Talk:Lagom

Meta

I imagine the only ones editing this article and discussing it are Swedes with delusions of how unique this word is. Because, you know, there's no direct equivalent in English. Oh, and there's also Smörgåsbord, Ombudsman, and Pizzasallad! #uniqueness — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.233.83.9 (talk) 15:21, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Haha, indeed. Maybe we can make thousands of pointless Wikipedia articles for all the words in English that have no Swedish equivalent. Lagom = just right. I mean, seriously, it's not that difficult... 85.24.189.252 (talk) 13:01, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

Actually, I (a non-native Swede) originally created the article when I was studying Swedish. Jrc (talk) 16:16, 4 October 2016 (UTC)

This article isn't, or at least shouldn't be about words in languages pr say.

It's more about memes and memeplexes and about how what ideas can easily be expressed in a language influences how different cultures thinks.

This particular word plays a *huge* role in how *nordic* people think and exemplifies some of the differences between nordic people and the anglosphere.

Anyway, relevant articles that should probably be linked here are Language and thought and Memeplex in my view. Luredreier (talk) 08:30, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

Translations comment

The translation "Enough is as good as a feast" is in my opinion wrong, because it conveys the feeling of not having more. The other translation, "There is virtue in moderation", is on the other hand right on target. Lagom is not by necessity, it is by choice!

I can't agree with either of these, my translation would be: just right is best. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.25.38.97 (talk) 00:37, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

Chinese equivalent

It seems to me that 剛好 could be a Chinese equivalent, although it does carry with it a connotation of fortuitousness. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.225.159.39 (talk) 02:15, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Dutch equivalent

There seems to be a Dutch equivalent, but it's a whole phrase: "Doe maar gewoon, dan doe je al gek genoeg"; "act normal, you would be acting crazy enough" which is almost only used in sentences like "The typical Dutch 'Doe maar gewoon, dan doe je al gek genoeg' mentality that keeps anyone from outperforming others to avoid jealousy".

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.83.176.115 (talk • contribs) 00:33, 7 June 2006

Norwegian equivalent

The word "lagom" exist in several dialects of Norwegian. It is also accepted in both written variations of Norwegian, Bokmål and Nynorsk. So it's inaccurate to claim that it's a purely Swedish word with no equivalents in other languages. It might very well be Swedish in origin, but since it's also intergrated into the Norwegian language, this should also be mentioned.

See here for proof; "http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/ordboksoek/ordbok.cgi?OPP=lagom&ordbok=bokmaal&s=n&alfabet=n&renset=j" and "http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/ordboksoek/ordbok.cgi?OPP=lagom&ordbok=nynorsk&s=n&alfabet=n&renset=j"

or http://www.ordnett.no/ordbok.html?search=lagom&publications=5&publications=2&publications=23&publications=1&publications=3&publications=20&publications=24&publications=25&publications=26&publications=28&publications=27" (might require registration)

Thus I changed a paragraph dealing with the word's supposed untranslatability to include the Norwegian "lagom". I expect those inclined to remove this to discuss it here first.

Mogura 10:07, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

The Norwegian equivalent "passe" which is mentioned has slight negative connotations. "Passelig" is more positive and would thus be a better translation. I therefore shorten the sentence "A closer equivalent in terms of denotation/connotation is the Norwegian word "passe" ("passende, passelig", see Jante Law)". I also find this reference to the Jante Law misplaced, it should be moved. Narssarssuaq (talk) 13:20, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Lukewarm?

Hey guys! I have just found this great definition of the word lagom; LUKEWARM. Eh? eh??! :D! Ex dee, ex dee! Well you can't aswer the question "How much coffee do you want?", because you'd be all like "lukewarm, please" and then it's like "what, moderately warm?", but who'd want that? Gotta be hot, y'know? (h)Aaaaanywayyys... see you around guys! (a)

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Per von Wovern (talk • contribs) 04:31, 2 November 2006

No more sugar for you little man.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.227.102.80 (talk • contribs) 20:44, 10 April 2007

:-) 195.24.29.51 14:17, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Well, "lagom hot" or "lagom cold" means "the appropriate temperature". But that means the right temperature for what you intend to use it. So "lagom cold" ice cream is usually below freezing. But right, for washing your hands then "lagom hot water" can mean lukewarm water. But for coffee "lagom hot" would mean much hotter. And for iron casting then "lagom hot" would be way hotter.

But note that "lagom" is used for any amount, not just for temperature. So for coffee you could say "lagom amount of sugar and milk", although answering that is usually a joke since different people want very different amounts of sugar and milk in their coffee.

And the earth orbits the sun at the "lagom distance" to support life.

--David Göthberg (talk) 05:05, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Also note: The official translation in all dictionaries is wrong: They state lagom = "just right". But "just right" means near perfect, while lagom means the whole acceptable span. So lagom has a wider span than the corresponding word in most other languages. Thus "not too much, not too little" is correct, but "just right" is wrong. And at least in most European languages often their words and expressions talk about "just enough" or "good enough" or "not too much". That is it only hints that it is above the minimum, or below the maximum acceptable, but not both ends of the scale at the same time. The words and expressions that hints at both ends of the scale are usually much more tightly defined to be close to the optimum amount, for instance "just right".

