Friday, April 2, 2010

On April Fools

In case you hadn’t noticed, today is April the second. Which means that yesterday was April Fools’ Day. I’m often one to be fooled rather than one to fool (my dad is a real expert), but this year I thought I’d see if I couldn’t utilize the fact that I have a blog where the majority of readers don’t speak my native language. It is in the nature of the April Fools’ Day hoax that it should be somewhat easy to expose (thus the title – "Foolish Norwegian". Also take notice of the labels at the bottom of the post). I am aware that this was the case with my poor attempt. You wouldn’t have to challenge google very much to figure out that the Norwegian word for banana is banan, that our word for popcorn is popkorn, and that Rattus Norvegicus in Norway is known as rotte.


The word gulbøy really does mean “yellow bend”, but it isn’t an actual word. It is the result of an urban legend that travels between Sweden and Norway – the Swedes are taught that this is the Norwegian word for banana, and the Norwegians are taught that it is the Swedish word.

The word sprettmais should be the Norwegian word for popcorn, but in reality it is a word I came up with the other day when realizing that sweet corn [mais] will also bounce when fried. They didn’t pop, though.

Luremus is a (slang) word in Norwegian, but it certainly has nothing to do with rats (at least not in the sense I presented it yesterday). Rather, a luremus is a girl who pretends that she wants to have sex, but then backs out. A tease.

Finally, the octopus/squid. I have heard both translated to the Norwegian word, which indeed is blekksprut. And yes, it absolutely means “ink squirt”. Always include a bit of reality in a hoax in order to increase the credibility…

So, did I fool you?

6 comments:

M.J. Nicholls said...

I don't believe a word of this post. What if this whole blog has been a hoax? Is your real name Dennis?

Cruella Collett said...

Mwahahahaha! You got me there! My real name IS Dennis - Dennis the Giant Ink Squirt. I have eight arms and I fight environmental crime, one blog at the time. But don't tell nobody, or my true fake identity will be exposed.

(You can still use the word blekksprut, though!)

Jessica Bell said...

Someone once said to me, 'Did you know that gullible isn't even in the dictionary?' I said, 'Really?' I've never been fooled since ;)

Marjorie said...

You totally fooled me!

Cruella Collett said...

T.A.A. - *snort* That is positively brilliant. I might quote you on that...

Marjorie - yay! I think I fooled Tami too - or she's just acting very convincingly...

Unknown said...

Not only did you fool me, I was absolutely confused. Lovely language though.

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