Can Anyone Translate This Swedish Word?

July 7, 2010 1:27 PM

My husband's grandmother is Swedish (born in the US; her parents emigrated). She uses the Swedish word "guba" (sounds like 'gouda') when talking about any nice-looking man ("Oh, he's a guba."). Is this an accurate translation? I've tried Google and haven't gotten a definitive answer, possibly because I may be spelling it wrong.
posted by miltoncat to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

You're talking about "gubbe", which literally means "fellow" or "old man", but is used as a term of endearment. "Lille gubbe", "lille gumman" (the female equivalent, something like "little old lady"). It also occurs in compounds like "korvgubbe" = "hot dog vendor".
posted by Maximian at 1:40 PM on July 7, 2010

Maximian has it. Though "gubbe" doesn't have to be affectionate, it can be neutral, more like "guy", and can also be used for a child pretty much like in English "little guy".
posted by VikingSword at 3:07 PM on July 7, 2010

Unless it is more like "gouda" as you type it, 'goda', which means tasty or yummy. I don't you'd use it when talking about people normally though, but my Swedish is quite rusty.
posted by lundman at 7:33 PM on July 7, 2010

Seeing as she is second generation immigrant, it's possible that her usage and even pronunciation of the word differs from a Swedish person's. Not to mention that it could possibly be a 100 year old idiom too.

The book Svensk-amerikanska språket by could be of great help in trying to find out more about this phrase, but the contents are apparently not available online.
posted by Authorized User at 3:31 AM on July 15, 2010