Lunar Punk Press

VERBS OF LIFE

Additions to the Dictionary of Contemporary Danish

Translated by Nielsine Nielsen

Preface

Being in this world as something other than a person. That is what this dictionary gives language to: the fact that other species and entities exist outside of people’s relationship with them, without being defined by humanity’s functional understanding of their value. All species and natural entities already exist outside of our attachment to them. They exist and interact with each other, without us. But to understand and recognise their subjectivity, their autonomy and their right to independence, we need to rethink the language we use to convey their behaviour.

The Dictionary of Contemporary Danish lacks a plethora of words. A plethora of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions and more.^* You will not find those in this encyclopedia. I dream that we will collectively invoke these missing words. I dream that we will collectively realise that the language we use today belongs in the past, and that it cannot in any sustainable sense carry us into the future. The Danish language has many fine elements, but a millenium’s worth of power struggles has worn it down, clipped it wings and employed it as a tool for the promotion of selfish gains. In the last hundred years or so, our language has been influenced in industrial, instrumental and violence-desensitizing ways which distance us even further from our ecosystems. Some examples of this are the Danish verbs skove,  meaning ‘to cut down’ (from the Danish noun skov meaning ‘forest’) and fiske, meaning ‘to fish’ (from the Danish noun fisk meaning ‘fish’). We have treated our world violently by felling its trees and killing its fish.^** To make matters worse, we have treated our language violently to better support our violent demeanour – and I wish to put an end to this. Skove cannot mean cutting down the trees in a forest. This simply cannot be the case. Fiske cannot mean taking the life of a fish. ‘Fishing’ ought to only mean that you exist in the world as a fish. You engage with spaces of fluidity and navigate: You think and experience things in a way that is fish-like. That is what this little book has to offer: An incomplete list of new words, all of which are given back to nature’s entities. We already know some of the words, such as fiske and skove, but they must be redefined. Other words are more unfamiliar to us, but I’m telling you: Try putting them in your mouth. You will be surprised by how natural they feel. And before you know it, you have done much more than expanding your vocabulary: You have accessed an infinite number of ways of stepping into the world.

This encyclopedia, and its earlier versions, would never have been possible without the conversations and written correspondences I have had with other people, as well as with individuals of other species, all of which I continue to have to this day. This book is my current contribution to an incredibly exciting and extensive conversation that a lot of us are having right now. For a brief spell, the word is mine, and here are my two cents. Afterwards, I will sit back down and listen.

Thus, the word definitions in this book are not exhaustive. They may be viewed as signposts pointing us toward what we should be looking at. From this point on we need to work together to find out what it means to be a whale in this world, or a wind, or a walnut. We can learn this by taking our time in the company of those whose lives are very different from ours: By listening to the world in a curious way, and not least by embracing the fact that our knowledge is unfathomably limited, and that there is an unfathomable amount of wonderful learning in store for us. 

April 2024

Shekufe

Abbreviations & symbols

○	Other meanings
◊	Synonym(s)
∆	Antonym(s)
⌂	Extended glossary
met.	Metaphorical(ly)
o.f.	Old form
a.o.	And others
r.u.	Rare usage
assoc.	Associated with
n.u.	New usage
❊	Example phrase (literal or metaphorical)