Harry (derogatory term)

Last updated

Harry is a Norwegian derogatory term used in slang, derived from the English name Harry. [1] The best English translation may be "cheesy" or "tacky". Norsk ordbok defines "harry" as "tasteless, vulgar". [2]

Contents

The term "harry" was first used by upper class youth in Oslo in the beginning of the 20th century and was used to describe people who belonged to the working class. People in the lower social classes at the time often gave their children English first names such as Harry. The middle and upper classes mostly preferred Scandinavian or German (and occasionally French) names. English names (except English names that are also widely found in other European languages) had no tradition in Scandinavia and were generally considered bad taste and as a phenomenon of the working-class of the time in all the Scandinavian countries. The traditional elite of Norway mostly used conservative Danish names.

A person who is harry is often perceived as unsophisticated, vulgar or with bad taste. [1] [2] [3] The effect of bad taste is often characterized with the term harry, e.g. a harry dress or a harry car. Since the definition of good and bad taste is defined by fashion, there is no precise definition of harry. D.D.E., Sputnik, shopping in Sweden, Raggare culture and mullets are often mentioned today[ clarification needed ]. In the 1970s, it was the 1960s hairwax or sharp shoes that were harry. In the 1980s, the 1970s flared pants or whiskers and in the 1990s, more or less everything that could be associated with the 1980s. Yesterday's fashion will often be interpreted as harry. Often what is harry in one period can be hip retro fashion the next year.

Harry may also be interpreted as something like macho. The feminine parallel is doris.

The term was repopularised by then Minister of Agriculture Lars Sponheim in 2002 to describe Norwegians who drive (in some cases, for hours) to reach and cross the border to Sweden in order to purchase groceries, tobacco, and alcohol at cheaper prices. Responses to this were retorts that seeking out bargains is smart shopping and Swedish shops introduced humorous campaigns with one shopkeeper giving 1000 SEK to customers named "Harry". [3] The terms Harrytur ("Harry trip") or Harryhandel ("Harry trade") have since been popular descriptions of this trade. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

Norwegian language North Germanic language spoken in Norway

Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional varieties; some Norwegian and Swedish dialects, in particular, are very close. These Scandinavian languages, together with Faroese and Icelandic as well as some extinct languages, constitute the North Germanic languages. Faroese and Icelandic are not mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them. While the two Germanic languages with the greatest numbers of speakers, English and German, have close similarities with Norwegian, neither is mutually intelligible with it. Norwegian is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era.

Scandinavia A subregion of Northern Europe

Scandinavia is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties. The term Scandinavia in local usage covers the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The majority national languages of these three belong to the Scandinavian dialect continuum, and are mutually intelligible North Germanic languages.

Viking Age Period of European history from the 8th to the 11th century dealing with the Scandinavian expansion

The Viking Age was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest and trading throughout Europe, and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germanic Iron Age. The Viking Age applies not only to their homeland of Scandinavia, but to any place significantly settled by Scandinavians during the period. The Scandinavians of the Viking Age are often referred to as Vikings as well as Norsemen, although few of them were Vikings in the technical sense.

Vikings Norse explorers, raiders, merchants, and pirates

Vikings were the seafaring Norse people from southern Scandinavia who from the late 8th to late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and settled throughout parts of Europe, and explored westward to Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland. In the countries they raided and settled, the period is known as the Viking Age, and the term 'Viking' also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Norse homelands. The Vikings had a profound impact on the early medieval history of Scandinavia, the British Isles, France, Estonia, Kievan Rus' and Sicily.

Nisse (folklore) Nordic mythological creature

A nisse, tomte, tomtenisse, or tonttu is a mythological creature from Nordic folklore today typically associated with the winter solstice and the Christmas season. They are generally described as being short, having a long white beard, and wearing a conical or knit cap in red or some other bright colour. They often have an appearance somewhat similar to that of a garden gnome.

Camp is an aesthetic style and sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. Camp aesthetics disrupt many of modernism's notions of what art is and what can be classified as high art by inverting aesthetic attributes such as beauty, value, and taste through an invitation of a different kind of apprehension and consumption.

In the study of language and literary style, a vulgarism is an expression or usage considered non-standard or characteristic of uneducated speech or writing. In colloquial or lexical English, "vulgarism" or "vulgarity" may be synonymous with profanity or obscenity, but a linguistic or literary vulgarism encompasses a broader category of perceived fault not confined to scatological or sexual offensiveness. These faults may include errors of pronunciation, misspellings, word malformations, and malapropisms. "Vulgarity" is generally used in the more restricted sense. In regular and mostly informal conversations, the presence of vulgarity, if any, are mostly for intensifying, exclaiming or scolding. In modern times, vulgarism continues to be frequently used by people. A research paper produced by Oxford University in 2005 shows that the age group of 10–21 years old speak more vulgarity than the rest of the world's population combined. The frequent and prevalent usage of vulgarity as a whole has led to a paradox, in which people use vulgarity so often that it becomes less and less offensive to people, according to The New York Times.

