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I'm from Gothenburg, Sweden, which is a city known for its bad puns and where most larger buildings are usually referred to by silly nicknames. Last year, there was a competition to name the new swimming pool by the harbor which they put there to keep people from swimming in the rather filthy water of the nearby river.

As expected, most of the names which received a lot of votes were silly puns and, you know what? They did accept the winning entry. Which means the pool is officially named "Pöl Harbor" ("Pöl" meaning puddle in Swedish). I myself was very pleased with this, though I was unsure whether I preferred this name or the rather gruesome runner-up: "Inälvsbadet". This literally means "the entrails bath", though the word for entrails could also be interpreted as "in-river", hence the pun.




I'm from Stockholm and would like to denounce that Gothenburg is known for its bad puns. Gothenburg is only known as a fisherman village.


A fishing village with over half a million people, and a metro area of nearly 1 million? Around these parts, that'd make it a city.


Relax, I think it's just friendly inter-city banter :)


I thought it was also known for melodeath metal?


In which case, Bath of Entrails would make a good band name.


I'm probably going to have my foot in my mouth pretty quickly about this but how bizarre is the Swedish language that "entrails" and "in-river" could be the same word? lol

Is it a slang term of some kind?


No, it's no slang. Entrails are, in plural, "inälvor". You can see the "in" there and "älv" is a Swedish word for river.

edit: I do not know the etymology of the Swedish word for entrails, but I'd wager it's just coincidence that it is seemingly made up of two other words. It's not unlike the English word "searing" seemingly being composed of "sea" and "ring".


No more bizarre than Ent Rails (you know, railways for Tolkien Ents) is the same as entrails in English.

Just as you can't actually say inriver and pretend it means something in the river in English, you can't say inälv and mean something in an älv in Swedish. But as a pun it is okay, everyone gets the word play.


> Just as you can't actually say inriver and pretend it means something in the river in English

I think "in-river" is pretty acceptable in speech, and mildly so in writing. If you said there was an "in-river pool", I wouldn't bat an eyelash.

That said, the relation between the adjectivizing(?) morphemes "in-" and "at-" (e.g. "at-home bar") and their corresponding prepositions is weird and makes my brain hurt.


Allow me to hijack this thread to tell you about my favorite[1] word.

A Korean word "inbun", when followed by a number, means "amount of serving". So "3 inbun" means "serves three", or "a dish for three".

When NOT followed by a number, it is a different word (with exactly the same spelling and sound). It means "human feces".

[1] LOL, not really.


And to this day (?) Korean farmers had pigs eat human feces. And the word for pig-sty and out-house are apparently of similar origin?


Eh, that practice is gone for at least thirty years, probably more. Health concerns aside, you cannot run a for-profit pig farm with your family's "output"...

I have no idea what your second sentence is talking about. :/


> This literally means "the entrails bath", though the word for entrails could also be interpreted as "in-river", hence the pun.

I approve this message...


Are there any good Batman jokes involving Gothenburg Sweden? Seems like there should be.


There are some puns with the city name, but I haven't heard any Batman ones. It is probably a bit too far-fetched for a good joke. Also, in Swedish, the city is called Göteborg and I actually spent some time considering whether to give its native name or the English version of it when writing my original post.


What does Swedish Batman have with his chips?

Gothenburger.

What's crime does Swedish Batman hate the most?

Gothenburglary.




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