Who is this “Lars” and what did he do?
Thanks to my Mom, and more recently my Grandmothers, I’ve been reminded of a phrase that my Great Grandmother used as a term of endearment when talking to children. “Oh, my little bukse lars”, or “Uff da, you’re a big boy there bukse lars”.
I had to get to the bottom of this phenomenon. My Dad’s Mom is fairly knowledgeable about the Norweigian language, and assuming it came from somewhere within my Scandinavian heritage, I asked her, “What the heck does this mean?”
“Well,” she answered, “Bukse means pants and lars is just the name of a man”. So, in that case…
“Oh James, you little pants lars.”
“Elsa, you sweet pants lars.”
Uh… umm… is anyone else confused?