Norwegian word of the day: tidsoptimist

Do you know someone who's always running late? You might want to introduce them to today's word of the day.

The word tidsoptimist directly translates to “time optimist”. A tidsoptimis t is a person who underestimates how long things will take or overestimates how much time they have. A person who identifies as a tidsoptimist (or, perhaps more likely, who other people describe as a tidsoptimist ) is therefore also someone who is typically chronically late to everything.

The word, which is also used in other Scandinavian languages, combines the word tid (time) and optimist.

En tidsoptimist , which is most commonly used as a noun, also exists as an adjective: tidsoptimistisk.

The word is used as a charming, funny way to describe a frustrating habit.

If you describe yourself as a tidsoptimist you can get away with being late. Although lateness is a frustrating and sometimes disrespectful habit, this softens the blow by acknowledging that a person’s intentions aren’t necessarily careless, but rather based on a positive (yet very unrealistic) presumption of how time passes.

The word is a useful one to add to your Norwegian vocabulary, as it’s one that everyone can relate to: either because they themselves are a tidsoptimist or because they know someone who is.

You might think that people who are chronically early to things would describe themselves instead as a tidspessimist , or "time pessimist". Although you could definitely use this, Norwegians would understand what you mean, it's far less commonly used than tidsoptimist.

Jeg er dessverre litt av en tidsoptimist, så jeg kommer nok ti minutter for sent.

“Unfortunately, I'm a bit of an optimist when it comes to time, so I'll probably be ten minutes late.”

Som tidsoptimist trodde han at han rakk å vaske, handle og lage mat på en time.

“As a time optimist, he thought he could manage to clean, shop, and cook in an hour.”

Vi bør nok dra nå. Du kjenner Petter, han er alltid så tidsoptimistisk.

“We’d better leave now. You know Petter, he is always so optimistic when it comes to time.”