lort
/lort/
In Danish, lort means crap or shit.
lort is an informal, vulgar term used to refer to excrement or to describe something of very poor quality. It is often used to express frustration or disappointment.
Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?
lort is a vulgar term and is not suitable for formal or polite conversation. For medical or scientific contexts, a formal and neutral term is Afføring.
Is it said differently in some regions?
In the southern Jutlandic dialect, the slang-like term skarn is used to refer to lort.
How does it change in a sentence?
The noun is common gender. It is used as an uncountable mass noun when referring to the substance in general. To form the definite singular, the suffix -et is added to create lortet, meaning 'the shit'.
How do you pronounce it?
/lort/
Did you know?
- The term may have originally described someone who was 'crooked' or 'bent' in character, stemming from a Proto-West Germanic root meaning 'left-handed'.
- The phrase at være i lort til halsen literally translates to 'to be in shit up to the neck' and is used to describe being in a desperate situation.
- Danish speakers use the word lort as a prefix to create adjectives for low-quality objects, such as en lortebil to describe a 'piece of junk car'.
Examples in context
- Argh, jeg har spildt kaffen på min skjorte! Lort!Argh, I spilled coffee on my shirt! Lort!
- Det er noget lort.It is something of very poor quality.
- Jeg er træt af det lort.I am tired of that crap.
Example conversation
Mads and Freja are looking at a broken, cheap gadget.
- MadsSe på den her billige lort.Look at this cheap crap.
- FrejaJa, den er helt ødelagt.Yes, it is completely broken.
- MadsDet er simpelthen noget lort.It is simply something of poor quality.
- FrejaVi må købe en ny.We must buy a new one.
Sources
- Pronunciation: Wiktionary entry lort, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries lort, CC BY-SA 4.0.
