snårig

Swedish

Etymology

snår (“thicket, scrub, brushwood”) +‎ -ig (“-y”)

Adjective

snårig (comparative snårigare, superlative snårigast)

1. scrubby, brushy, tangled (filled with snår)
   • 1961, Olle Adolphson (lyrics and music), “Trubbel [Trouble]”, in Visor trycka i år [Songs printed this year]‎^[1]:

     Nu stryker vinden genom trädens höga kronor, men i min trädgård är det visset, mörkt och kallt. Här är det risigt och förvuxet, fult och snårigt.

     Now the wind sweeps [strokes, smooths] through the high crowns of the trees, but in my garden, it is withered, dark, and cold. Here it is scrubby and overgrown, ugly and tangled [avoids repeating "scrubby" (from "risig"), and "snårig" focuses on messiness].

2. (figuratively) complicated, hard to survey (of for example a line of reasoning)

Declension

Inflection of snårig

Indefinite	positive	comparative	superlative1
common singular	snårig	snårigare	snårigast
neuter singular	snårigt	snårigare	snårigast
plural	snåriga	snårigare	snårigast
masculine plural2	snårige	snårigare	snårigast
Definite	positive	comparative	superlative
masculine singular3	snårige	snårigare	snårigaste
all	snåriga	snårigare	snårigaste

¹ The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative.
² Dated or archaic.
³ Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.

See also

• risig

References

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