I have talked to people from Southeast Asia (sorry forgot which country) and they do have a word that exactly corresponds to lagom. But in their case it is just a word, while in Sweden it can be used as just a normal word, but also as part of our culture (being a lagom person is something to strive for).

--David Göthberg (talk) 23:57, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

Audio

Would it be possible for a native speaker to post a soundclip of the word?

—Preceding unsigned comment added by L33th4x0rguy (talk • contribs) 23:28, 2 December 2006

Two audio clips added. One I recorded and one found on Wikimedia. --LypsylateX —Preceding undated comment added 18:09, 11 August 2011 (UTC).

Quote and cite, don't plagiarize

We must always attribute quotes in Wikipedia. We may not copy material from other sites or from print sources without attribution. We may quote from other sources, with proper cites. We should not include slightly paraphrased material from other sources, without cites. It is much better to include an exact quote with a proper cite. See Plagiarism, Wikipedia:Citing sources -- 201.19.93.178 16:46, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

In Irish

FWIW There is an Irish word which sounds like scowl more like skyowl meaning the right amount as in "Feed the calf a skcowl of milk" which would be the right amount not too much or too little. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.16.65.74 (talk) 06:48, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

"Simpsons did it"

Isn't this pretty much the same as 'cromulent' from the Simpsons? I'm not saying that Sweden ripped off the show, but that David S. Cohen might have inadvertently filled the same semantic space that was missing in English. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast#Embiggen_and_cromulent Namelessghoul (talk • contribs) 03:33, 25 May 2010

As I recall it, the word 'cromulent' is used twice in the episode, once describing 'embiggen' as a "perfectly cromulent word", and once describing Homer Simpson's work as town crier as a "cromulent performance". In the first occasion, it clearly means something on the lines of 'normal', 'common', 'accepted', 'valid', which is pretty far from 'lagom'. In the second occasion, the performance could possibly be said to be lagom in the sense of neither being over-acted nor under-acted, but the usage of 'cromulent' here is so vague that it's really hard to tell more than that it's a positive word. 85.226.207.245 (talk) 09:49, 9 October 2012 (UTC)

The two are indeed different. The (non-)word 'cromulent' is closer to 'adequate' or 'sufficient' in that it seems to indicate that something meets expected minimum requirements. The thing about 'lagom' is that it indicates that there are both upper and lower limits. There's a significant difference between "hot enough" ("tillräckligt varm" in Swedish) and "lagom hot" ("lagom varm") in that the former could be too hot, while the latter must meet both the requirements of being "hot enough" and "not too hot". If that makes sense. - Alltat (talk) 09:20, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Icelandic

I guess I should mention this here and not just add it to the article right away, but I'm also guessing that this page may not be the most active one. Anyway, it doesn't seem unreasonable to mention the fact that 'í lagi' ('lagi' being the dative singular of the same stem that has given Swedish 'lagom'; cf. Icelandic dative plural 'lögum') means 'okay', 'all right' (as an adjective) in Icelandic and therefore has derived a similar connotation from the same root. Skomakar'n (talk) 21:43, 30 October 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, in Norway there's some dialects that have the word "luggum" too, related to "lagom" and "lögum" I'm sure. =) Luredreier (talk) 08:33, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian

The proper translation of "lagom" in these languages would be the Turkish loanword "taman", meaning "just right". The meaning is perfectly illustrated in this old joke: - Are you drunk? - No. - Then are you sober? - No. - Then what are you? - Taman.

Still, um(j)eren is in some contexts the appropriate translation of the cited Russian word, but that would be a translation of a translation, and is therefore wrong to include here. 141.136.242.48 (talk) 18:10, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Hm

"Lagom (pronounced [ˈlɑ̀ːɡɔm]) is a Swedish word with no direct English equivalent, meaning "[direct English equivalent]".

Book Title - Lagom: The Swedish Secret of Living Well

Is this book worth exploring to add content to the page?

https://books.google.co.th/books?id=OpZiDgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=lagom&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwimjrCZh4vaAhWMFZQKHTc1DEcQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=lagom&f=false

Is it already referenced in the article?

184.22.209.76 (talk) 22:40, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

No, lagom does not mean "just the right amount"...

The usual translation into English is "not too much and not too little", which is a much better translation than "just the right amount", since "just the right amount"" confers a meaning of near perfect that lagom does definitely not do. Instead lagom means an amount of something, whether it's spices in food, room temperature or anything else, that most people would feel is agreeable, if not perfect. - Tom | Thomas.W ^talk 16:17, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

It kinda means "just the right amount" in an unserious way, as in "dont fuck up".--Blockhaj (talk) 16:35, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

I agree with Tom completely. "Not too much, not too little" is correct, but "just right" is wrong since it means a to tight span. And lagom has a positive meaning, lagom is a good thing. --David Göthberg (talk) 00:04, 14 December 2023 (UTC)