Chivalry is not dead!

Now when I'm starting to have some kind of a hang of the local language, I've begun discovering some words that mean something curious or funny in my own. I know this is the cheapest ever thing to write home about, and I know that pretty much every Finnish word means something like sweaty armpits in some language or another, but I can't not to, since I find some of these genuinely amusing and interesting. The fact that these two languages are from two completely different origin makes for some great mashups. And besides, I get an excuse to mention the term Cervantean English. So there.

First of all I need to refer to the title. There is one old and glorious profession that was thought to be extinct in the contemporary world, but it indeed lives on in Iceland, and is actually even more powerful than ever. This is ritari which translates to secretary. It just happens to be that it means knight in Finnish. So, I grew up with the show Ritari Ässä, literally "knight ace." And no, it was not about secretaries. It was about The Hoff.

Veski is a very common word in Iceland. In fact, pretty much everybody has one, as it is a wallet. In Finland most people need access to one every now and then, and failure to do so might be a source of major inconvenience. In Finland veski is a toilet. This has caused some excellent jokes among the Finn community. "I need to go to the wallet" has become a smash hit, and doesn't mean that they're paying for everybody. Sadly.

An often heard quick greeting, hæ, can also be traced to Finnish. It is pronounced "hai", which in addition to sounding exactly the same as the English greeting, means shark in Finnish. Very appropiate in a rotten shark eating nation, isn't it? This is also related to one of the most amusing inside jokes ever. That involves a couple dozen communications students, a sauna themed party with plenty of unforced singing, my oriental bathrobe, martial arts demonstrations and loud interjections. I will try to prevent further mental damage by refraining from going further though...

Hana is tap (as in water/beer tap) in Finnish, but in Icelandic it's the accusative form of hún, she. Kisa refers to cat in Icelandic, whereas for me it'd be a competition. The word láta, let or put is pronounced "lauta", which in Finnish is a plank. Peysa is one of the favourites for every Icelander, it's a sweater. When pronounced, it becomes the surname of a friend of mine, "peisa." I might start calling him "sweater" now.

I'm sure there's a whole lot more of words with similar character which just haven't entered my vocabulary yet, but I'm getting there. Meanwhile I keep myself entertained by thinking of the BAD MOTHER FUCKER toilet.