Meanings
- One of the two major written standards of Norwegian, literally meaning “book language”.
While 85-90% of Norwegians today use Bokmål as their written standard, Nynorsk is only used by about 10-15% of the population. Fosse’s English translator Damion Searls says many Nynorsk speakers see him “as a kind of national hero” for his championing of the language.
2023 October 5, Philip Oltermann, “Jon Fosse’s Nobel prize announces his overdue arrival on the global stage”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 06 Jan 2024Synonyms: Norwegian Bokmål
Synonyms & antonyms
proper nounOne of the two major written standards of Norwegian, literally meaning “book language”.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*bʰeh₂ǵosder.?
- Proto-Indo-European*bʰeh₂g-der.?
- Proto-Germanic*bōks
- Old Norsebók
- Danishbog
- Norwegian Bokmålbok
- Proto-Germanic*maþlą
- Old Norsemál
- Norwegian Bokmålmål
- Norwegian Bokmålbokmå
- EnglishBokmål
Borrowed from Norwegian bokmål (literally “book language”). The equivalent Old Norse bókamál was used in this sense as a name for Latin, as it was the primary language used for writing of biblical work in much of the Middle Ages. The modern Icelandic name for Norwegian Bokmål is bókmál. When dialect research in western Norway was pioneered by Ivar Aasen in the 1850s, bogmaal took on the meaning of written standard language, as opposed to spoken dialects and Aasen's synthesized landsmaal. The two Norwegian languages, standardized in 1907, changed names in 1929 from landsmål to nynorsk, and from riksmål to bokmål.
More words from Norwegian
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan bokmål
- bokmållanguage
Chinese Mandarin 巴克摩挪威語 /巴克摩挪威语, 書面挪威語 /书面挪威语
- 巴克摩挪威語 /巴克摩挪威语 (Bakèmó Nuówēiyǔ)language
- 書面挪威語 /书面挪威语 (Shūmiàn Nuówēiyǔ)language
Danish bokmål
- bokmållanguage
Dutch Bokmål
- Bokmållanguage
Finnish kirjanorja
- kirjanorjalanguage
French bokmål
- bokmållanguage
German Bokmål, Buchsprache
- Bokmållanguage
- Buchsprachelanguage
Icelandic bókmál
- bókmállanguage
Irish Bocmál
- Bocmállanguage
Japanese ブークモール
- ブークモール (Būkumōru)language
Korean 보크몰, 복말
- 보크몰 (Bokeumol)language
- 복말 (Bongmal)language
Latvian būkmols
- būkmolslanguage
Norwegian Bokmål bokmål
- bokmållanguage
Polish bokmål
- bokmållanguage
Portuguese bokmal
- bokmallanguage
Russian бу́кмол
- бу́кмол (búkmol)language
Spanish bokmål
- bokmållanguage
Swedish bokmål
- bokmållanguage
Ukrainian бу́кмол
- бу́кмол (búkmol)language
Cite this entry
Bokmål. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Bokm%C3%A5l
“Bokmål.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Bokm%C3%A5l. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Bokmål,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Bokm%C3%A5l.
Source: Bokmål on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.