utgångs

Utgångs is a bound morpheme used in Swedish to form compound nouns related to end points, expiry, or the outward progression of a process. It is not a standalone word in modern Swedish; instead, it attaches to another noun to shift its meaning toward an ending, a deadline, or a point from which something ends or changes state. The form derives from utgång, meaning exit, departure, or outset, and historically carries the sense of something going out or coming to a conclusion.

In practice, utgångs occurs most prominently in words that indicate time limits or endpoints. The best-known example is utgångsdatum, meaning expiry or expiration date, used on food, medicine, and contracts to indicate the last day something is valid. The morpheme also appears in other time- or end-focused compounds, where the head noun defines the domain (for example, a term related to the end of a period or phase).

Related lexical items include utgång, the base noun meaning exit or outset, and utgångspunkt, meaning starting point or point of departure, which shares the same root but is formed with a different suffix and has a distinct sense. Spelling for utgångs compounds is typically solid (written as one word) in modern Swedish, with no standard hyphenation.

See also: Swedish morphology; compound words; utgång.