What is trist? 

Trist has its roots in the French word triste, which in turn comes from the Latin tristis. The meaning of the Latin word is ‘sad’ or ‘sorrowful’.

While you can say jeg er trist (‘I’m sad’), the word can also be used to describe places, situations and gatherings in ways that the English version of the word isn’t always applicable.

In some contexts, it also has other meaning than ‘sad’, although they are likely to be adjacent meanings.

Why do I need to know trist?

If a situation bears an unmistakable sense of sadness, disappointment or perhaps just negativity, you might hear someone calling it trist.

Ingen havde holdt haven vedlige i flere år, hvilket gjorde den til et trist syn (’No-one had maintained the garden for years, which made it a depressing sight’), is a possible example of this.

Det var et trist dansk fodboldlandshold, der vendte hjem fra EM efter nederlaget i ottendedelsfinalen (’The Danish national football team was a sad sight as it arrived home following the round of 16 defeat in the Euros’), is a similar use of the word in relation to a group of people.

Weather can be grå og trist (grey and dull), in the same way it might also be described as kedeligt, which literally means ‘boring’.

When someone tells you bad news, you can express your sympathy by saying hvor er det trist (‘that’s so sad’) or, if you want to be more emphatic, hvor er det sørgeligt which means ‘sorrowful’. Like in English, the word tragisk (tragic) is an adjective describing tragedies or disasters.

There are a few modifiers to trist. Some soften it, like halvtrist (literally ‘half-sad’) or småtrist (‘a little sad’). Others, like dødtrist (literally ‘dead-sad’) strengthen it. The noun for trist is tristhed, ‘sadness’.