(Photo: Kimberly Vardeman)
And as a Texan, I could not be more proud!
Dan Solomon of Texas Monthy researched this phenomenon. He found that this Norwegian term is several decades old and has its origins in old Western movies that have come to be symbolic of Texas. Solomon quotes Norwegian Tumblr user Qnneli:
The expression itself has to do with associations. It’s something that brings to mind chaotic, crazy conditions, like the “wild west,” and at least back when the expression was coined, the “wild west” held very strong Texas associations. Hell, even when I was a kid in the 80s, I thought that all American cowboys came from Texas, and that’s just how it was. Texas = land of the cowboys. And rodeos. And the wild west. A Western movie? Probably from Texas.
"Texas" is usually as an adjective. Solomon writes:
Usually, when the word “texas”—as an adjective, most often without capitalization—appears in Norwegian, the context involves the phrase, “det var helt texas,” which translates to, roughly, “it was totally/absolutely/completely bonkers.” You wouldn’t call a person “totally texas”—it usually describes a chaotic atmosphere.
In truth, Texas is not totally texas. But we're working on it.
-via Dave Barry