Norsemen Historical ethnolinguistic group of people originating in Scandinavia

The Norsemen were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the predecessor of the modern Germanic languages of Scandinavia. During the late 8th century, Norsemen embarked on a large-scale expansion in all directions, giving rise to the Viking Age. In English-language scholarship since the 19th century, Norse seafaring traders, settlers and warriors have commonly been referred to as Vikings. The identity of Norsemen derived into their modern descendants, the Danes, Icelanders, Faroe Islanders, Norwegians, and Swedes, who are now generally referred to as 'Scandinavians' rather than Norsemen.

Northern Europe Region of the European continent

Northern Europe is a loosely defined geographical region in Europe. Narrower definitions may describe Northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54°N, or may be based on other geographical factors such as climate and ecology. A broader definition would include the area of Europe north of the Alps, and Northwestern Russia..

Thing (assembly) Type of governing assembly

A thing was a governing assembly in early Germanic society, made up of the free people of the community presided over by lawspeakers. The word appears in Old Norse, Old English, and modern Icelandic as þing, in Middle English, Old Saxon, Old Dutch, and Old Frisian as thing, in German and Dutch as Ding and ding respectively, and in modern Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Faroese, Gutnish, and Norn as ting, all from a reconstructed Proto-Germanic neuter *þingą; the word is the same as the more common English word thing, both having at their core the basic meaning of "an assemblage, a coming together of parts"—in the one case, an "assembly" or "meeting", in the other, an "entity", "object", or "thing". The meeting-place of a thing was called a "thingstead" or "thingstow".

This is a list of British words not widely used in the United States. In Canada, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and Australia, some of the British terms listed are used, although another usage is often preferred.

Knit cap Headwear

A knit cap, originally of wool, is designed to provide warmth in cold weather. Typically, the knit cap is of simple, tapering constructions, though many variants exist. Historically, the wool knit cap was an extremely common form of headgear for seamen, fishers, hunters and others spending their working day outdoors from the 18th century and forward, and is still commonly used for this purpose in the northern regions of North America, Europe, Asia, and other cold regions of the world. Being found all over the world where climate demands a warm hat, the knit cap can be found under a multitude of local names.

Runes Ancient Germanic alphabet

Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets, which were used to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialised purposes thereafter. The Scandinavian variants are also known as futhark or fuþark ; the Anglo-Saxon variant is futhorc or fuþorc.

High culture

High culture encompasses the cultural objects of aesthetic value, which a society collectively esteem as exemplary art, and the intellectual works of philosophy, history, and literature that a society consider representative of their culture.

Summer house

A summer house or summerhouse has traditionally referred to a building or shelter used for relaxation in warm weather. This would often take the form of a small, roofed building on the grounds of a larger one, but could also be built in a garden or park, often designed to provide cool shady places of relaxation or retreat from the summer heat.

Vættir Nature spirits in Norse folklore

The vættir are spirits in Norse mythology. The term can be used to refer to the full cosmos of supernatural beings, including the álfar (elves), dvergar (dwarves), jötnar (giants), and gods. Vættir can also refer more specifically to landvættir, fjallvættir, sjóvættir, skogvættir , vatnavættir, or húsvættir.

Humbug Slang term for fraud or nonsense

A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. The term was first described in 1751 as student slang, and recorded in 1840 as a "nautical phrase". It is now also often used as an exclamation to describe something as hypocritical nonsense or gibberish.

In sociology, taste is an individual's personal, cultural and aesthetic patterns of choice and preference. Taste is drawing distinctions between things such as styles, manners, consumer goods, and works of art and relating to these. Social inquiry of taste is about the human ability to judge what is beautiful, good, and proper.

Naco is a pejorative word often used in Mexican Spanish to describe Spanish slang in one of the few Mexican forms. Naco is also used to describe someone who is uncouth or loutish.

North Germanic peoples

North Germanic peoples, commonly called Scandinavians, Nordic peoples and in a medieval context Norsemen, are a Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Nordic countries. They are identified by their cultural similarities, common ancestry and common use of the Proto-Norse language from around 200 AD, a language that around 800 AD became the Old Norse language, which in turn later became the North Germanic languages of today.

References

  1. 1 2 "Entry on "harry"" (in Norwegian).
  2. 1 2 "Entry on "Harry"" (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget.
  3. 1 2 "'Harry' Pottiness Stirs Swedish-Norwegian Shop War". Financial Express. March 16, 2002. Retrieved 2009-03-20.
  4. Harryhandel til halv pris Dagbladet, February 16, 2009 (in Norwegian)

Literature