{"id":6241,"date":"2019-09-09T11:38:35","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T11:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=6241"},"modified":"2019-09-09T11:38:35","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T11:38:35","slug":"curious-words-in-dutch-4-apenkop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/curious-words-in-dutch-4-apenkop\/","title":{"rendered":"Curious Words in Dutch 4: Ape(n)kop"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are many strange words in a language. Words that are just not used much, words that are pronounced in a weird way… Just words that have something curious about them! And those are the ones we look at in this series. In last week’s post about Sayings and Expressions<\/a> on monkeys, our reader Gre mentioned that her mother would affectionately call her and her sister\u00a0apekop<\/em>. Which means “monkey’s head”. That’s curious, isn’t it? Let’s have a look at apekop <\/em>today!<\/p>\n

Previous posts in this series:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Curious Words In Dutch<\/a><\/p>\n

Apekop or Apenkop?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This is related to the tussen-n <\/em>(“between-n”), a discussion for another day. To answer it very shortly,\u00a0apekop\u00a0<\/em>is the old spelling, and\u00a0apenkop\u00a0<\/em>is the new spelling. Which one is more correct we will discuss then. Officially, the Van Dale <\/em>went with the new spelling, and so you will only find the translation apenkop <\/em>in the dictionary. But we’ll get back on this.<\/p>\n

Apekop\u00a0<\/em>literally just means “monkey’s head”. However, there are more meanings, and that is what makes this word curious!<\/p>\n

Such a brat!<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Such apenkoppen<\/em>! (Image by Allen Taylor at Unsplash.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Apenkop<\/em> refers to a\u00a0deugniet\u00a0<\/em>(rascal), or a brat. But\u00a0apenkop\u00a0<\/em>is not aggressive, but rather\u00a0liefkozend\u00a0<\/em>(affectionate, loving). It is probably related to the old Dutch word apenaard<\/em>, which is a\u00a0kwajongensachtig karakter\u00a0<\/em>(rascal-like character). We alluded to that last week, too<\/a>. And\u00a0kop\u00a0<\/em>just refers to a person, as a pars pro toto<\/em>\u00a0(part to refer to the whole). So, in that sense, an\u00a0apenkop\u00a0<\/em>is simply a\u00a0rascal-like person – a rascal! S0 it is not related to\u00a0apen\u00a0<\/em>(monkeys) after all!<\/p>\n

More meanings<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Mat’64 train in Haarlem. The end of the train looks like a yellow head with black mouth and eyes, reminding of a monkey’s head (Image by Koplopermau at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 4.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

Apenkop\u00a0<\/em>has more meanings. It also simply refers to an actual\u00a0apenkop\u00a0<\/em>– a “monkey’s head”. But there is more.<\/p>\n

Specifically,\u00a0apekop\u00a0<\/em>without the tussen-n<\/em> has more meanings.<\/p>\n

Apekop\u00a0<\/em>was used to refer to the\u00a0Materieel 64 <\/em>or in short\u00a0Mat’64<\/em> line of trains, introduced in the 1960s and discontinued in recent years. The new spelling with the\u00a0tussen-n<\/em> only came about in 2005, and so it made sense that there was no\u00a0apenkop<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It also refers to one of the most popular\u00a0snoep\u00a0<\/em>(sweets) in the Netherlands:\u00a0apekoppen<\/em>! This\u00a0schuim met bananensmaak\u00a0<\/em>(foam with banana flavor) as the head and the eyes and ears covered with\u00a0drop\u00a0<\/em>(licorice) really makes the Dutch happy. And since this\u00a0snoep<\/em> was introduced in the 1990s, it also does not have the\u00a0tussen-n<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Have you heard of these meanings before? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

There are many strange words in a language. Words that are just not used much, words that are pronounced in a weird way… Just words that have something curious about them! And those are the ones we look at in this series. In last week’s post about Sayings and Expressions on monkeys, our reader Gre…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":6249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[60713,3590,27711],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6241","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-2","category-dutch-language","category-dutch-vocabulary-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t