◆ Lexicon
A working lexicon of West Germanic memory.
A curated record of words attested in elder voices across Dutch, Afrikaans, German, English, and West Frisian. Some are genuinely vanishing — words a 75-year-old uses naturally that a 25-year-old has to ask about. Others are alive but illuminating: words that travel between languages, words with no clean equivalent, words that have quietly displaced their predecessors.
◆
bessie / bessien
/ˈbɛ.si/ /ˈbɛ.siən/
noun
Grandmother; dialectal Limburgish/Brabantish and also Urker term of address or reference for grandmother, displaced...
vanishing
NL
gort
/ɡɔrt/
noun
Pearl barley; barley groats; barley porridge. A staple grain food that has largely disappeared from Dutch household...
vanishing
NL
krûd / kruid / kruie
/kryd/ /krœy̯t/ /krœyə/
noun
Herb, pot-herb, medicinal plant; (German) Kraut also means 'cabbage' and is the source of the English 'sauerkraut'.
vanishing
NL
AF
DE
FY
mof
/mɔf/
noun
(Dutch, derogatory) A derogatory term for a German person, especially in post-WWII Dutch usage. This entry is...
vanishing
NL
stil / still / stille
/stɪl/
adjective
Still, quiet, silent; motionless; (as adverb) without sound or movement. Shared across English, Dutch, German,...
vanishing
NL
AF
DE
EN
FY
witvoetjie soek
/ˈvɪt.fuː.ci ˌsuːk/
idiom
To curry favour; to ingratiate oneself; to seek someone's approval by flattery or servility. Literally 'to seek the...
vanishing
AF
NL
6 entries