gå i kvav

Swedish

Etymology

Roughly, "go in suffocation." Perhaps related to an obsolete sense of kvav as deep water, depths of the sea.

Verb

gå i kvav (present går i kvav, preterite gick i kvav, supine gått i kvav, imperative gå i kvav)

1. to go down (sink)

   Synonyms: gå under, förlisa, sjunka

   • 1970, “Kalle Teodor”, Astrid Lindgren (lyrics), Georg Riedel (music)‎^[1]:

     I storm på Biskaya gick skeppet i kvav, skeppet han segla' [seglade], Kalle Teodor, och därför så vilar han nu i sin grav, vaggad av sjögräs, Kalle Teodor.

     In a storm in Biscay, the ship went down, the ship he was sailing, Kalle Teodor, and therefore he now rests in his grave, cradled [in the sense of "rocked" (like in a cradle)] by seaweed, Kalle Teodor.

2. (figuratively) to founder, to go under (collapse, fail, or the like)

   ett förhållande dömt att gå i kvav

   a relationship doomed to founder

See also

• sank

References

• kvav in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• kvav in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• kvav in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)