18-02-2025
Swedish word of the day: mammakorv
Mammakorv is a compound word which literally translates as "mummy sausage" or "mum sausage".
But what is it?
It appears to have been coined in an article in Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) from February 2nd, 2025, by fashion writer Alice Aveshagen, who described them as 'a formless down cylinder that seems to be suffocating women of the Western world'.
They are long, knee-length puffer jackets which, according to Aveshagen, seem to be particularly popular among 'new middle class mums born in the late 80s or early 90s'.
She added that they are 'a type of standing bag, often in black, grey or beige, or yellow if you're feeling daring'.
Aveshagen had originally dismissed them as a Stockholm phenomenon, until she moved to London and saw them everywhere.
'They're haunting me as soon as I dare step outside,' she wrote.
The word can be used to describe the jackets by themselves or the people wearing them.
After Aveshagen's article was published, usage of the word has, to say the least, exploded in Sweden, with strong opinions on both sides of the mammakorv divide.
Author Maria Sveland, writing in Expressen, said the debate was yet another example of 'classic mammamobbning ' (another compound word meaning 'mum-bullying' or perhaps better translated as mum-shaming).
In Kristianstadsbladet, Johanna Schreiber described them as 'a sign of liberation', representing the privilege mothers have of 'being able to glide between the roles of mother and woman'.
Dagens Nyheter's Lisa Magnusson wrote an article with the headline 'all I want is to be an unsexy mammakorv ', before quickly adding that comfort has its limits – she could never sink so low as to wear a pair of crocs.
Public radio station P4 Kronoberg counted 95 mammakorvar and even one pappakorv in an hour in central Växjö, while P4 Stockholm found 100 of the shapeless jackets in the same amount of time in the capital.
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What about the women who wear them? Swedish media have carried out countless interviews with mammakorv -wearers (mammakorvbärare in Swedish), with most of the women praising their jackets for being cosy, practical, or warm.
'I don't want to dress like my children,' Johanna, who described herself as 'a proud mammakorv ', told P4 Stockholm. 'I want to dress like an adult.'
Marie, who was the hundredth mammakorv to walk past the radio station's reporter during her count for the jackets, also praised them for their comfort.
'I love them, mammakorvar,' she said. 'Everything has to be comfortable now, I don't want anything that's tight anywhere. It's so incredibly comfortable and I'm never cold, never have to wear an extra thick skirt or thermals – it's all in one!'
Example sentences:
Jag älskar min mammakorv, den är så himla praktisk.
I love my mammakorv, it's so practical.
Jag hatar när jag får en kall rumpa när jag sitter och leker med mitt barn i sandlådan. Skaffa en mammakorv då!
I hate it when I get a cold bum when I'm sitting by the sandpit playing with my child. Buy a mammakorv then!
