When Martin Karlsen and Kristoffer Marø ordered the new schooner in Scotland, they thought they had found a great name: Polarfart. They also set up a company with the same name that was to own the ship. But it was probably one or two shipyard workers who pulled on the smiley band where they painted the name on the ship's side.
English skills were somewhat weaker among Norwegians at the time, and it took some time before the owners realized that they had made a bit of a joke and fun with the name choice. The English dictionaries explain the last part of the name – “fart” – as the colloquial word for what in medical terms is called “expel intestinal gas from the anus”. In other words: To let out intestinal gas. Or fart, in more everyday Norwegian. “Fart” in this meaning has been used in English for many hundreds of years, but probably mostly in the lower social classes. The word is often marked with a warning triangle in dictionaries, and notes such as “often vulgar” and “not in polite use”.
"Fart" is also used to refer to people. In this case, we are talking about people who are disliked, annoying and unpleasant – as in "the old fart", the old sour pomp.
