the word , which carries similar connotations of .

The concept of is similar to the Russian or Ukrainian expression (, literally ), which indicates a sufficient and sustainable state, for example of one's livelihood. In Russian, the word is often used as an answer to the question "how are you?". Polish means the same as . Comparable terms are found in some south Slavic languages, for example Serbo-Croatian or . In Slovakian, the expression is used.

Ιn ancient Greek, there was the famous phrase of Cleobulus, (), meaning .

In Albanian, the word has the same meaning. It is derived from Ottoman Turkish meaning , borrowed from Arabic where it means . In Albanian it is used in essentially the same way as , as in "a amount", "not a person" (), (), etc. The word is also used in some Slavic languages ( South Slavic) and almost perfectly translates to those languages.

In Thai, the word () expresses a similar meaning.

In Indonesia, both Indonesian and Javanese, there is a common word for it, , which means .

In Swiss German dialects, similar to , is the word ; in German, the term means something like in the case of objects, or in relation to people and conditions .

See also

* Centrism, a political ideology
* Festina lente
* Gezellig
* Golden mean (philosophy)
* Goldilocks principle
* Hygge
* Law of Jante
* Mathematical optimization, choosing not too high, not too low values of input parameters in view to maximize/minimize an objective function
* Moderate, a middle position in a left/right political scale
* Moderation, eliminating or lessening extremes
* Simple living
* Slow movement
* Social model
* The Story of the Three Bears
* Sweden: The Middle Way
* Sweet spot
* Via media, the philosophy of the 'middle way'
* Wasat (Islamic term)

References

External links

*
* The Swedish Academy's dictionary
''Svenska Akademiens ordbok''.

{{Authority control

Swedish words and phrases
Culture of Sweden
Norwegian words and phrases