flina

Swedish

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *flinōną (“to bare (one's teeth), smile”), from a Proto-Indo-European *pley- (“bare, bald, flat”). Cognate with Elfdalian flinå (“smile”); outside of Germanic, compare Lithuanian pli̇̀kas (“bald”), Latvian pliks (“bare, bald”).[1] The root may be further connected to Proto-Indo-European *(s)pley- (“to cleave, to split off, to cast off”) (that smiling is a "splitting" of one's mouth), see Proto-Germanic *splītaną (“to split”) for more on the root.

Verb

flina (present flinar, preterite flinade, supine flinat, imperative flina)

  1. to grin (smile in a cheeky, mocking, silly, stupid, or similar way, or "in a less beautiful way," as Svensk ordbok puts it)
    1. to smile (when sounding better)
      Vad flinar du åt?!
      What are you smiling at?!
  2. (now uncommon) to laugh (in a similar manner)

Usage notes

  • Not necessarily with bared teeth.
  • Basically covers any kind of grinning that might be described as "colloquial" (or "mocking" or the like, if not a happy smile).

Conjugation

Conjugation of flina (weak)
active passive
infinitive flina flinas
supine flinat flinats
imperative flina —
imper. plural1 flinen —
present past present past
indicative flinar flinade flinas flinades
ind. plural1 flina flinade flinas flinades
subjunctive2 fline flinade flines flinades
present participle flinande
past participle —

1 Archaic. 2 Dated. See the appendix on Swedish verbs.

Derived terms

See also

References

  1. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013) “*flaina-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 143

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