#11: Dægurlag

One of the biggest travesties in modern civilization is when a pop song lives on well after its natural expiration date. Most scholars agree (probably; I haven't asked them yet) that we'd be slightly closer to world peace if only Ice, Ice Baby had been pulled from the radio a little sooner. And often, the only thing that makes hearing Gangnam Style or Call Me Maybe being blasted throughout the mall bearable is the comforting thought that it will all be over soon. And, fortunately, that's usually how it goes... one hardly ever hears something like Who Let the Dogs Out? or Dragostea din Tei anymore. Apparently, Icelanders seem to have shared this sentiment when they came up with their own word for "pop song," dægurlag.

Sure, one will also hear the word popplag (or just popp) used to describe these songs, but dægurlag is the more interesting choice. It's formed by appending the word lag (song) to the word dægur, which denotes a period of 12 hours. In other words, it's a day in the colloquial sense (i.e. the time between waking up and going to bed), as opposed to a day in the technical sense (24 hours), which is just dagur in Icelandic. Therefore, dægurlög are songs that are intended to last for just one day, after which we're supposed to be free of them for good. It's actually quite an appropriate way to describe this music, because empty lyrics, repetitive beats, and autotuning aren't exactly popular with everyone, but they are great ways to ensure that your work will likely be forgotten soon.

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WORD SUMMARY:

dægurlag, -s, dægurlög (n): pop song

Posted in: Compound Words, Nouns, Pop Culture