That glow from Denmark 鈥� all in our heads?
A little hygge may be just what we need as we head into the northern winter.
A little hygge may be just what we need as we head into the northern winter.
With a gentle but firm rebuke, a friend made clear the other day that it was high time for me to stop expecting to be in a dreary mood just because it was cold and gray and rainy outside.
鈥淐oziness,鈥� she suggested, was rather the state of mind to be cultivated under such circumstances 鈥� all warm lamplight and comfy chairs to curl up in, with maybe a companionable cat or two.聽
She might have pointed me to another vogue word that鈥檚 been, if not exactly hot, then at least enjoying a certain warm glow of late in the English-
speaking world: hygge.
Come again?
As defined by Macmillan鈥檚 crowdsourced Open Dictionary, it鈥檚 鈥渁 type of lifestyle practiced in Denmark where the focus is on simple pleasures, comfort and cosiness, and spending time with friends and family.聽
鈥淗ygge could be families and friends getting together for a meal, with the lighting dimmed, or it could be time spent on your own reading a good book,鈥� with the lighting presumably not 诲颈尘尘别诲.听
Hygge made it onto the shortlists for a number of dictionaries鈥� 鈥渨ords of the year鈥� for 2016, including Oxford and Collins. British bookstores abound with titles like 鈥淭he Art of Hygge: How to Bring Danish Cosiness Into Your Life.鈥澛�
Not everyone is amused: The Spectator, in London, called hygge 鈥渢he most annoying word of the year,鈥� snarking further, 鈥淭he appetite to be Danish has never before been so developed, except among Danes.鈥�
But I imagine Danish tourism officials are over the moon.
I found some pronunciation guidance, by the way, from a YouTube clip of a photogenic Danish couple captured in New York鈥檚 Times Square. The man pronounces the h-word effortlessly, several times. The tricky part is that first vowel, like the German 鈥溍尖�� or what the French call 鈥淕reek i.鈥� Then comes a hard 鈥済,鈥� followed by the unstressed 鈥渁鈥� of 鈥渢uba.鈥�
He calls the word 鈥渦ntranslatable鈥� 鈥� at which point the woman nevertheless begins to translate: 鈥淚t means you鈥檙e having a really good time and you鈥檙e really comfortable, and everything is so nice.鈥�
Among the words that pop up in explanations of hygge is another oft-cited 鈥渦ntranslatable,鈥� the German 骋别尘眉迟濒颈肠丑办别颈迟. Advocates and students of hygge (hyggenots? hyggenauts?) demur. They insist that hygge is different: more about one鈥檚 psychological than physical state.
But while I鈥檓 up in this particular tree, I鈥檒l go out on a lexical limb to offer an English equivalent for the untranslatable 骋别尘眉迟濒颈肠丑办别颈迟. It鈥檚 geniality, or maybe congeniality, because 骋别尘眉迟濒颈肠丑办别颈迟 is ascribed more to places than people.聽
骋别尘眉迟 can be Englished as mind or soul, or better yet, spirit. English has borrowed genius from Latin, from which we鈥檝e also borrowed genius loci, the 鈥渟pirit鈥� of a place, its character. Places that are said to be 驳别尘眉迟濒颈肠丑 are places that have character.
But soon we鈥檒l be on the other side of the December solstice. Our (Northern Hemisphere) days will be lengthening. But a little hygge 鈥� or 骋别尘眉迟濒颈肠丑办别颈迟 鈥� may not be a bad thing.