You're listening to Away with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I'm Grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Burnett.

Norwegian, let's talk about Norwegian. We never talk about Norwegian.

We don't, do we? But let's. Okay. We got an email from Zach Bressler who's originally from Omaha, Nebraska, but he's studying in Norway as a doctoral student and he's picked up a lot of great Norwegian slang that I know you're going to dig.

Yes, please.

One of the expressions translates as to be in the middle of the butter's eye.

Be in the middle of the butter's eyes, butter as in the thing you spread on toast.

And it means to be in exactly the best possible spot.

And the idea there is that there's a Norwegian rice pudding called a resgut or something like that and

traditionally you put a spoon of butter in the middle and it slightly melts before serving

it sounds just perfect but if you're in the middle of the butter's eye,

you're in exactly the right place.

So the whole melted by the spoon is the butter's eye.

Okay, nice.

Isn't that just gorgeous?

And then this other one I really like is Tachphursist,

which means thanks for the last time.

And it's what you say to somebody you haven't seen in a while

typically when you bump into them at a

party or something similar. Isn't that an interesting greeting? So just to say

we're now reconnecting and I remember you very fondly and we had such a wonderful occasion before.

Yes, thanks for the last time.

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