The word røv in Danish is a vulgar term for the backside, roughly similar in strength to English “arse” or American “ass”.
It originally comes from the Old Norse word rauf meaning gap, rift or hole, used in words like raufarsteinn (a stone with a hole drilled through it) and raufartrefjur (cloth filled with holes).
The word in its modern meaning exists in Danish as røv, in Swedish as röv and in Norwegian as ræv or rauv.
You can use it anatomically, to refer to an actual backside, or, like in English, as an insult. In both cases, it may be combined with the word hul (hole) to make røvhul. You can probably figure out what that means.
It also exists in the term røvslikker (which can be translated as “arselicker” or the less vulgar “bootlicker”), to mean someone who praises or is polite to another more powerful person, usually in order to get an advantage for themselves.
Less offensive alternatives to the word røv include numse, bagdel, ende, and rumpe.
Røv also exists in a few phrases which are considered offensive and shouldn’t be used in a professional setting. The best of these (at least, my personal favourite) is the highly evocative røvsyg, meaning “extremely boring”, which we covered in another Word of the Day.
Like røvsyg, several words deploy røv in adjectives to strengthen their meanings. There’s røvirriterende (“very annoying”), røvkedelig (also “very boring”) and røvdårlig (“very bad”) to give some examples. The latter can also be expressed in a shorter form, so to describe something as røv is to give a withering assessment of its merits.
It can also be used in a positive sense: people can be described as røvlækker (‘very attractive’).
Don’t get it confused with the word ræv, which means fox — an easy mistake to make depending on pronunciation.
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