Etymology

smorgasbord

smor·gas·bord
S1M3O1R1G2A1S1B3O1R1D2

Today it means: A Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes; (by extension) any buffet with a wide selection of dishes. Full definition →

Swedish smörgåsbord
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Swedish · derived fromsmör“butter”
  2. Swedish · borrowed fromsmörgåsbord“buffet with many small dishes; smorgasbord”
  3. English todaysmorgasbord

Borrowed from Swedish smörgåsbord (“buffet with many small dishes; smorgasbord”), from smörgås (“sandwich”) + bord (“table”). Smörgås is from Swedish smör (“butter”) + gås (“goose”), a reference to pieces of butter which float to the surface of milk when churned.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.