Getapulien

 

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Getapulien, Småland

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Compound of get (“goat”) +‎ Apulien (“Apulia, Italian region”). Likely originated from getpul (“goat bestialist”). The perceived notion that both regions have poor soil that is better suited for grazing than cultivation, with goats being a fairly hardy livestock, are likely attributing factors. First attested in 1860^[1].

Getapulien n (genitive Getapuliens)

1. (archaic, humorous) Synonym of Småland (“region in southern Sweden”) or as a fictional location therein, especially its most barren and desolate areas.
   • 1857 December 3, Aftonbladet, page 2:

     Det är ett vackert land detta Småland, åtminstone att döma af det man lär känna deraf, då man reser landvägen från Skåne, utefter Lagaån: jag tviflar derpå, att många landskap ha att bjuda den resande på så storartade utsigter; aldrig hade jag åtminstone trott att Getapulien skulle framträda för mina ögon i så vackert skick.

     It is a fair country, this Småland, at least judging by that portion thereof which one becomes acquainted with when journeying by land from Scania, along the course of the River Lagan. I doubt whether many landscapes can offer the traveller such grand prospects; never had I, at least, believed that Småland would appear before mine eyes in such fine condition.

   • 1869, Christian Adolph Palme, Brödsmulor på vers och prosa, page 89:

     Så var det n:o 2 Bror Edvin Blumenthal, en svärmande versmakare och månskenspoet, nu Kongl. hofpredikant och prost ner i Skåne, och så var det till slut n:o 3 Bror Thure Lagerstrand, en rolighetskurre, en riktig lustigthure, jurist till professionen, nu afskedad assessor och bosatt någonstans i det så kallade Getapulien af Småland.

     Thus there was No. 2 Brother Edvin Blumenthal, a rhapsodic versifier and moonlight poet, now Royal Court Chaplain and Dean down in Scania, and lastly there was No. 3 Brother Thure Lagerstrand, a merry fellow, a veritable jester of wit, lawyer by profession, now a dismissed assessor and residing somewhere in that so-called Goatshire of Småland.

   • 1876 March 18, “Tittskåp [Diorama]”, in Halland, page 3:

     Uugerſvennen ville partout gifta ſig i rappet och for till Getapulien för att tjena pengar, ſom tillsammans med den ſtora förmögenheten i Göteborg kunde bli en rätt vacker grundplåt, tyckte han.

     The young bachelor, insistent on marrying in haste, set forth to Småland to earn his fortune, believing that combined with the grand wealth in Gothenburg, it could form a rather handsome foundation.

• getapulisk (adjective)
• getapuliansk (adjective)

• 1969 September 25, Göteborgs-Tidningen, page 34:

  Getapulien är en gammal skämtsam benämning på Smålands kargaste områden, där […]

  "Getapulien" is an old humorous term for the most barren areas of Småland, where […]