Okay, so this is really the “word o’ a couple weeks ago”, but it’s such fun anyways! The word is courtesy of my friend Peter (sadly gone from the BVI, back to Sweden), and is “baksmala”. it’s pronounced “boks MEL ah”. It’s a word verging on slang; the literal meaninmg is something like “something that hits you from behind”. According to Peter, hen outboard motors where first introduced in Sweden, the called a boat with an outboard a baksmala.
In modern usage, however, it is the Swedish term for a hangover. In the last weeks that Peter and Karen where here, we were sharing the Carrot Bay house, and more than a few mornings found us saluting one another, grimly cheerful, with a hearty “Baksmala”!