• SalmiakDragon@feddit.nu
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    12 hours ago

    I know this is old, but it is a bit irksome that this post is titled “Fact of the day” when it can’t even keep its facts straight about which country does what.

    Those signs aren’t from Sweden. Our traffic agency (who prints the signs) doesn’t use ‘fart’ meaning ‘speed’ - except for ‘gångfartsområde’, ‘walking speed area’, which disappointingly enough doesn’t even have the text on it - but mainly uses ‘hastighet’ meaning ‘velocity’. Other commenters in this thread have posted examples of ‘fart’ in a different meaning being used on Swedish traffic signs.

  • lime!@feddit.nu
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    12 hours ago

    “fart” is colloquial swedish for speed, but it’s not used on signs like that. as mentioned previously the correct word is “hastighetskontroll”, but we don’t actually have signs like that for permanent speed cameras. those signs are blue, and just depict a camera.

    when “fart” appears on signs, the actual meaning is akin to “travel” or “fare”, like german “fahr-” words. so we have “sjöfart” (seafaring), “rymdfart” (space travel), “fartvind” (wind rushing by when moving quickly), “uppfart” (driveway) and, importantly for signs, “utfart” and “infart” (exit and entry for vehicles).

    my favorite of this is a sign nearby on a narrow road that warns about multiple exits with no sight lines.

  • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
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    16 hours ago

    This is either Norwegian or Danish.

    It’s true that ‘fart’ means speed in Swedish, but in this context ‘hastighet’ would be used (~‘hastiness’).

    • nao@sh.itjust.works
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      15 hours ago

      Probably Denmark then. European route E47 goes from Germany to Sweden, E55 from Greece to Sweden. In Denmark they share the same physical road for a while.

    • lime!@feddit.nu
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      13 hours ago

      i think we figured out last time this was posted that it’s danish.

    • Scrollone@feddit.it
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      15 hours ago

      Hmm I’ve been to Sweden and I’ve seen many fart kontrol signs. I know because I took funny selfies in front of them

      • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
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        15 hours ago

        ‘Fart’ does refer to speed occasionally, but the key here is that it’s always called ‘Hastighetskontroll’ in Swedish. Note the double ‘L’ in ‘kontroll’ and the compounding of ‘hastighet’ and ‘kontroll’.

        • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          English has a lot of influence from both Germanic and Latin, to the point where I don’t think it’s reasonable to classify it as a strictly “Germanic” language.

          There are plenty of English words that can be traced to old Norse (i.e. Norwegian Viking occupiers, raiders, and/or traders).

      • lime!@feddit.nu
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        13 hours ago

        and “fart” is where you get “fare”, as in to travel. or rather, we both got them from german.

        • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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          9 hours ago

          Ok, “fart” is where English gets “fare”, that makes sense I guess. Is that coincidentally where English gets “far”? Otherwise I’d think it’s closer to where we get “wide”. Like weit gefahren?

    • SalmiakDragon@feddit.nu
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      12 hours ago

      For the uninitiated: This is a Swenglish joke, a mistranslation of “It’s not the speed(/fart) that kills, but the impact(/smäll)”