{"id":4534,"date":"2016-10-18T19:39:14","date_gmt":"2016-10-18T19:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=4534"},"modified":"2020-02-06T23:30:22","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T23:30:22","slug":"untranslatable-dutch-pottenkijkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/untranslatable-dutch-pottenkijkers\/","title":{"rendered":"Untranslatable Dutch: Pottenkijkers"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are certain words that are used in a language and are impossible to translate. You can try, but it will never be a completely accurate translation that catches its meaning. Such as the Zesjescultuur\u00a0<\/em>post.<\/a>\u00a0In the Untranslatable Dutch posts, we will explore Dutch words that cannot be simply translated to English. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

Click here for more untranslatable words<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"cats-pottenkijker-observe\"<\/a>

Watching another cat without asking… A pottenkijker! (Image by Emmanuel Zensz at Flickr.com under license CC BY 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

Today, we will discuss the word\u00a0Pottenkijkers\u00a0<\/strong>(literally “pot watchers”). A\u00a0pottenkijker\u00a0<\/em>is a\u00a0spion\u00a0<\/em>(spy), a\u00a0bemoeial\u00a0<\/em>(busybody), or, as the\u00a0Dutch dictionary\u00a0Van Dale\u00a0<\/em>says:\u00a0<\/a>iemand die je op de vingers kijkt\u00a0<\/em>(“somebody that looks you on the fingers” – click the link to read what that means). So essentially, a\u00a0pottenkijker\u00a0<\/em>is somebody that is watching curiously without asking. Which has nothing to do with pots! Or does it? Where does this word come from?<\/p>\n

The origin<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It is unclear what the origin of the word exactly is.\u00a0Here are two suggestions, though.<\/p>\n

The toilet<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In the TV show\u00a0Toen Geluk Nog Heel Gewoon Was\u00a0<\/em>(When Happiness Was Still Totally Normal), Simon suggests that the word comes from when the first pot\u00a0<\/em>(toilet)\u00a0was placed. To see the sensation, all visitors would check out the new\u00a0pot\u00a0<\/em>– and so the word\u00a0pottenkijker\u00a0<\/em>came into existence. It is a comedy show, so this is probably rather a joke than anything else.<\/p>\n

What’s for dinner?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Other, more plausible explanations refer to pot<\/span><\/em> in the sense of\u00a0kookpot\u00a0<\/em>(cooking pot). For example, when the man came into the kitchen to see what was on the stove for dinner. He would check out the pots, see what his wife is making – a\u00a0pottenkijker<\/em>. And because his\u00a0wife feels intruded and interrupted while cooking, he is an obvious\u00a0pottenkijker<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Het keukenlampje<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The word\u00a0pottenkijker\u00a0<\/em>does not only refer to an obtrusive observer. A\u00a0pottenkijker\u00a0<\/em>can also be a\u00a0keukenlampje\u00a0<\/em>(little kitchen lamp), that hangs above the\u00a0fornuis\u00a0<\/em>(stove), so to it easier to look inside the pots. This seems to relate to the “what’s for dinner?” theory – so maybe that is the one!<\/p>\n

Oh, and by the way, if you are wondering:\u00a0pot\u00a0<\/em>does not refer to marihuana in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

What do you think – where does this word come from? Do you have a word like this in your language? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

There are certain words that are used in a language and are impossible to translate. You can try, but it will never be a completely accurate translation that catches its meaning. Such as the Zesjescultuur\u00a0post.\u00a0In the Untranslatable Dutch posts, we will explore Dutch words that cannot be simply translated to English. Enjoy! Click here for…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":4642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[60713,3590,27711],"tags":[445004,445001,445002,445003,444972,13,1401],"class_list":["post-4534","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-2","category-dutch-language","category-dutch-vocabulary-2","tag-marihuana","tag-pots","tag-pottenkijker","tag-untranslatable","tag-untranslatable-dutch","tag-vocabulary","tag-words"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4534"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6491,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534\/revisions\/6491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}