The word 'Texas' synonymous with ‘lawlessness’ in multiple languages

There’s a lot to be proud of in The Lone Star State. From cowboy hats and western films like the ones that put John Wayne’s name in lights, to the caliber of their high school football teams.

Texans probably won’t, however, be overly fond of the way their state’s name is used abroad.

“Der var helt Texas!” is a Norweigian phrase meaning ‘that’s totally Texas’, isn’t quite the complement one might hope to hear, says Texas Monthly.

The term is actually used to describe something crazy, chaotic, or simply a general state of lawlessness, according to Public Radio International.

“This historically goes back to Norwegians watching cowboy movies and reading literature about the Wild West,” Anne Ekern, a senior adviser at the Norwegian consulate in Houston, told NPR.

“So when we use the expression ‘Texas,’ we think about — you know, most of us think about a lot of action, a lot fun and a lot of things going on.”

And it’s not just Norway, ‘texas’ is used similarly in Persian and Turkish, reports PRI.

Despite the use of their state’s name to describe the wild and wacky, many Texans can see where they’re coming from.

“Texas is kind of wild and crazy,” Trudy Sheffield, an estate agent from the second largest State in the U.S. told The Guardian. “The slogan is ‘everything is bigger in Texas’, so that kind of works.”

Using the name of a place as a synonym for a term isn’t without precedence. Consider the phrase ‘it’s all Greek to me’ or ‘double Dutch’, both referring to something as not being understandable.