"Det er en edderkopp."

Translation: It is a spider.

[eva.lyus]

can someone explain, where this word comes from? is there a deeper meaning?

[Dauddaud]

Little late but you have the word in English as well. It's "attercop" there.
It derives from old english ator=poison and copp=head.
In "The Hobbit" (the bok not the horrible horrible movies) Bilbo calls the spiders "attercop" to mock them.

[Tetraoxid]

Whoa, I do remember that scene now. And I read the book in German, so the word may have been really popular once...
PS.: The films aren't that bad, if you are able to shut up the part of your brain that's always comparing them to the book while watching.
PPS.: I love the word; it takes my irrational fear of those foul beasts away and makes me smile :)

[meiasmedidas]

Thank you, that was really helpful. Now I'll definitely remember the word 'edderkopp'.

[Regney]

Charlotte er en edderkopp og hun har en tryllevev... heldigvis for Wilbur.

[Karmen.Han]

That was my fav kids' book. Have an ingot!

[eweesner]

Since the noun (en edderkopp) is masculine, why isn't den used at the beginning of the sentence instead of det? I thought that det was only used when referring to ungendered nouns.

[Deliciae]

When referring to something unknown, we default to the neuter version.

At the point where "det" is used in the sentence, the reader/listener still doesn't know that "det" is going to be a spider. If they did, then the sentence would be a bit pointless.

"Det (introducing an unknown) er en edderkopp. Den (pointing back to edderkopp) er farlig."

[eweesner]

Thanks for the explanation!

[AlbertLinguist]

What's the function of double consonants in Norwegiam?

[Regney]

As a general rule, the vowel in a word with a single consonant is a long vowel, and the vowel in a word with a double consonant is a short vowel. Bear in mind that "long" and "short" in Norwegian isn't identical to "long" and "short" in English. Here are some examples:

Maten er varm. (The food is hot.) - The long a in maten is drawn out a little: ma-aten.
Matten er ren. (The mat is clean.) - The short a in matten is said quickly.
Fint, takk! (Fine, thanks!) - The a in takk is pronounced quickly.
Fint tak! (Nice roof!) - The a is drawn out.

There are, of course, exceptions, including til, om and hvis. They're not drawn out.

[GandAlfSal]

So this is where these guys come from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ettercap

[crimsonros2]

this word is funny to me

[CheshireCat75]

Why isn't "THIS is a spider" accepted ?

[Deliciae]

this = dette (n), denne (m/f)
that/it = det (n), den (m/f)

[CheshireCat75]

ok, got it. Thank you

[artur381539]

what is the difference between this and that?

[Deliciae]

"This" is used to refer/point to things that are closer to you, and "that" is used for things that are farther away, either physically, emotionally or figuratively.

Examples:

"This cup (over here/in my hand) is blue, while that cup (over there) is blue."
"This bicycle is mine; that one is yours."
"I think this idea is better than that idea."

[artur381539]

tusen takk :)

[Deliciae]

Bare hyggelig!

[danielingua]

Wow, even the word "edderkopp" makes it sound menacing.

[Eddsworld_Doodle]

Ya best run if ya don't wanna get bit