All Scandinavian languages: say + loose

G

Gavril

Senior Member
English, USA
Hello,

Icelandic has a phrase segja lausum(/lausri/lausu) meaning "renounce, relinquish", which is composed of segja "say" + the dative of laus "loose". laus agrees in number and gender with the thing(s) being relinquished.

Are there any parallel phrases in Danish, Swedish or Norwegian made up of the words "say" + "loose"?

I ask because Finnish has a phrase sanoa irti "to cancel, to fire (an employee from a job)" that's composed of the same two elements, and the fact that there's a parallel expression in Icelandic makes me think that this might be a common Nordic expression (though I'm no longer sure about this).

Tack/Takk
 
Last edited:
    • In Swedish, we have a similar construction but with a different preposition: säga upp, which is used to fire someone, and generally to cancel a subscription, agreement or long term contract.

    Loose (loss) in Swedish is mainly used with action verbs such as pull, knock, hit, let etc, to make something come off or unstuck.
     
    You didn't ask about German, but you might be interested to know that that language has "lossagen" (= los + sagen), which seems related: "sich (von etwas) lossagen" = "to renounce (something)".

    -Dan
     
    Norwegian has “målløs” – composed of language/speech + loose. It means speechless, most often used when someone are astonished by something and then lack the words to express what they feel, but also it may refer to being unable to speak because of a impairment.

    We also have “si opp”, as Swedish does, meaning the same, to fire (someone), as well as to cancel a subscription or things like it, like Wilma_Sweden said. In regards to fire someone, it is perhaps more often used in past tense; jeg ble sagt opp - I was fired.
     
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