Where does “skjønnlitteratur” come from?

skjønnlitteratur (Norwegian Bokmål) comes from Norwegian Bokmål skjønn, from Low German schone.

skjønnlitteratur (Norwegian Bokmål): fiction, imaginative literature, belles-lettres

Definitions

  1. fiction, imaginative literature, belles-lettres

Ancestry of “skjønnlitteratur”, step by step

skjønnlitteratur traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Norwegian Bokmål skjønn

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Norwegian Bokmålskjønnbeautiful; imperative of skjønne
2Low Germanschone—

via Norwegian Bokmål litteratur

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Norwegian Bokmållitteraturliterature
Every word from Low German schone →Every word from Norwegian Bokmål skjønn →