Words by

Elías Þórsson

@Eliasthorsson

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A phrase you should never use in a news article is “some people say.” Who are these people? But saying “some fools say,”—now, there is a line you can freely use.

The word “gárungar” has many meanings, like fools, reckless people or showoffs, and it serves as the Icelandic equivalent of stating something that someone might have said. For instance, here is a 1993 headline from the old Social Democrat newspaper Alþýðublaðið about how terrible the town Kópavogur is: “Gárungar called Kópavogur little Korea.”

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