v46: sånt

Sånt is a tricky word to look up in a dictionary because it is both an inflected form and a contraction. Sånt is a contraction of sådant, the neuter form of sådan, such.sånt It appears in the phrase sånt är livet (such is life), but Google also finds many business names with sånt, including Ballonger & Sånt, Kaffe & Sånt, Spel & Sånt, Inreda & Sånt, and Silver & Sånt (notably, all with & rather than och). Incidentally, silver is the same word in both Swedish and English, and related words are found as far afield as Russian cеребро.They are all thought to derive ultimately from an Akkadian word.

I googled the various forms of sådan and their contractions, and found that sånt appears to be the only one for which the contraction is the more common form (M = millions of results):

common sådan 14.6M sån 3.25M
neuter sådant 3.86M sånt 9.41M
plural sådana 3.78M såna 1.40M

As a comparison, here are the results for någon (some, any), which behaves similarly to sådan in its inflections and contractions:

common någon 28.3M nån 10.6M
neuter något 29.2M nåt 5.03M
plural några 25.6M nåra 0.18M

något

Något för alla
Something for everyone

Published in: on January 21, 2011 at 15:54  Leave a Comment  
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