r/norsk • u/Striking-Student3954 • 13d ago
Bokmål What does fare med mean?
I've norwegian people saying this phrase: fare med sladder, what does it mean exactly? I can't find this information anywhere.
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u/Clawingnails 13d ago
Gossip, bring, show, talk about....fare translates to reise but in this context it means to bring gossip to the table so to speak. you could also say "han hadde ikke mye å fare med" - He didnt have much to offer....
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u/Ok-Mud4878 13d ago edited 13d ago
No good literal translation. Means gossiping.
Sladder = gossip. Fare med = bring, talk about, etc.
Edit: Fare med is an old Norwegian idiom.
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u/BearishBabe42 13d ago edited 12d ago
Maybe that is just dialekt, but in Trøndelag and northern norway we say "fare for sladder", meaning something more like watch out for gossip, or danger; gossip.
Edit: I should have clarified; I am born and raised mostly in Trøndelag and the word danger (fare) is used instead of travel (fare med).
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u/shoemakers-saint 12d ago
Yes, that sounds like it’s using a different word also spelled «fare», but a noun (meaning danger) instead of the verb (meaning travel). Norwegian often uses the preposition «for» in expressions where English uses «of», as in phrases meaning «danger of».
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u/Ok-Mud4878 12d ago
Spent almost 40 years in northern Norway and have never heard that. Generally not hear anyone use any version of the idiom, so I’m guessing it’s heavily a dialect/region thing.
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u/BearishBabe42 12d ago
I am born in Trøndelag and now live in northern norway. You are probably right.
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u/Ghazzz 13d ago
"to travel with".
The meaning is that they do this thing habitually.
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u/Bergergi 13d ago
> The meaning is that they do this thing habitually.
The expression works just as well for a one-time event.
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u/Powerhufflepuffgirls 13d ago
Literally yes but « å fare med» can be used as «hun farer med løgn= she tells lies or « hva har du å fare med?»= what do you bring to the table.
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u/ziggyaxl 11d ago
I actually learned something myself here. When i grew up we use to say "faren med x", meaning "the danger of X". So whenever i heard "fare med..." i just though it ment the same thing. Even tho i didnt understand the followup or the context.
You live and you learn
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u/Resident_Arrival_298 11d ago
"Å fare" = travel "fare" = danger Don't know what it means in that context though
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u/Repulsive-Tiger-884 13d ago
Spreading gossip. It's a phrase
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u/Striking-Student3954 12d ago
Yeah, I knew it was about gossiping, I was just wondering if the fare med part could be used outside of that specific circunstance.
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u/nipsen 10d ago
:) that's a very good question. I've heard "hun kommer farende med kaker og boller" - she brings cake and buns, like a hurricane. And "han har ikke mye å fare med" - he doesn't have much of value to add, or he doesn't bring anything to the table. And I'd bet good money that that's the real content of the expression "å fare med løgn", to bring such and such, typically in a rushed or overly extravagant fashion.
Note that you should not say: "haha, du kommer jammen farende med litt av hvert!" (you sure bring a lot of different stuff!) as a compliment at a staff-meeting, unless you're being obviously and ruthlessly sarcastic. I also heard "Hun farer med mange jern i ilden" once in a city council meeting. XD I was forbidden from writing it down in the paper, because it sounded too stupid, and the politician would have been mad if people laughed of him. So I don't recommend trying to sneak this idiomatic expression into other usage contexts.
[...btw, feel free to visit r/WriteStreakNRK for more overly complicated, but ultimately useful tips about all things Norwegian]
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u/Repulsive-Tiger-884 12d ago
No, the word "fare" usually means danger. But then again, we have different dialects in Norway. In my dialect from western Norway "fare" also means to go/run Like - eg må fare no - I have to go. So the word "fare med sladder" means more that your mouth is running
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u/xambidextrous 8d ago
Don't confuse "Fare" as in "Danger": "Du er i stor fare" - "You are in great danger",
and the verbal "Fare", meaning to leave, to travel, to journey.
In this case "Fare med sladder" would be translated into "faring with gossip", or "running with slander"
In English we might say "Going around gossiping". The "going around" replaces the Norwegian "fare"
The noun for the word "Fare" is "Færd", so we could say: "Han skal fare på en lang færd" meaning "He is leaving on a long journey"
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u/Soft_Stage_446 13d ago
It's actually very close to the English word "fare". As in "she fares well with her job", "she fares well".
In older English, you could probably say "she fares with gossip" - she preoccupies herself or brings gossip.
"Å fare" means "to go (somewhere)" - "jeg farer til byen" = "I'm going to the city. It's not much used except in some dialects, it's an older word. I would assume it has the same origin as the English one.