◆ 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.
◆
Backfisch
/ˈbakˌfɪʃ/
noun
Teenage girl, especially one between 13 and 18; literally 'fish for baking/frying'. A 19th–early 20th-century German...
extinct
DE
Frauenzimmer
/ˈfʀaʊ̯ənˌtsɪmɐ/
noun
Woman; originally 'the ladies' chamber / women's quarters', then the female court entourage, then (from 17th c.) an...
extinct
DE
Fräulein
/ˈfrɔɪ̯.laɪ̯n/
noun
Miss; an unmarried young woman; formerly the standard German form of address for unmarried women. Officially retired...
extinct
DE
Heimat
/ˈhaɪ̯maːt/
noun
Homeland; the place (region, landscape, community) that formed one's identity — carrying emotional depth, belonging,...
politically loaded
DE
Kaffeeklatsch
/ˈkafeˌklatʃ/
noun
An informal afternoon gathering over coffee and gossip; literally 'coffee gossip'. The social ritual itself is...
vanishing
DE
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
oma / opa
/ˈoː.maː/ /ˈoː.paː/
noun
Grandmother / grandfather; informal Dutch and German kinship terms that displaced the older compound forms in...
displaced
NL
AF
DE
Schmöker
/ˈʃmøː.kɐ/
noun
A thick, entertaining but not particularly literary book; a page-turner, trashy novel, potboiler. Colloquial German;...
vanishing
DE
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
9 entries