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Swedish word of the day: ketchupeffekt

Catherine Edwards
Catherine Edwards - [email protected]
Swedish word of the day: ketchupeffekt
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Today's chosen Swedish word is one of those where you might look at it, understand all the component parts, but still not have a clue what it means.

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The word is ketchupeffekt.

That's ketchup, as in the red condiment you might eat with chips/French fries (or, if you're Swedish, drizzle over spaghetti in lieu of sauce), and effekt, meaning "result" or "consequence".

It's used to describe a situation or event where not much happens for a long time, and then a lot happens at once.

The significance of ketchup will be clear to anyone who has ever tried to pour the sauce from a glass bottle – usually it takes several seconds before any comes out, and then you get a huge amount.

Ketchupeffekt is often used in a sporting context, for example to describe a game or match with no goals for the majority of the time, and then several in the last few minutes, or a team who have an unremarkable season and then multiple spectacular wins in their final games.

But you could also use it in many other contexts: for example if a lobby group has spent years campaigning on a certain issue and suddenly several changes are made as a result, or a product is under-appreciated for years before a sharp rise in sales and publicity.

Note: The Ketchup Effect is also the title in many English-speaking countries of a 2004 Swedish teen movie, but the phrase has a very different meaning in the film, in which one character likens a specific sexual act to using a ketchup bottle.

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Examples

Det känns som om det blivit en ketchupeffekt

It feels as if there has been a ketchup effect

Det blev ketchupeffekt för hemmalaget

It was a ketchup effect for the home team

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