Lagom is a word of Swedish (Nordic) origin that means 'almost perfect', 'sufficient', 'adequate', 'as much or as good as it should be'.
A frequent and popular etymological quote that expresses its meaning, is that the word lagom comes from the meals in the old agricultural society during which everyone in the hacienda used to eat from the same pot and drink from the same glass or from the same cup. It was then necessary that it reach for all. This is instead a myth. The dictionary of the Royal Swedish Academy categorizes etymology as an old declination of the word lag (law) where the suffix -um in Old Swedish determined the dative of the plural form. The original meaning of the word laghum, which was its normal spelling, was 'according to the law', 'legally'. Not necessarily referred to a legal law. Instead it is a law with a meaning somewhat close to the expression 'in common'. The meaning of the word came to be reduced over time to something approximating 'appropriate', 'for the common of all' or more simply 'neither too much nor too little' or 'as much as the others'. Even the word list of the National Encyclopedia describes the word as the dative of the plural form of law but with the meaning 'correct position' or 'correct relationship'. Sometimes an expression is better understood if it is thought of as being in 'disagreement with the law'. Lagom is the amount that is needed for something to be 'in accordance with the law' that is to say how it has to be. The verb that is most familiar to the word lagom is called laga which means to repair something (such as a vehicle) or simply prepare something (such as food).
A common appreciation of the word is that it is unique to the Swedish language and does not exist in almost any other language, with the exception of Norwegian (both Bokmål and Nynorsk). Among the languages that do not have direct translation, there are words with similar meanings that can be used in different translations under obvious semantic conditions. For example in the same Norwegian the word passelig and in Danish the word tilpas. Even in Serbo-Croatian Taman, in Estonian Paras and in Japanese Choudo are words that are significantly closer.
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