◆ 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.
◆
bûsdoek
/ˈbuːs.duːk/
noun
Handkerchief. West Frisian: literally 'pocket cloth' (bûs = pocket, doek = cloth). Fading even within...
vanishing
FY
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
pake / beppe
/paːkə/ /ˈbɛpə/
noun
Pake: grandfather (West Frisian). Beppe: grandmother (West Frisian). Frisian-specific kinship terms; the everyday...
vanishing
FY
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
tsjerne
/ˈtsjɛr.nə/
noun
Butter churn. West Frisian word for the vessel and process of churning cream into butter; the object has virtually...
vanishing
FY
5 entries