fysisk

Fysisk is an adjective used in the Scandinavian languages Swedish, Danish and Norwegian to describe things related to the body or to matter and phenomena that can be perceived, measured, or touched. It is commonly contrasted with mental or social aspects in everyday and technical language, where it denotes tangible or material qualities rather than abstract or psychological ones.

In everyday usage, fysisk appears in phrases such as fysisk aktivitet (physical activity), fysiska egenskaper (physical properties), fysik kropp (physical body), and fysisk arbete (physical labor). It may refer to bodily sensations and health, as in fysisk smärta (physical pain), or to the external, material world, as in fysikk og kjemi, where the term describes the physical side of objects and processes.

The word is closely related to the scientific field of physics, which in these languages is typically denoted by fysik; fysisk, however, describes attributes of objects, bodies, or phenomena that belong to the physical realm rather than the science itself. This distinction helps separate discussions of physical attributes from discussions of theories and laws in physics.

Etymologically, fysisk derives from the same root as the English word physical, tracing back through Latin physica and Greek physis (nature) via the broader family of Romance and Germanic languages. Across Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian, the term functions similarly to its equivalents in English and reflects a broad use to characterize material, bodily, and tangible aspects of reality.