There is a word in Swedish for trees that have grown very large. The word is vardtrad (with a little O over the first A, two dots over the second one), or literally, "Care-tree." It means, "A tree that must be taken special care of." If you buy a house, the real-estate listing shows photos of the house, the garden, the garage, and the vardtrads. A school might have one, or a neighborhood.
Leonid is a vardtrad. And Eugenio, and the Odin.
I love both the concept, and the fact that it's built into the language. You cannot say, "The big tree." You must say "The tree that must be taken special care of."
Monday, May 02, 2005
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