menlös

Swedish

Etymology

From men +‎ -lös. (sense 3) perhaps from blending with meningslös (“meaningless; pointless”).

Adjective

menlös (comparative menlösare, superlative menlösast)

  1. harmless, inoffensive
  2. bland, vapid
  4. pointless and lame
    Synonym: (pointless) meningslös
    Vilket menlöst förslag
    What a lame proposal
  6. (obsolete, of children) uncorrupted, innocent
    Menlösa barns dag
    Holy Innocents' Day (December 28 in the Lutheran churches of Scandinavia)

Usage notes

  • (sense 3) is more recent and missing from many dictionaries, but might now be the most common sense.
  • "Menlösa barns dag" (Holy Innocents' Day) is now often considered an unintentionally humorous name due to (sense 4) being otherwise practically obsolete. The name of the day was changed to "Värnlösa (“defenseless”) barns dag" in Sweden in 2000.

Declension

Inflection of menlös
Indefinite positive comparative superlative1
common singular menlös menlösare menlösast
neuter singular menlöst menlösare menlösast
plural menlösa menlösare menlösast
masculine plural2 menlöse menlösare menlösast
Definite positive comparative superlative
masculine singular3 menlöse menlösare menlösaste
all menlösa menlösare menlösaste

1 The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative.
2 Dated or archaic.
3 Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.

References

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