73 Comments

UGH, I was so lacking ork that I left a few lines under the photo that did not belong, now they're removed. It's so important to keep an eye on our ork.

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Help me out Celia... Can a person judge whether someone else has Ork or not, or what level of Ork they have inbetween?

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Great question. I would say: Since Swedish has the word "ork," and anybody can use it, the whole culture revolves more around people doing what they have "ork" for and less of people anticipating the ork of others. You just say "jag orkar inte," and plans or actions are avoided accordingly. But YES, you can see in other person, or imagine, their lack of "ork," and you can tell another person you do not think THEY have ork.

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Thank you for responding.

I am of Iowanian Swede and Welsh ancestry. The Sensitive Swede and Stoic Perfectionist Welsh in me have always been at odds with one another. The Sensitive Swede Ork always wins out in my 7.5 decades long journey. However, at 11 y.o. when my family moved to Renegade Culture California, I found my Welsh stoic nature to be much better armor than my Sensitive Swedish Ork.

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In Britain the nearest would be "Oomph"

I haven't got the oomph.

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That word/concept is also recognized in the U.S.

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I love the distinction you draw around the concept of Swedish "Ork"! So spot on. For some cultural reason, we are always allowed to not have "ork" in Sweden, but not having "energy enough to do it" here in the US is something of a defeat or weakness.

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Exactly!!

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I like the concept, but the sound-similarity with Tolkien's 'orcs' makes it unintentionally hilarious.

Like in German, if you want to race, it's a 'Wettfahrt'.

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I think English is a kind of poor language, very little nuance. The dictionary Dutch-English is about a quarter thicker than vice-versa, which means IMO that Dutch has a bunch more words. Well I am still from the times of paper dictionaries LOL

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there's no shame in recognising and respecting one's lack of ork (more Dutch: "ik heb even geen zin [meer]").

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It gets confusing in places. One authority ventured that the English language may contain approximately as much as a million words. Then there's this from Wickedpedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dictionaries_by_number_of_words Nederlands, like German has many compound words that then become a linguistic force multiplier

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thanks I will check that out, and yes, it is true that both Dutch and German have compound words. In the meanwhile, a whole slew of English words connected to the internet and computers, will have entered especially Dutch, German usually has its own words for these terms.

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Oh I’m loving this ‘ork’ thing…I have it…I just broke off a 22 month significant relationship I had with someone…looking back he just never had the ‘ork’…I tried to inject ‘ork’ into ‘us’ but it just never took!

Thanks for introducing it to us!

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How you been following Elizabeth Nickson? What do you make of her charge that satanism and ritual infanticide are built into the business model of Hollywood?

https://elizabethnickson.substack.com/p/is-jennifer-lopez-responsible-for

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YES. I will be posting about Elizabeth's latest, stunning piece. She is accurate of course.

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Wow what a great term. I lost my Ork last year and need an Ork gland transplant, because my Ork gland seems to have quit functioning. Maybe I need daily injections of Ork now instead? Life this past year has burned up all my Ork.

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Got my mojo workin...

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Oh behave !

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In the spirit of “ork” this word, Verve, just popped up on my daily word email!

https://worddaily.com/words/verve/

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Fascinating concept.

I always thought that the word "depression," an irrelevant geographic metaphor, was misleading. Many times, when people say very informally that they feel depressed, they just lack the ork, but they can't express it. It's different from any degree of sadness. Ork doesn't seem emotional either. It seems to me it's more about desire than about judgement of the self or the other.

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Yes, very observant. My lack of ork right now mimics depression but isn't. if you keep going, keep whirling around, when ork has run low, you get very depressed, like a ghost.

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Keep whirling, just not like a raving dervish, so as not to lose your sparkle/become depressed.

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Ork sounds like the word energy.

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ah, dear Celia....Thank you for addressing the issue I wanted to have a conversation with you about! What you call "ork" " or measure of interior human presence, will and capacity." I call YOUR TRUTH! That is the essence of the shift in consciousness occurring cosmically right now. We are being called to tune into our bodies and "feel" what is truth rather than intellectually making ourselves believe everything is ok when in reality, IT ISN'T! Much love and appreciation for your conscious decision to regroup and perhaps re-think all that has transpired.

My love and heartfelt support is with you! Sincerely, Renee

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Love and Blessings!

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I absolutely love the concept of Ork! Definitely needed in our vocabulary.

Plus, don’t forget that it also gave us Mork and Orson. :-)

(I would never have posted such a lame comment were I not in a shame free zone.)

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Gumption? But you’re right we don’t go around saying “do you have the gumption to…”

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On a different subject, but based on the sweet picture of your cats. How wonderful that those two so obviously loved each other. I've had cats all my adult life, but while they tolerate each other there is no real closeness. Lately I've been allowing the male stray I've been feeding for going on 6 years to come inside, and he is so well behaved, but my 2 girls are so intimidated. Heavy sigh. I hope they will come to accept him eventually.

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Similarly, the Finnish word "sisu".

Some define it as stamina, but that would be an incomplete definition.

The word is also used in Estonian, with similar meaning.

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The closest thing I can think of in English is to say, “I don’t have it in me.”

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