This is because ‘to hit’ can of course mean “to punch someone” in English, and then ‘ler’ is the present tense of the Norwegian word for “to laugh”. Put these words together and it made some amount of sense to me to imagine old “hit-laughs” as someone who hits people and then laughs at their pain, in other words a bully, a sadist, or otherwise a cruel villain.
I was playing Scrabble at my in-laws one weekend. Triumphantly played the word ‘glans’, which would have secured me the win.
Everyone told me it wasn’t a word and wouldn’t let me have it.
I’m still bitter about that.