What is a "gasballong" in a woman's purse? It translates

What is a “gasballong” in a woman’s purse? It translates to gas balloon… I asked a cousin in Sweden and she doesn’t know what this is.

Gassballong in Norwegian is a balloon inflated with helium. That is, it flies.

Thanks. Here is the actual sentence: Det finns en hel massa saker i en väska: näsduk, läppstift, kam, nycklar, almanack, penna, plånbok eller börs, och en gasballong.

I was wondering if it was a funny word for a condom? We used to call them balloons sometimes. But my Swedish cousin did not think so.

Actually, search for gasballong on google image (with one s). It’s a strange thing to have in a purse I’ll say.

Yes. Maybe Swedish women carry very large purses!

Indeed. It must be slang or a euphemism for something.

Euphemism for a condom or a tampon or simply a joke, a reference to the stuff women carry around? I often travel with the kitchen sink.

My female cousin in Ostersund (who is in her 50s) didn’t think it was a condom or a tampon… Maybe it is a joke about the “kitchen sink”.

They could just mean she’s carrying a “helium balloon” around in her purse that’s not inflated or no longer inflated, maybe one that’s animal shaped or has a picture or Happy Birthday printed on it or something.

Well, Google is your friend. Type the phrase, and I discovered that the phrase comes from a Russion -Swedish text book.
газовый баллончик = gas canister, pepper spray, according to google translate. Thus the Russion ladies want to defend themselves in case of an attack, and the Swedish translation was incorrect.
Silvia

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What a thorough investigator you are! Much better explanation than my kitchen sink :slight_smile:

In a way I guess they would still be defending themselves with…ya know…your suggestions? :smiley:

The pepper spray explanation makes sense… the person who supplied the lesson lists his native language as Russian with Swedish as a secondary language. According to Google translate, pepper spray is “pepparspray” in Swedish, so you’re likely right, he translated the Russian slang term literally. That would explain why my cousin in Ostersund had no idea what it was. Good work, silviad. I did look on Google but the first few pages only showed the huge balloons that people can ride in.

It is not the person who supplied the lessons which made the mistake, but the editor of the russian book to learn Swedish.

Underneath the text you can see the translation of gasballong in Russian.

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Cool, Silvia! No wonder everyone, including the cousin in Sweden, was wondering what a gasballong was doing in her purse! It has nothing to do with pepper spray, just a bad translation from the Russian.

It makes you wonder how the editor got gas balloon / helium balloon out of gas canister (Газовый баллончик). Interestingly, the Russian Газовый баллончик article in Wikipedia links only to English or German articles on Pepper-spray projectile or Pepperballs. But the Russian Олеорезин капсикум (Oleoresin capsicum) article links to multiple articles, including Swedish Pepparsprej.