In Norwegian, the word “Texas” means “crazy”. A popular phrase, “Det var helt Texas!” is directly translated as “That is totally Texas!”. The phrase is commonly used in situations where the word crazy would be extremely applicable, such as a wild party or a heated sporting event.
And yes, the word “Texas” is a direct reference to the American state. The word is nothing new in Norway; Norwegians have been using it for the past 50 years.
According to locals in Norway, “Texas” means “exciting”, “crazy” or “out of control”, and it is usually accompanied with an exclamation point.
The use of the word apparently dates back to when Norwegians who were watching old cowboy films and reading about the Wild West. They often associated the scenes with Texas, and eventually the state’s name became a term for something that is wild and crazy with a large amount of action.
The first recorded instance of “Texas” being used to mean “crazy” occurred in the 1957 novel, The Boy Who Wanted to Buy Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation by Vegard Vigerust. The line was written, “Would make it even more Texas in the village?”
Today, the word is used on a regular basis. One statistic shows that the phrase “helt Texas”, or “completely crazy”, has been used in Norwegian newspapers more than 50 times this year.
However, what is interesting is how Texans themselves feel about the word. Some Texans took offense to the term, saying that it makes the people of Texas look like uncivilized savages.
But other Texans took pride that their state made it all the way to Norway to be a regular part of their language.
Texas reporter Dan Solomon said, “I think that most Texans, especially with a sense of humor, kind of take that as a mark of pride. If you go to a party and things are raging and you say it was ‘Texas,’ that’s all right. That seems like a thing we can live with.”
Meanwhile, some people in the United States are taking advantage of this translation. Someone established a DetVarHeltTexas.com to sell T-shirts with the phrase, which have already been trademarked by the website’s owner.
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