Valfusk: it's a word that an English speaker might take for some sort of fish, on a quick glance. But once you take a proper look and notice that it's fusk ("cheat") not fisk ("fish"), you'll soon realise the word has nothing to do with seafood.
Unless, I suppose, someone used trout to buy someone's vote, or salmon to conceal a pre-marked ballot; because, since val (in this context, at least) means "election," valfusk translates literally into "election-cheat" – what we usually term "election fraud" in English.
The noun ett fusk ("a cheat") comes from the verb att fuska ("to cheat), which was borrowed into Swedish from the German fuschen in the mid-18th century.
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It wasn't until 1894 that the compound valfusk showed up. It's now in Swedish dictionaries as its own word, with the meaning otillåten handling för att påverka valresulta – "an illegal act to influence election results."
Since compound words in Swedish take the 'gender' – i.e. whether they are an en or an ett-noun – from the final component of the compound, valfusk is an ett word (so, "the election fraud" is valfusket).
But, helpfully, in this case the first component of the compound, val, is also an ett word – at least when it means "election" or "choice." Val is also the Swedish word for "whale"; but if you want to talk about a leviathan, that would be en val.
Examples
Valets förlorare klagade över omfattande valfusk (This is the example given in the Svenska Ordbok)
The losers of the election complained about widespread election fraud.
Det misstänkta valfusket i Borlänge.
The suspected election fraud in Borlänge.
Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it.
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