overträda

Överträda is a Swedish verb meaning to violate, transgress, or breach a rule, law, contract, or obligation. It is used as a transitive verb, typically with a direct object such as lagen (the law), en regel (a rule), or ett avtal (a contract). The term is common in formal, administrative, and legal language, and its English equivalents include to violate, to breach, or to contravene.

Orthography and variants: The standard Swedish spelling uses the umlaut ö, so the form is överträda. In contexts where diacritics are omitted, you may encounter overträda. The verb is built from över- (over) and träda (to tread), a combination that historically conveys stepping beyond accepted bounds.

Usage and register: Överträda is relatively formal and often used in legal or official discourse. In everyday Swedish, bryta mot is the more common expression for “to break” a rule or law. Typical collocations include övertäda lagen, överträda regler, or överträda avtalet, signaling deliberate breach of obligations.

Legal and ethical sense: In legal contexts, överträda denotes a breach of statutory duties or binding obligations. It can appear in judgments, statutes, or official communications. Related terms such as överskridande (transgression) and kränkning (violation) describe broader or different nuances of wrongdoing, though not exact synonyms.

Notes: This article focuses on Swedish usage. The concept has cognates in other Scandinavian languages, reflecting shared legal and normative vocabularies across the region.