◆ 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.
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bessie / bessien
/ˈbɛ.si/ /ˈbɛ.siən/
noun
Grandmother; dialectal Limburgish/Brabantish and also Urker term of address or reference for grandmother, displaced...
vanishing
NL
boer
/buːr/
noun
Farmer, peasant; (historical, capitalised) Afrikaner settler of Dutch descent in South Africa; (South African...
politically loaded
NL
AF
EN
deftig
/ˈdɛf.təx/
adjective
Distinguished, respectable, of good standing; (in elder use) dignified, decent, well-bred. In younger speakers'...
displaced
NL
AF
dorp
/dɔrp/
noun
Village, small town; (South African English) a small provincial town, often implying backwardness or insularity.
cross cultural
NL
AF
EN
dwiele
/ˈdwiː.lə/
noun
Dishcloth; floor cloth; rag used for wiping surfaces. Drents and Gronings dialectal equivalent of standard Dutch...
regional
NL
gezellig
/ɣəˈzɛ.ləx/
adjective
Cosily convivial; warmly companionable; characterised by snug sociability — notoriously untranslatable into English.
untranslatable
NL
gort
/ɡɔrt/
noun
Pearl barley; barley groats; barley porridge. A staple grain food that has largely disappeared from Dutch household...
vanishing
NL
klompen
/ˈklɔm.pə(n)/
noun
Wooden shoes, clogs. Plural of 'klomp'. Once the everyday footwear of Dutch farmers and artisans; now surviving...
displaced
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
lekker
/ˈlɛkər/
adjective
Tasty, delicious; pleasant, nice, enjoyable; (South African English loan) good, great.
cross cultural
NL
AF
EN
mof
/mɔf/
noun
(Dutch, derogatory) A derogatory term for a German person, especially in post-WWII Dutch usage. This entry is...
vanishing
NL
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
siepel
/ˈsiː.pəl/
noun
Onion. Low Saxon dialectal word used across the Dutch northeast (Drenthe, Groningen, Twente, Stellingwerfs) where...
regional
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
vuil
/vœy̯l/
adjective
Dirty, soiled; foul; (figuratively) obscene or dishonourable.
cross cultural
NL
AF
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
16 entries